Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sake steamed chicken breast with scallion sauce over rice porridge サムゲタンもどきのお粥

I am not sure how I came up with this "shime" 〆 dish one evening. Rice porridge, always reminds of me when I was sick as a kid since it was the food served in such situations in Japan. But as an adult, especially after excessive imbibing, rice porridge was a nice comforting ending dish. This evening, I had leftover sake-steamed chicken breast and made this rice porridge which has a very superficial resemblance to a famous Korean porridge/soup dish called "Samgyetang" which  is now very popular in Japan. The only resemblance here, however, is that it has chicken in it and is a rice porridge. (I also hasten to add that this was made due the availability of ingredients not excessive imbibing).
Porridge: I used frozen cooked rice I had in the freezer. I microwaved it for 30-40 seconds until it was just barely thawed. I put the rice in the Japanese ceramic pot for porridge called "yukihira" and poured chicken broth (Swanson non-fat and reduced salt kind as usual). After 20 minutes of simmering I added a small amount of the congieled simmering liquid made of black vinegar, mirin and soy sauce.

Chicken breast: This time, I made this with a shortcut method of microwaving it. I used a silicon steaming container for microwaving. I salted the surface of the chicken breast (two split breasts with skin on but bone out). I poured in sake (4-5 tbs). With a tight fitting lid, I microwaved it 5-6 minutes and let it rest with lid on for 10 minutes or until cooled enough to handle. I sliced and placed on the porridge.

Scallion sauce: This is my usual scallion sauce with a slight modification. I just mixed scallion (3, finely chopped), ponzu shouyu sauce (3 tbs, from the bottle), Tabasco (to taste), sesame oil (1/2 tsp) and grated garlic and ginger (to taste) and poured over the chicken slices and porridge.

I garnished it with blanched broccolini and, for good measure, sprinkled Wasabi flavored furikake.

Somehow, this hit a spot--the perfect ending to the evening.

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