Grilled Tamarind Chicken Thighs

I grew up eating sinigang, a savory Filipino stew known for its signature sour broth. That specific flavor profile was the inspiration for this recipe: chicken thighs marinated in a bold blend of onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, chile, and tamarind and then cooked on a grill. The result is succulent chicken with a crisp skin, juicy interior, and a tart, umami-packed kick.  

To create an ultra-potent marinade to deeply flavor the chicken, I turn to scallions, onion, and onion powder, for a pronounced allium punch, and then tomato paste, which provides a savory boost without the excess liquid chopped fresh tomatoes would provide. As with the onion, I also add garlic and ginger in both their raw and powdered forms, and pungent fish sauce to enliven everything with salt. Then I add the chile component: Sinigang typically uses siling mahaba, a Filipino pepper also referred to as green finger chile that has a moderate heat level and can be found in Filipino or Asian supermarkets. If you can't find siling mahaba, a jalapeño pepper works just as well.

However, despite all of these flavorful ingredients, the true star of this marinade is the tamarind. A common ingredient in Asian and Central and South American cuisines, it's available in several different forms: compressed blocks, bottled concentrates, and powders. This recipe uses tamarind concentrate (also labeled paste), which is a dark, syrupy, and very tart liquid. I prefer to use Tamicon for its smooth consistency and moderate tartness. However, use what you can find, as long as it's smooth, pourable, and free of seeds.  

To make the marinade, I blitz everything in a food processor or blender until the mixture is mostly smooth but still a little thick and grainy. Since it's a rather strongly flavored marinade, I only marinate the chicken thigh pieces anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, and once I've got my grill hot and ready, I transfer them straight to the grill grates—skin-side up, clingy marinade and all—to ensure that the flavor bakes onto the skin as it cooks. Once they're mostly cooked through on one side, I flip them skin-side down to get a crispier finish.

These richly flavored chicken thighs pair well with all kind of sides you'd expect to find at a cookout, but I like it best when it's served with heaps of freshly cooked white rice.