Chicken Tender Fry with Salted Plum Sauce and Perilla ささ身の梅大葉揚げ

We were trying to use up frozen items hidden deep in the freezer. At one time, we bought chicken from a special poultry on-line store. We were not particularly impressed with the quality of the chicken we got. One of items was chicken the tenders. We decided they had matured long enough in the freezer so it was time to use them up. This is a variation on the chicken tender yakitori with perilla and salted plum sauce and is  based on a recipe posted on line. This time I shallow fried (picture #2) instead of cooking in the toaster oven.

Because it was fried with a batter coating, it has a crispy outside and soft inside with flavors of perilla and umeboshi 梅干 salted plum (picture #1). This combination works well. This heated up nicely in the toaster oven as well.

Ingredients:
10 chicken tenders, tendons removed and bi-valved (not cut through, just make a pocket)
10 perilla leaves

For Umeboshi  梅干しsauce or “Bainiki 梅肉 sauce
3 umeboshi salted plumes, meat cut off and finely chopped
1tsp mirin
1 tsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
1 small pack of “kezuri-bushi” 削り節 bonito flakes 

For Batter
Equal amount of ”katakuri-ko” potato starch

Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
Umeboshi sauce
Add the chopped umeboshi fresh into a Japanese “suribachi” mortar, add the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Mix and grind using a pestle until smooth. Add the bonito flakes and mix to incorporate.

Smear the umeboshi sauce inside the bi-valved chicken tenders, close the tender and put the batter on one side of the perilla and encase the cut side, coat it with the batter and fry in the 180F oil, 1-2 minutes per side turning once (picture #2). Drain, cut in half and serve.

The umebishi sauce and perilla flavors are a very nice combination and frying makes it better. So there is no argument this is a good small dish to have.

Chicken breast wrapped in perilla 鶏胸肉の青じそ巻き

This is inspired by a recipe in one of the food blogs I follow. I have previously posted yakitori 焼き鳥 dishes made with a combination of chicken meat, perilla and "umeboshi" 梅干し salted plum paste (this is a classic combination). One such dish used chicken tenderloin  another used chicken made into a roll with shiso and umeboshi paste, cut into medallions and skewered. This is the same combination of flavors with some different twists.   I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, pound the pieces to break down the fibers, and marinate them before making the skewers as the recipe suggested. This preparation really made the chicken breast much more moist and tender. (My wife asked if this was sous vide chicken breast). I served the pieces un-skewered and instead of adding plum paste in the marinade as suggested in the recipe I put it on the top which has a more direct impact.

Ingredients (For the three skewers seen here):
One half of boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces, pounded with a meat mallet to break down the fibers.
Perilla leaves (We have a forest of perilla in our herb garden, 4 feet tall!)
Light olive oil for cooking.

For marinade
2 tbs sake
1tbs light colored soy sauce
1 tsp potato starch (katakuri-ko)

Directions:
I placed the chicken in a Ziplock bag with the marinade ingredients. I kneaded the bag to mix the meat and the marinade. I removed the air as much as I could before closing the bag. I refrigerated it for a few hours.
I cut the perilla leaves to the width of the meat and long enough that it wrapped the meat all the way around (some of our perilla leaves were quite large and had to cut them into several pieces). I wrapped the chicken pieces and put them on a skewer. (Althouhg I cooked the chicken in a frying pan rather than over charcoal, it was much easier to flip the skewers and keep the perilla leaves on the meat) (#1).
I added a small amount of light olive oil to a non-stick frying pan on low flame (#2), Put on the lid and cooked it for several minutes and then turned them over (#3). I used an instant thermometer to make sure it read 165F and the chicken was done before taking the skewers off the heat.  (#4).

I was going to use a tube of salted plum paste but it was near-empty and looked old. So, I made plum sauce or "Bainiku" 梅肉 sauce from "umeboshi" 梅干し salted plums (my mother's last batch sent to us a few years ago) (#5). I removed the meat from the stones and chopped it finely and put it in a Japanese "suribachi" すり鉢 mortar (#6). I gradually added mirin みりん until the ground plum became a thick saucy consistency. I smeared the sauce over the chicken (the first picture).

