Pumpkin Butter Gochujang Chicken Roast
This Gochujang Pumpkin Butter Glazed Spatchcock Chicken is a flavorful fall dinner featuring juicy brined chicken, crispy roasted Brussels sprouts, tart cranberries, crunchy walnuts, and a sticky sweet-and-spicy glaze.
Brining a whole chicken is an easy way to build flavor before it even goes into the oven. This chicken spends about 7½ hours in a simple brine made with kosher salt, sugar, garlic, allspice, black pepper, bay leaves, and thyme. After brining, the chicken is patted dry and refrigerated uncovered overnight. This extra step helps dry the skin, giving you a better chance at beautifully crisp, golden skin when the chicken is roasted.
The star of the recipe is the pumpkin butter and gochujang glaze. Pumpkin butter brings concentrated pumpkin flavor, sweetness, and warm fall spices, while gochujang contributes fermented chili flavor, heat, and savory depth. Soy sauce and apple cider vinegar round everything out, creating a glossy glaze that's sweet, spicy, tangy, and savory.
The chicken is spatchcocked before roasting, which helps it cook more evenly and gives the glaze plenty of surface area to cling to. Meanwhile, halved Brussels sprouts roast alongside the chicken, picking up some of those delicious chicken juices while developing caramelized edges.
To finish the dish, the Brussels sprouts are tossed with a lightly sweet maple-Dijon vinaigrette, dried cranberries, and walnuts. The tart cranberries and crunchy walnuts provide a bright contrast to the rich, spicy-sweet chicken. The result is a complete fall dinner that's comforting and familiar, but with unexpected global flavor.
Pumpkin Butter Gochujang Chicken
A sweet-and-spicy fall roast chicken featuring a glossy pumpkin butter and gochujang glaze, served with caramelized Brussels sprouts, red onion, tart cranberries and toasted walnuts.
Ingredients
- 8 cups cold water
- ¾ cup coarse kosher salt
- ¼ cup sugar
- 6–8 whole allspice berries
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme, or a few fresh thyme sprigs