Zangi: Hokkaido-style fried chicken This dish started in a city called Kushiro, an important port city in eastern Hokkaido. Unlike other types of Japanese fried chicken, the original version from Kushiro comes accompanied with a Worcestershire sauce based sweet and savoury dipper. The fried chicken itself is already super good but the sauce enhances it like ten times!! You can also enjoy different cuts of chicken.
-INGREDIENTS- (Serves 2 to 3)
300g chicken thigh, boned
150g chicken wings (drummettes)
150g chicken wings (wingettes)
1Tbsp plain flour
150g Katakuriko (potato starch) or corn starch
2L vegetable oil
3 wedges of lemon
*MARINADE
20g ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated
1Tbsp soy sauce
Mirin (Sweet cooking rice wine) or honey
2Tbsp Sake (Cooking rice wine)
A touch of ground black or white pepper
*DIPPING SAUCE
2Tbsp sugar
4Tbsp soy sauce
4Tbsp Sake
2Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
A touch of ground black or white pepper
-METHOD
1. Make a cut on each wing. Cut sinews and cartilages off the boned chicken thigh and cut into bite-size pieces (about the size of a golf ball). Also remove excess skin from the thigh as it usually has too much fat.
2. Put the wings, thigh and all the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl. Mix them well and rub the seasonings into the chicken. Cover with glad wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
3. Meanwhile, add all the ingredients for the dipping sauce into a small sauce pan. Heat it on a high heat and boil for a minute to cook away the alcohol. If you’re used to cooking, flambe the sauce so that the alcohol disappears more quickly.
4. Take the bowl out of the fridge and uncover. Add a heap table spoon of plain flour and mix well to form a batter coating around each piece of the chicken. Dust very well with Katakuriko and shake off excess.
5. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pot or a wok and bring it to 160℃/320℉. Add the wings first and fry for 4 minutes, then take them out onto a baking rack with a tray underneath. Fry the thigh pieces for 3 minutes and take them out. Rest them for 4 minutes (resting will cook through the chicken all the way, while keeping it juicy). It’s always better to fry them in 2 batches as an overcrowded pot will cause a significant temperature drop, resulting in undercooked chicken.
6. Increase the oil temperature to 180℃/356℉ and put all the chicken back in at once. Fry for 30 seconds to crisp up the surface of the fried chicken. Take all out and drain the oil on the baking rack.
7. Place the fried chicken on a plate and garnish with the lemon wedges. Serve it with the a sauce-bowl of the dipping sauce.
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