Although this is a variation of a "golden" combination of chicken meat, perilla, and salted plum sauce, this variation was really good because of the tender and moist texture of the chicken.

Chicken tenderloins with miso glaze 鶏ささみの味噌焼き

Often, our eyes are bigger than our stomach. We frequently buy food thinking we will cook it over the weekend but end up not cooking it because we either have too many other dishes for the week or we run out of time. This was one such weekend. Although I had bought split chicken breasts (bone in skin on), we did not cook it. Instead, I removed the meat from bone and separated the tenderloins from the breast meat. I marinated the tenderloins in sake and the breast meat in shio-koji, soy sauce and mirin. I placed the two packages in the meat drawer of the refrigerator. I cooked this chicken tenderloin dish on a subsequent weekday evening as a starter.

I often grill the tenderloins with pickled plum paste and perilla but this time I used sweet miso glaze.

I also garnished it with chopped chives.

Miso glaze: This is similar to the sauce I use for dengaku. I mixed miso, sugar, sake and mirin with grated ginger and a splash of sesame oil and mixed it in a small sauce pan over the low heat until everything was combined and the consistency was spreadable but not runny.

I skewered the tenderloins and grilled them in the toaster oven for 5 minutes on each side. I checked for doneness then smeared the miso glaze on one side and put it back under the broiler until the miso glaze bubbled and became fragrant.

This was nothing special but perfect starter for the evening.

Chicken and green beans in sesame dressing

These are nothing new but several rather good healthy appetizers. I could make these quickly because I already had cooked chicken breast and cooked green beans.



Traditionally the chicken breast or tenderloin would have been sake steamed but since I had barbecued whole chicken, I removed the tenderloins and hand shredded them into thin strands along the grain of the meat.



I also had haricot vert (small green beans) which I cooked in salted boiling water for a few minutes and let cool quickly. (I prefer using a fan to cool veggies rather than soaking them in ice water because the ice water would make the green beans taste water logged.) Using a fan, the green beans are cooked but still crunchy and keeps its color. I cut the green beans into 1 and 1/2 inch long pieces.



Dressing:

White roasted sesame seeds:  1tsp, although they are pre-roasted, I dry roasted them again in a frying pan and ground them in a Japanese mortar or suribachi until they became somewhat pasty but some of the sesame seeds were just coarsely ground.

White sesame paste (shiro nerigoma): 1 tsp, This comes in a plastic pouch or can.

Sugar, soy sauce and rice vinegar

I put the sesame paste and ground sesame in the Japanese mortar, added sugar (1/2 tsp), soy sauce (1/2 tsp) and rice vinegar (1/3 tsp). I checked the consistency of the dressing, tasted and adjusted the seasoning and liquids. I dressed both the chicken and green beans with the dressing and garnished with more whole roasted sesame seeds.

This is a tried and true good starter to have with for sake.

Shio-koji marinated pork loin and chicken tenderloins 塩麹漬け豚ヒレと鶏笹身の唐揚げ

I posted dishes using shio-koji 塩麹 more than several times. I thought that, in general, the virtue of shio-koji was a bit over hyped.  Since the shio-koji I made from dried shio-koji was getting old (although it still looked and smelled OK), I decided to replace it with some store-bought prepared shio-koji in a small plastic pouch (see picture on the left). It appears that the rice kernels in this one are much softer than the ones from dry shio-koji. I had an extra tail potion of pork tenderloin and two chicken tenderloins which I removed when I was preparing chicken breast from bone-in split chicken breast, I decided to make a small appetizer "kara-age"  with these using shio-koji.

Because of the sugar/starch in the shi-koji, the cooked meat came out rather dark. I served it with shredded cabbage, deep fried shishi-tou シシトウ and wedges of lemon. I also served tonkatsu sauce トンカツソース and Japanese hot mustard 和芥子 on the side.



