The Flavorful Ingredient Jamie Oliver Uses To Level Up Roast Chicken

Unsurprisingly, there's been lots of innovation in the world of chicken recipes over the decades. Boneless chicken wings, Burger King's Chicken Fries, the infamous KFC Double Down that swapped sandwich bread for fried chicken — it's kind all of amazing. But, despite these trendy new offerings, there's something comforting about good old roast chicken, and it doesn't have to be boring.

From Costco's affordable rotisserie chickens to chicken cooked at home, roast chicken can be an easy one-pan or one-pot meal to prepare, and the leftovers can be used to make other meals throughout the week. In the past, British chef Jamie Oliver's chicken in milk recipe showed home cooks how to use an unexpected ingredient to make chicken exciting again. Now, he has shared another secret ingredient he uses to get delicious, complex flavor into his roast chicken, and once you buy a container, you might find yourself putting it in just about everything.

Chef Jamie Oliver recently appeared on "Good Morning America," sharing a recipe from his new cookbook "One: Simple One-Pan Wonders." His secret to making a flavorful one-pan roast chicken recipe that you might just want seconds of? Miso paste. Oliver combines miso paste with soy sauce, vinegar, and dried mushrooms to create a savory, umami-rich sauce for roast chicken, which thickens in the oven and on the stovetop to create a glaze.

Miso paste is a Japanese ingredient made from soybeans fermented in rice koji. It has a salty, slightly sweet, savory flavor. Whether it comes in the form of swoon-worthy miso butter on TikTok or miso chocolate chip cookies, it can add a new layer of complexity to all kinds of dishes. Try adding a bit to salad dressings, soups, and sauces to round out the flavors, and don't forget that it can add a punch to any chicken recipe. Add it to barbecue sauce and marinades, or rub it under chicken skin before roasting a whole bird, and you'll know that every bite of meat is going to be anything but bland and boring, even if it's the fourth time you're eating chicken that week. And don't forget to try traditional Japanese miso soup while you're at it, so you can appreciate the culinary legacy of the ingredient.