---
title: "Asian chicken mayo with coriander-lemon couscous"
description: "Switch up your chicken mayonnaise by adding a dash of Japanese miso and a lovely dollop of Kewpie mayo to the mix."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "MISO-MAYO MIX"
author: "Tony Jackman"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/tony/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-10-03-whats-cooking-today-asian-chicken-mayo-with-coriander-lemon-couscous/"
published: "2023-10-03T14:30:48"
updated: "2023-10-02T13:02:37"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 308
---

# Asian chicken mayo with coriander-lemon couscous

> Switch up your chicken mayonnaise by adding a dash of Japanese miso and a lovely dollop of Kewpie mayo to the mix.

By Tony Jackman · Published 3 October 2023, 16:30 SAST · Updated 2 October 2023, 15:02 SAST

## Content

In search of a variation of the idea of coronation chicken – cold chicken in a creamy mayo sauce with spices and dried apricots – I turned my eyes eastwards and came up with this alternative with an Asian slant. In a word: miso.

The dark and mysterious flavour of miso adds a touch of enigmatic class to mayonnaise. To make the sauce just a little more Japanese in profile, I also used Kewpie mayonnaise, a product that is favoured by many chefs for its distinctive flavour. It is available from the Asian sections of supermarkets.

Miso is a fermented paste of soybean with salt and other ingredients, which can include seaweed, barley or rice. Most famously, it is used for Japan’s staple miso soup, which also contains dashi, a basic Japanese range of stocks.

Note: Kewpie mayo contains MSG.

*(Serves 2)*

**Ingredients**

1 cup leftover cooked chicken, diced

2 spring onions, finely chopped

2 cm peeled ginger, grated

1 medium red pepper, diced

1 medium green pepper, diced

*For the sauce:*

1 cup Kewpie mayonnaise

⅓ cup miso paste

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp chilli paste or sambal oelek or Forage and Feast chilli oil from Checkers

½ tsp sesame oil

*For the couscous:*

100 g couscous

130 ml hot water

⅓ cup lemon juice

¼ cup chopped coriander

**Method**

Add the sauce ingredients to a bowl and stir in the diced chicken.

Stir in the spring onions, ginger and diced red and green pepper.

Pour the couscous into a bowl and add 130 ml hot (not boiling) water. Cover and let it stand for five minutes.

Fluff the couscous with a fork to separate all the grains.

Stir in the lemon juice and finely chopped coriander.**DM**

*Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram*[*@tony\_jackman\_cooks*](https://www.instagram.com/tony_jackman_cooks/)*.*

*This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.*