On the left are two pieces of chicken tenderloin and on the right are pieces of pork tenderloin.



Probably I overcooked a bit but still tasted ok.



I prepared both tenderloins a few days ago, I cut both into bite sized pieces, placed both in small Ziploc bags, added a small amount of shio-koji, massaged it and removed as much air as possible and sealed. I let it marinade for two days in the meat drawer in the refrigerator (a few hours to over night may have been adequate, but I did not get to it until today). In the picture below the upper one is chicken and the lower one is pork.



I blotted the surface of the meat with a paper towel and dredged with potato starch or "katakuriko" 片栗粉. I heated peanut oil to 350F and deep fried it for 5 minutes or so, turning several times during cooking. Shio-koji marination added a subtle sweet and salty flavor but I am not sure about the tenderizing effect of shio-koji, which everybody is raving about. It is variation from my usual "tatsuta-age" 竜田揚げ or "kara-age" 唐揚げ (marinade is soy sauce, mirin and grated ginger) but we sort of like the latter.

Yakitori, two kinds 焼き鳥２種類、レバたれ、笹身のシソ梅肉

I started this blog with “Yakitori” posts 3 years ago. I also posted about our surrogate “Izakaya” “Tako Grill”.  Last year, to our surprise, Chef Kudo went back to Japan for good and opened up his restaurant “タコグリルTako Grill” in the small town he originally came from called “Kuroishi” 黒石 in Aomori prefecture 青森県. Now Mr. Terry Segawa 瀬川哲紀 who mostly took care of the business side of Tako Grill is more involved in the kitchen. He added quite nice Izakaya type snacks to the menu (actually, he now has a special Izakaya menu). When Terry is behind counter, he often offers something “off the menu”. These dishes are different and quite nice; one evening it was Yakitori (chicken liver and hearts). My wife really likes chicken liver Yakitori, which I have not made for some time. This prompted me to make these small yakitori skewers on weekend.
When I barbecue whole chickens, I usually discard the neck, gizzards and liver which are packaged in paper and tucked inside the cavity. (These are usually meant for making the American classic gravy-with-giblets). This time, I used the liver to make this small Yakitori while we are waiting for the whole chickens to finish cooking.

Since the Webber grill was otherwise occupied with the whole chickens and the mosquitos were still around making me reluctant to stand around outside tending the grill, I cooked these Yakitori in the toaster oven in “Hi-broil”.

Chicken liver: I removed attached fat, vessels etc and soaked them in sake for 20-30 minutes. I used a flat metal skewer. From two whole chickens, there was enough liver to make two small skewers (picture below).

Sauce: I made quick “tare” たれ or dipping sauce. It is a mixture of sake (1 tbs) mirin (1 tbs), sugar (2 tsp) and soy sauce (1 tbs). I first heated the sake and mirin mixture to boil, then dissolved sugar and added soy sauce. I then made a potato starch slurry (katakuriko 片栗粉 or potato starch plus sake). I streamed it in until the sauce was slightly thickened.

Chicken tenderloins: This is a variation of shiso and salted plum roll 梅しそ巻き which I previously posted. Instead of making it into a roll, I butterflied the chcken tenderloins, lined it with 1 or 2 leaves of perilla and smeared bainiku 梅肉 (I removed the meat of umeboshi 梅干 plum and minced it into paste with a small amount of mirin to make it a paste consistency). After closing the butterflied portions, I used a sawing motion to thread the skewer (see below).

I cooked the skewers on Hi-broil in the toaster oven (with the upper heating elements about 1 inch from the skewers) turning once or twice for 10-15 minutes. For the liver,  I coated the surface of the cooked liver with the dipping sauce and broiled it for one more minute turning once. I put on one more coat of “tare” sauce and sprinkled “sansho” 山椒 or powdered Szechwan pepper corn on the liver.

This was a perfect appetizer to eat while we waited for the chicken to cook. Sometimes the liver included in the packet found in the cavity of a whole chicken is not fresh and is all broken up, but I should check it before discarding. This was perfectly good chicken liver.

