I picked up a cool Japanese yoshoku (Japanese food with a western twise) cookbook on special for $9.99 at the bookstore yesterday. Quite a score if you ask me. After reading it I discovered there weren’t a whole lot of recipes in it (compared to some of my other books anyway), however the photos are rather gorgeous which we all know makes the food at least 10 times more delicious.

First recipe I decided to try from the book was caramel chicken. It’s sweet with a hint of sourness and hotness from the chilli. That equals yummo in my book.

Preparation time: 3 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes four small servings

Ingredients

• 1tbs vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthways
• 2 small red chillies, seeded and sliced thinly
• 4 x chicken thigh cutlets or 4 x 150g chicken breast fillets, skin on
• 60ml (1/4 cup) rice wine vinegar
• 60ml (1/4 cup) mirin
• 60ml (1/4 cup) water
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar (normal sugar seems to work nicely too)
• 1/8 teaspoon dashi powder
• 2 teaspoons soya sauce
• 4 shiso leaves, finely shredded (substitute with basil if you can’t find it, which is what I did. I reckon you could even leave out this bit all together)

Method

1. Heat the vegetable and sesame oils in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the garlic and chilli and stir fry until the garlic is evenly golden (about 2 - 3 minutes). Remove and set aside.
2. Increase the heat to medium high and place chicken, skin side down, in the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes. Turn over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until just cooked through. Remove and set aside.
3. Combine the rice wine vinegar, mirin, sugar, dashi powder and soya sauce with 60ml water and slowly add to the pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then add the garlc and chilli. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the sauce thickens and has a nice glaze to it.
4. Return chicken to the pan and add the shredded shiso, coat the chicken well with the sauce. Place the chicken on a serving plate, drizzling with any sauce left over from the pan.

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