Grilled Harissa Sesame Chicken Thighs

Last updated on May 15th, 2018 at 03:21 pm

If you’re looking for more flavor in your chicken, stop right there. These Grilled Harissa Sesame Chicken Thighs are super flavourful, easy to put together and grilled to perfection.

Not to toot my own horn here, but I am better at grilling than my husband. He will grill any piece of meat to death, they get so dry and hard, especially chicken breast, that you have a hard time cutting into it with a knife. He’s just that afraid of eating raw chicken. The one thing he doesn’t really screw up are good old beef steaks and that’s mostly because I time them for him. Anyway, needless to say I’ve learned my lesson now. Pretty much every time we grill chicken, I do it, and it always ends up nice and juicy.

He does have many other talents, which I won’t go into here, but he’s a keeper. Let’s talk about this chicken though because it’s worth talking about, when it comes to flavor this chicken is loaded with it. I’ve had this harissa paste in the fridge for quite a while now and have been meaning to use it but was trying to think of how.

So I came up with the idea to make this marinade with it, plus some other great ingredients like garlic and ginger, soy sauce, a bit of brown sugar to balance the spiciness from the harissa paste and some sesame seeds and sesame oil. You should know that I’m crazy about sesame oil, I absolutely love the smell, the taste, everything about it.

All you need to do is combine all those great ingredients together and marinate your chicken in it for at least 30 minutes for up to 4 hours. I decided to use chicken thighs boneless and skinless because the meat ends up juicier but you could definitely use chicken breasts, or drumsticks, whatever you prefer.

Serve this with a great salad, which you can find plenty on this blog, and you’ve got yourself some great summer eating.

If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

5 from 2 votes

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Grilled Harissa Sesame Chicken Thighs

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

If you're looking for more flavor in your chicken, stop right there. These harissa sesame chicken thighs are super flavourful, easy to put together and grilled to perfection.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4

Calories: 352 kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

• 3 green onions cleaned and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger grated
• 2 tsp harissa paste *
• 3 tbsp soy sauce low sodium
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 8 chicken thighs skinless and boneless
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine the chopped green onions, garlic, ginger, harissa, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Remove about 1/4 of the mixture to a small bowl or cup and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Add the chicken thighs to the large bowl and toss making sure all the chicken is covered in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to 4 hours.
3. Preheat your grill, over medium heat.
4. Grill the chicken thighs for about 4 to 5 minutes per side or until cooked through and they start to char a bit.
5. Transfer the chicken to a platter and drizzle with the remaining harissa mixture.
6. Garnish with fresh parsley if preferred and sesame seeds.

Recipe Notes

* Harissa Paste is a Tunisian hot chili pepper paste made from roasted red peppers, serrano peppers and other hot chili peppers and spices and herbs.

 

You can use chicken breast for this recipe.

 

You can bake this in the oven at 400F for 20 minutes instead of grilling.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used. 

 

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