Yuzu Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken Wings)

I know this may sound shocking, but my boyfriend actually enjoys eating healthier than I do. Well, okay, enjoyED eating healthier. Whenever I'd come over, he'd always have salad already cut and ready to eat in his frig. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy salad, but we like different types of salad. He likes a MAN salad, romaine cut into big chunks, carrots, mushrooms, chunks of regular tomatoes, raw onions, italian dressing ... while I like my salad all GIRLY, musclin with either fresh pears or dried cranberries, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes cut in half, oven roasted beets, steamed asparagus, shallots, balsamic vinagrette. I mostly don't eat salad cuz the ingredients for the type of salad I like don't keep in the frig very long.

So my BF thought he'd be a good influence on my eating habits. At first he made a gallant effort. He always prepped a salad for our dinner. And I dutifully ate it. Its healthy, its good for me. It'll counteract all that butter I love! But after a while, it just sat there wilting and being ignored in exchange for more unhealthy fattening dishes like mussels or the fried chicken I made this past weekend. My boyfriend didn't even want to eat rice since it took up too much stomach space with so much chicken available to eat. When I do bother to make a salad, it just its on the table ... He calls it the "bouquet", you know, the flower arrangement ...

Don't worry baby! I put veggies in this fried chicken dish ... uh, there's scallions on top ... and I lined the plate with romaine lettuce so it looks pretty. At least the romaine lettuce in the frig didn't completely go to waste!

I used a couple ingredients not usually found in an american supermarket. So I thought I'd take a picture, so you know what it looks like if you can find these at a Japanese or Asian market. I'll give alternate ingredients just to make regular Japanese chicken wings if you can't get ahold of these ingredients.

Left: Yuzu Kosho in tube
Center: Katakuriko (Potato starch)
Right: Yuzu Kosho (dehydrated skin of a yuzu)

Marinade:
2T yuzu koshou from tube
1 lemon, juiced and skin cut into chunks
1/8 cup salt
2T sake
2T mirin -OR- mixture of sugar and sake
1T yuzu ponzu -OR- regular ponzu or more lemon juice
1T soy sauce
1/8 t sansyo (optional)
thumbsize piece of ginger, grated, and juiced (keep only the juice)

1 large package of chicken wings (about 3-4 pounds), tips removed, broken down to wings and drumettes
1-2 cups katakuriko -OR- mixture of flour and cornstarch
cooking oil
yuzu kosho powder (optional)
1 bunch scallions, chopped

Dressing:
1 lemon, juiced -OR- 2 T rice vinegar
2 T roasted sesame oil
1 t yuzu kosho from tube (optional)

Mix all ingredients of marinade together. Place chicken wings and drumettes in marinade. Allow to soak in flavor at least 2 hours, up to overnight.

Heat cooking oil in large pot over high heat to fry chicken. You will want to cook the chicken at least 375 degrees F. The oil may get hotter than this since when you add the chicken to the oil, it will lower the temperature of the oil. Take the chicken out of the marinade and light dust the chicken with katakuriko. Fry in small batches for about 3-6 minutes depending on the size of your wings, until the chicken wings have a nice color. Drain chicken on newspapers lined with paper towels (cuz don't you think those newspapers are really dirty?).

After all the chicken has been fried. Line a large plate with romaine lettuce. Place a layer with half the chicken, sprinkle with the powdered yuzu powder and half the scallions, then do another layer and add more yuzu powder and scallions. Whisk together the lemon juice, roasted sesame oil, and yuzu kosho from tube. Pour the dressing over the chicken immediately before serving.

Note: The lemon in this recipe is to bring out the subtle yuzu taste. Do not substitute out for rice vinegar unless you are not planning to use the yuzu ingredients.

Tsukune (Japanese-style Chicken Meatball)

A while back, I went to go eat at Yakitori Totto with my BF. If you are unfamiliar with yakitori and live in NYC, I highly recommend this spot in Midtown West. Yakitori is Japanese chicken grilled on skewers over charcoal. The chicken they use at Totto is organic and very juicy. One of my favorite skewers to order is tsukune which is a chicken meatball.

I recently attempted to make tsukune at home on a frying pan. Came out pretty okay, but no where as good as the ones at Yakitori Totto unfortunately. My BF must have thought they were damn good, evident by the fact a whole pound and a half of tsukune was gone in a day! I made mine as a donburi with yamaimo and scallions.

Recipe for Tsukune

Chicken meatballs:
Package of ground chicken, appx 1.5 lbs
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
juice squeezed from thumb sized piece of ginger thats been shredded
1 small onion, grated or finely minced
1 egg
1/2 t salt
splash of sake

Tare (sauce):
4 T sake
5 T soy sauce
1 T mirin
1 T sugar
1 T cornstarch mixed well with 1 T water

To make sauce, mix the sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a small pan. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat to a simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cornstarch and water mixture and continue to simmer until thickened. (I actually didn't make the tare, I was given some from someone so I cheated!)

Gently mix all the ingredients for the chicken meatballs. Form meatballs somewhere between the size of ping pong ball and a golf ball.

Heat a non stick pan over medium high heat with some oil. Fry the meatballs until lightly browned, approximately 3-5 minutes, then flip over. Brush tare sauce on the cooked side. Allow to cook the meatball another 2-3 minutes. Flip over onto a plate, and brush additional tare on the other side. Be careful not to overcook these meatballs since it is chicken and it tends to get dry. The breadcrumbs help in keeping the texture soft and preventing it from drying out as easily.

Serve over hot rice with extra tare and scallions. We served it with some yamaimo, a sticky mountain potato.