1/4/2007

When I was studying in New Zealand, the one thing that became my comfort food there was good Japanese food. They had some pretty good Japanese restaurants there, I would say I got almost the real deal being thousands of miles away from Japan. My favorite Japanese joint was called Minami, somewhere down near the Octagon, Dunedin, NZ. If you any of you are ever going down South Island of NZ, let me know. I’ll hook you guys up with some friends.

Anyway, the one dish that I never fail to order almost everytime i go there is their Chicken Katsudon. It was my ultimate comfort food – I eat it whenever I can. I don’t have a picture of the Chicken Katsudon (the picture above was taken from the internet) from Minami but I do have a recipe I can share with you.
I have tried the recipe and adapted it to suit my taste.I know Katsu Don is originally made with pork and I have tried both chicken and pork. I can testify that they’re both good but due to my preference for poultry, i like Chicken Katsu Don better. I like my chicken katsu to still be a little bit crispy and my egg slightly runny. You will need to cook the chicken katsudon individually and this recipe yields at least 4 servings. Here’s the recipe!

For the rice:

2 cups of sushi rice (i.e. Calrose)
2 1/4 cup of water

1 tablespoon of mirin (rice wine vinegar)
Method:

Wash rice at least 3 times till water is no longer murky white. Cook it in a rice cooker with 2 1/4 cup of water. Once the rice is cooked, add the rice wine vinegar and fluff the rice.

After it is well mixed, cover the rice with a heavy wet tea towel to keep them moist while you prepare your chicken katsu.
Chicken Katsu:

4 chicken thigh that has been deboned
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs for coating
4 green shallots diced (trim leaf sections and keep aside as garnish)
4 cloves garlic chopped
2 large brown onion sliced into thin rings
Chilly flakes (optional)
Sesame oil
Mirin
Kikoman Soysauce
Pepper
5eggs beaten lightly

Method

First season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and dunk it into the beaten egg until all sides are covered. Tranfers one chicken thigh onto the breadcrumbs to coat. Fry the chicken with hot oil on medium heat, until you get it golden brown. Set it aside on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil, let it rest for 2 minutes.

In the meanwhile, prepare rice onto a bowl.

After that, cut the chicken pieces into thick 0.5 inch strips and place it over the rice.
Then, working quickly…

Place 1/4 of green shallot, garlic, and onion into a small flatbased nonstick pan and saute in sesame oil till fragrant. Add 1 tsp of mirin, 2 tbsp soysauce and dashes of pepper. Add 1/4 of egg mixture and increase the flames on the stove for approximately 30 seconds. Do not stir condiments at this point. When the eggs are almost done but still runny on the top, remove the egg from the pan with care and place it on the rice and chicken katsu. Sprinkle on a little bit of chili flakes (i like them hot) and a bit of Furikake. Sprinkle with chopped green shallots. Serve hot! Repeat the whole process again twice with the rest of the ingredients.

Enjoy! :)