Baked chicken tenderloin with mayonnaise crust 鶏の笹身のマヨ焼き

This is another small and quick dish. Whenever I make sake steamed chicken, I use split, bone-in, skin-on, chicken breast. When I remove the meat from the bone, I also separate the tenderloins from the breast meat. So I often make a small dish from the tenderloins.

Japanese appear to like mayonnaise (so much so some call themselves “Mayoler” マヨラー or those who like mayo fanatically). Even if you are not “Mayoler”, many baked Japanese dishes call for mayo. This one is such a dish.

Tenderloin: I opened it along the long edge like a book and flattened and lightly salted both sides.

Mayonnaise sauce: There are many variations but I added a bit of soy sauce and dried “aonori” 青海苔 into store-bought mayonnaise.

I smeared the mayo sauce on one side of the chicken and baked it in a 400F toaster oven for 10-15 minutes or until the surface browned and the meat was done.

I served this with our coleslaw and potato salad. This is a curiously good dish.The mayo forms a crust. It took some time before my wife realized the crust was mayo. She thought it was some kind of melted cheese.

Shredded carrot salad with Italian chicken tenderloin 人参のサラダ、鶏の笹身イタリアンソテー

This post is not for the chicken tenders but for the carrot salad which was made by my wife. She made it in a rather large quantity so that we could eat it as a "side" with our lunches during the week at work. She is known to have made shredded carrot salad in the past. It was one of the dishes she served when she first invited me for dinner to her apartment ions ago. Back then she used a blender with a bit of water to shred carrots but now she uses a food processor. As a accompaniment for her carrot salad, I made Italian style chicken tenderloin.

Chicken tenderloin: I used three tenderloins for two small servings. I just seasoned them with salt, pepper, dried basel and oregano. I then dredged in yellow corn meal and fried them in olive oil.

I have to ask my wife to fill in for this quite nice shredded carrot salad.

Again this is a recipe based on the one for spiced carrot salad found in the "500 appetizers" cookbook. As usual we could not resist making variations. I shredded a large bag of carrots in the food processor. (Cook the carrots in batches in the micro wave for 30 seconds, stir and cook about another 30 seconds until the carrots get a bit tender but still have crunch).  Then I made a dressing of: 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, finely chopped candied ginger to taste, 4 tsp. sushi vinegar, 3 Tbs. olive oil, 2 tsp. chopped mint. I also added about 1 cup of raisins and the juice from 2 limes. I mixed all the spices together with the liquid ingredients and poured the dressing over the carrots and raisins. I let it sit for several hours for the flavors to marry (as a matter-of-fact the salad gets better every day). 

The sweetness of the carrots combined with the raisins and the dressing make a very sweet/savory combination. Over time the carrots exude juice which blends with the dressing. It is a great way to eat your veggies. 

Myouga, chicken and duck tenderloin tempura 茗荷、鶏と鴨の笹身の天ぷら

We do not particulary like to make tempura of myouga because the myouga seems to lose its flavor when cooked, but this one came out ok. Again, the myouga was used as a part of the tempura assortment rather than the main item.

The chicken tenderloin was stuffed with minced pickled plum or "umeboshi" 梅干し which is called "bainiku" 梅肉, then wrapped in perilla leaves. This is exactly the way I usually make this dish (Left in the back in the above picture). Since I separated the tenderloin from the duck breast when I made a duck breast dish, I wrapped it with a small rectangular sheet of nori 海苔. Whenever nori or aonori is used in this fashion or mixed into the tempura batter, it is called "Isobe age" 磯辺揚げ meaning "Rocky seashore fries" (Right in the back ). The tempura batter is my usual; a mixture of ice cold water and cake flour (I did not add potato starch this time because I was a bit lazy). I also fried this using the shallow frying method rather than deep frying.

I fried the myouga last, briefly and at a higher temperature than other items, which helped retain the flavor. When you cook myouga (such as in a miso or clear soup) the unique flavor of myouga diminishes quickly. I served this with an wedge of lemon and green tea salt.