Oven baked spicy chicken オーブン焼きピリ辛チキン

Our favorite ways of preparing chicken thighs for Home Izakaya are yakitori 焼き鳥, shio-yaki 塩焼き, kara-age 唐揚 or tatsuta-age 竜田揚げ. To expand our repertoire, I picked up this recipe from e-recipe.org. We thought that this is a bit healthier than deep frying and that it may attain similar crispness of the surface and skin as the deep fried chicken.

I followed the recipe closely. I boned and cleaned (but skin-on) chicken thighs (three). I cut up the chicken thighs into a bite size pieces and marinate (or massage) with sake, soy sauce (2 tbs each), grated garlic (one clove), salt and pepper and let them stand for 10 minutes or so. I beat one egg and coated the chicken pieces well. I then added potato starch or "Katakuri-ko" 片栗粉 (4 tbs) and Japanses red pepper powder or "Ichimi tougarashi" 一味唐辛子 (1/2 tsp, since we do not like overly spicy but add whatever amount to suite). I kneaded this mixture into the chicken pieces until the flour was all incorporated. I placed the chicken pieces with the skin side up on a cookie sheet and cooked in a preheated 250C (almost 500F!) oven for 10-12 minutes.

As suggested in the recipe, I served this on the bed of thinly sliced red onion. It is not bad but the skin was not uniformally crispy as it is with the other cooking method. This has  potential but it may require some work to make our Home Izakaya "Teiban" 定番 list.