Chicken Nanban (チキン南蛮)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy pot or deep frying pan
• •Kitchen thermometer
• •Wire rack set over a tray
• •Small saucepan
• •Long cooking chopsticks or tongs

Instructions

1. 1

   Season the chicken

   Cut the chicken into large bite-size pieces, or leave each thigh in one broad piece if you want the Miyazaki plate style. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then rub with the sake and let it stand for 10 minutes. The sake lightly seasons the meat and helps it fry cleanly, but it is not a marinade meant to hide tired chicken.

   Thigh is forgiving for a weeknight. Breast is good too, and closer to some older Nobeoka versions, but pull it from the oil as soon as it is cooked through.
2. 2

   Make nanban-su

   Combine the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and chili in a small pan. Warm just until the sugar dissolves, then turn off the heat. This is nanban-su, the sweet vinegar sauce. Do not boil it hard, because you want the vinegar bright enough to cut the fried chicken and the tartar.

3. 3

   Mix the tartar

   Chop the hard-boiled eggs, then fold them with the mayonnaise, onion, pickle or rakkyo, rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Rinse and squeeze the onion first so it keeps its bite without taking over the sauce. The tartar should taste tart and clean, not merely rich.

4. 4

   Coat the chicken

   Pat the chicken lightly dry. Dip each piece in beaten egg, then coat with the mixed flour and potato starch, pressing gently so the coating clings. Flour gives the crust body, potato starch keeps it light, and the egg helps the coating hold when it meets the vinegar.

5. 5

   Fry in batches

   Heat the oil to 170 C. Fry the chicken in small batches until pale golden and cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes for bite-size thigh pieces, a little longer for larger pieces. The oil should bubble steadily, not violently. Crowding drops the temperature, and a low, tired fry gives you a greasy crust before the sauce ever has a chance.

6. 6

   Dip while hot

   Lift the chicken from the oil, drain for a moment, then dip it straight into the warm nanban-su for 10 to 20 seconds, turning once. Hot crust drinks the sauce quickly. Leave it too long and the crust becomes heavy; barely touch it and the vinegar won't reach the meat.

7. 7

   Plate and finish

   Set the sauced chicken on a plate with shredded cabbage and rice alongside. Spoon tartar over the chicken, leaving some of the lacquered brown surface visible. That little restraint matters. The sauce crowns the dish; it doesn't bury it.

Chef Tips

• •Choose chicken that looks plump and moist, with no sour smell and no gray cast. Sourcing first, always. The best frying technique only protects what good chicken already gives you.
• •Use potato starch if you can. Cornstarch works as a stand-in, but potato starch gives the cleaner, lighter crust we want before the vinegar softens it.
• •Keep the nanban-su warm beside the frying pot. The chicken should go from oil to sauce with no wandering. This is the first secret of the dish, and it is blessedly small.
• •Do not drown the plate in tartar. Chicken Nanban is fried chicken, vinegar, and tartar in balance. If one hides the other two, the dish has lost its nerve.

Advance Preparation

• •The tartar sauce can be made up to one day ahead and kept refrigerated. Stir it before serving so the egg and onion settle back together.
• •The nanban-su can be made two days ahead and refrigerated. Warm it gently before dipping the chicken, because warm sauce enters the crust more readily.
• •Fry the chicken just before serving. Reheated Chicken Nanban can still feed you honestly, but the best texture belongs to the first plate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)