Japanese chicken with leek – easy and tasty
About Japanese chicken and leek recipe
Japanese chicken with leek is a recipe for Japanese home cooking. It’s not a famous Japanese dish like sushi or yakitori which you eat at a restaurant. But this is the kind of dish that moms usually cook at home in Japan. Every country has the same sort of dishes. It’s such a dish. It’s very easy and delicious, so I would like to share it with you.
The best thing about this dish is that there are very few ingredients such as chicken, leeks and seasonings. And these ingredients are inexpensive. What I like the most is the double use of “steamed leek” and “raw leek “. Then you can enjoy the different taste of leeks ; steamed soft, tender and slightly sweet leek and crispy fresh leek.
Recipe tips for Japanese chicken with leek
Leek
As a topping, you will make fine strips of raw leek. This is called “shiraga negi” in Japanese, which means white parts of green onion cut like white hair. It is very convenient since you can use it as a topping for various dishes.
Chicken
Regarding chicken, I usually use boneless chicken thighs. Off course you can use chicken breast instead or you can use both. However, when you use breast meat, it tends to become hard if you cook too long because it has no fat. So pay attention to the cooking time.
Japanese sake
When you cook the chicken and leek in a frying pan, you sprinkle Japanese sake over it. Sake contains umami ingredients. You can use sake in relatively any Japanese dish, just like that wine is often used for Western dishes, and Shaoxing wine is often used for Chinese dishes.
The use of sake is to bring out richness and umami, to flavor, and to remove odors. When you add sake to the meat or fish, the odor disappears and the finish is soft. Basically, after adding sake, heat it to remove alcohol, leaving only the aroma and umami. If you are interested in Japanese sake, click the link below.
If you can’t find sake, you can substitute it with Chinese rice wine or sherry.
Sesami oil
In order to finishi this dish, sprinkle hot sesame oil over the leek and meat. When oil is sprinkled, it makes a sizzling sound. This makes the vegetables lightly cook and increase their richness and aroma.
Japanese chicken with leek
Equipment
- Frying pan with a lid
Ingredients
- 2 – 3 Leeks
- 4 Bornless chicken thights (around 150g each)
- 2/3 teaspoon Salt
- a little Pepper
- 5 tablespoon Japanese sake or Chinese rice wine or sherry
- *2 tablespoon Soy sauce
- *1 teaspoon Grated ginger
- *1/2 teaspoon Sugar
- 2 tablespoon Sesame oil
Instructions
- Cut the thick part of the chicken and open it. Remove excess fat. Rub 2/3 teaspoon salt and a little pepper and leave it for 10 minutes.
- Put sauce ingredients marked with* (soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar) in a small bowl and mix well.
- To make topping : cut ½ leek (white part) into 5 cm lengths, make a cut and take the core out. Cut into fine strips, soak in cold water for a while and drain water.
- Cut the remaining leeks diagonally with a width of 1 cm along with the green part.
- Spread the cut leeks and the core on a frying pan, and put the chicken on top. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons of sake and heat over high heat. When it boils and starts bubbling, cover it with a lid and reduce the heat to low, and steam for 12 to 15 minutes. Insert the skewer to check if the chicken is cooked through. when the clear juice comes out, it's done. If the redish juice comes out, cook 5 minutes more and check it again.
- Take out the chicken and cut it into 1 cm wide pieces. Place steamed leeks, chicken, and topping in this order in a bowl and sprinkle with sauce (soy sauce, ginger and sugar mixture).
- Put 2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a small pan and heat it hot. Sprinkle on top of the dish. If you like, garnish chive or coriander.
Notes
If you like to see more easy chicken recipes, click the links below.
Thanks for reading. Bon Appetit!
