Tori Teriyaki with Kani Cucumber Salad

For quite a while now, I have been thinking of cooking something Japanese inspired.  Something easy and savory and I found a recipe in my pile of books called Japanese Favorites by Periplus Mini Cookbooks.

Japanese dishes, I noticed almost always have these three ingredients - mirin, dashi and sake.  All available in your local supermarket in the Asian section. I also observed that usually, Japanese dishes require you to marinate meats first and sauces are present most of the time.

Original recipe does not include the Kani Cucumber salad, I just thought it will be nice to have some vegetables to go with it :)

Hope you try to do this one then let me know what you think *wink*

Braised Chicken in Sweet Soy
recipe adapted from Japanese Favorites by Periplus Mini Cookbooks 

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken thighs with skin

Marinade
2 tsp sake
2 tsp soy sauce

Sauce
1/2 cup sake
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp mirin

Salad
6 pcs crab sticks, shredded
2 medium cucumber, julienned
Japanese mayonnaise (optional for this recipe)
fish raw (optional)

Marinate chicken thighs with sake and mirin.  Set aside for at least 30 minutes.

While waiting, you can prepare the salad. Cutting cucumber in strips or julienned is quite tedious.  Luckily, there is a tool you can use.  Like this one.
 

I bought this at Japan Home Store for P88 only and it produces perfectly julienned cucumber in seconds.

Using cheesecloth or any cloth, squeeze excess water from the cucumber.  Doing so will prevent your salad from being watery.  Combine shredded crab sticks and toss.  Set aside preferably inside the fridge until ready to use.

For the sauce, mix all ingredients and set aside.

Pat dry each chicken fillet using a paper towel.  Fry over medium heat for about 3 minutes each side, skin side first.

Once chicken in done, you may opt to remove excess oil.  In the same pan, pour in the sauce mixture and simmer for about 7-8 minutes or until sauce thickens.

I prefer not to turn chicken to keep that crisp skin.

Drizzle chicken with the sauce and serve with salad topped with mayo and fish raw.

It is savory, sweet and salty.  Bokk, who lived for a while in Japan said it was nice though we found the chicken quite dry.  Maybe next time, I'll use the oven when I need to reduce the sauce.  What do you think?

Do you like Japanese dishes? What is your favorite? *wink*


Disclaimer:
No monetary compensation was received by doing this recipe.  Also, I altered and changed some procedures from the original recipe based on my own judgement and technique.

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