Chicken nanban チキン南蛮
Chicken nanban is a dish famous from the Southern part of Japan, in Miyazaki Prefecture. Deep fried chicken, dipped in a savory, sour, and slightly sweet sauce, with tartar sauce on top.
Literally, Nanban means barbarian (ban, 蛮) southerner (nan, 南). Originally it mainly referred to the Portuguese and their culture. It sounds really mean (of course we don’t refer to the Portuguese like that at all now!) but there are some reasons why they were named like that. Japan was a closed county from the rest of the world for a really long time. The first foreigners who arrived Japan after the long closure were the Portuguese. The Japanese were forced to face a totally different culture and they had mixture of feelings. They were afraid and shocked, wanted to reject the strangers and at the same time, they were curious about the new culture. Portuguese brought their own culture and also, since they traveled through India and South east Asia, they brought different parts of other Asian culture to Japan, like spices. The Japanese gradually started to combine aspects of their food culture and these new cultures, and created new and unique dishes. Chicken nanban is one such dish that came from this merging of different ideas.
Now, if you say nanban, that means dishes which contain a slight spiciness from red chili and green onion. Both ingredients are brought from India and South East Asia.
You might be able to find this chicken nanban dish at some authentic Japanese izakaya (tapas style restaurant) in the US. Although, since you have to stay at home now, you can cook at home using this recipe!
Chicken nanban (Servings 2-3)
<Fried chicken>
Chicken breast (or chicken thigh)
If you are using chicken breast, large 2 pieces.
4-5 pieces for chicken thigh.
Salt 1 teaspoon
Pepper
All purpose flour around 2 Tablespoons
Egg 1
Canola or vegetable oil for frying
<Savory, vinegar and sweet sauce>
Soy sauce 2 Tablespoons
Sugar 1 Tablespoons
Rice vinegar 3 Tablespoons
(you can substitute to any vinegar you have home)
Red chili pepper flake 1 pinch
Carrot and ginger 2-3 slices(optional)
Onion 1 small piece(optional)
<Tartar sauce>
Egg 2 Eggs
Cucumber pickles 2/3 oz
Onion 2/3 oz
Salt 1/3 teaspoons
Pepper
Mayonnaise 2 Tablespoons
Rice vinegar 2 teaspoons
(you can substitute to any vinegar you have home)
Make tartar sauce. Hard boil eggs and deshell. (See this link to check how to boil an egg. The recipe is for soft boiled eggs but cook 10 minutes for hard boiled eggs)
Separate egg yolks and whites and put the yolks only into a bowl.
Using a fork, smash the egg yolks and sprinkle on some salt . Add mayonnaise and rice vinegar and mix well.
Chop onion into small pieces and soak in water. Leave 10 minutes and drain water. Repeat this twice and wipe off excess water with a paper towel. (This process removes bitterness and excess spiciness from the onion)
Chop cucumber and egg whites into the same size as the onion.
Combine egg yolk mix, onion, cucumber, egg white, and black pepper, and mix all together.
Make sauce. Combine all the ingredients, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, red chili pepper flakes, carrot, ginger and onion in a small pot. Turn the heat to medium and cook for 1 minute. Let it cool down. Discard vegetables and ginger.
Cook chicken. 30 minutes before you start cooking, leave the chicken at room temperature.
Slice each chicken breast into two. One side of the chicken breast is thicker than other so try to slice into equal thickness. (See the pictures above)
Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
Dust chicken with flour and pat off the excess flour.
Beat egg and dip the chicken into the egg.
Heat oil to 350F. Deep fry chicken for 2 minutes one side, flip, cook 3 minutes, flip again and cook 1 more minute. Instead of deep frying, you can shallow fry instead using 1/2 an inch of oil in a pan. (Cook with medium-low heat for shallow frying and a little longer than deep frying)
Place chicken on a cooling rack and drain oil. Put the chicken into the sauce (step 6) while the chicken is still hot. Flip once and soak the side in the sauce.
Cut chicken into bite size pieces, place on a plate, and pour tartar sauce on top. (You can pour a bit of the leftover sauce over fried chicken before the tartar sauce if you want a little extra flavor)
Note:
If you are using chicken breast, don’t over cook! You need just the right time and the temperature to make it juicy. It’s easier to use chicken thighs because even if you overcook a bit, it will stay juicy.