Fried Chicken is foreign but an immensely popular food in Japan, and it owes that to the American fast-food giant, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Fried chicken is different from the Japanese version Karaage for its thick and crispy outer layer. Fried chicken becomes highly in demand in Japan as the Christmas season approaches, leading to long queues forming at restaurants. This unique phenomenon is deeply rooted in the cultural aspects of Christmas celebrations in Japan.
Sukiyaki is a popular Japanese hot pot dish that typically features thinly sliced beef, tofu, various vegetables, and sometimes noodles cooked in a sweet and savory soy-based broth. It’s a communal dish often enjoyed with family or friends, especially during colder seasons. In this receipt, we used chicken instead of beef. While Chicken Sukiyaki may not be as commonly found in traditional settings, it is still enjoyed often in some areas in Japan, and certainly at home.
Cream Stew with Mushrooms is a stew made with chicken broth and “white sauce” with several kinds of mushrooms. Various mushrooms are found all year around at supermarkets in Japan today, but it is still the taste of autumn and winter.
Karaage is Japanese fried chicken, and it is usually made with chicken thighs with skin. In this recipe, we use boneless and skinless chicken breasts which are much lighter. Chicken breasts could become bland and dry when cooked, so we marinate them well with the seasoning and freshly grated ginger and garlic. We also cut chicken into smaller bite size pieces. These bite sized fried chicken can be a great appetizer or a perfect main dish to pack in a Bento box.
In our mini-series of Japanese Cooking 101 in Kyoto, we are going to different stores from traditional to trendy, and show you a glimpse of the culinary scene of Kyoto in 2023. After we tasted delicious food at stores, we tried to recreate those dishes, not exactly but more in our own way, at home in Kyoto. We hope you enjoy our Japanese Cooking 101 food in a little different setting from our regular videos.
Our final episode is Yakitori Restaurant Yakitori. Yakitori (焼き鳥) is skewered and grilled chicken, as many of you may already know. Sometimes they’re dipped in a Teriyaki-type Yakitori sauce, or simply seasoned with salt at other times. Our original Yakitori recipe calls for chicken thighs because we think it’s the most flavorful part of the chicken for normal Yakitori. But there are also many different chicken parts that are used at Yakitori speciality restaurants in Japan. A few of the most popular parts are chicken skins, hearts, gizzards, and cartilage. Well, that may be beyond what many of us want to deal with at Yakitori shops. But if you are being adventurous, please go ahead and try something new. They are really good, with interesting textures, and that’s why people in Japan love those parts in Yakitori too.
In our mini-series of Japanese Cooking 101 in Kyoto, we are going to different stores from traditional to trendy, and show you a glimpse of the culinary scene of Kyoto in 2023. After we tasted delicious food at stores, we tried to recreate those dishes, not exactly but more in our own way, at home in Kyoto. We hope you enjoy our Japanese Cooking 101 food in a little different setting from our regular videos.
This episode is Butter Chicken. While dark brown stew-like Japanese curry is the curry we love, mildly spiced and designed for eating with Japanese Steamed Rice, Butter Chicken is a more spicy Indian curry. As spiced curry has become more well known and accepted in Japan, there are many spiced curry specialty restaurants that have opened up to serve Butter Chicken. As well as the popularity of spiced curry restaurants, one of the reasons Butter Chicken became so popular was boil-in-the-pouch Butter Chicken from a large household goods store chain called Muji. Their version got really good reviews on the internet and made the mainstream public know its name. That pushed Butter Chicken to be one of the favorite curry dishes on the list.
Today’s miso soup is made with chicken, green beans, and carrot. It is a hearty and nutritious soup that can be a meal by itself.
You want to make Karaage Chicken at home but don’t want to deal with deep-frying oil? Can’t agree more. Here is a way to make fried chicken with a small amount of oil. A refreshingly tart lemon and leek sauce complements the crispy chicken very well. The dish is of course great when it’s hot, but it can also stand up well when it’s packed for a Bento lunch. You may want to make extra because it’s so good that they fly off the shelves!
Karaage Chicken Wings are deep-fried wings that are seasoned with soy sauce and garlic very similar to Chicken Karaage. This crisp outside and juicy inside, delicious dish is found in different versions everywhere in Japan from chicken wing speciality stores to Izakaya food bars to supermarkets. But this is great budget friendly food that can be easily cooked at home.
Gyoza (餃子) are Chinese dumplings made with meat and vegetables wrapped in round pasta-like flour skins and then pan-fried. Gyoza are originally based on Chinese fried dumplings, but they are now a popular and well-rooted part of Japanese cuisine today. Recently, really authentic Chinese food called “Gachi-Chuka” is becoming very popular in Japan, but Gyoza is the opposite end of the spectrum. Japanese Gyoza have changed through time to accommodate the preferred taste of Japanese people and have, like Ramen, really become part of Japanese food.