Simmered Chicken & Vegetables (Chikuzen Ni)
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Japanese cooking makes use of a lot of different techniques that result in a huge range of mouth-watering dishes. Japanese people love grilling, stir-frying and boiling, but they also like to prepare simmered dishes known as nimono. Meaning ‘simmered or stewed’ the nimono cooking technique incorporates the traditional Japanese flavours of soy, mirin and bonito stock to produce an extremely popular type of dish rich in umami flavours.

Healthy and filling, Chikuzen Ni is a type of nimono simmered dish native to Kyushu, the largest southern island in mainland Japan. Chicken is first sautéd then simmered with vegetables in staple Japanese sauces until tender. Originally a traditional dish enjoyed during New Year it has since become a classic Japanese dish to be enjoyed throughout the year.

4 people 10 minutes 30 minutes save

Ingredients

• 250g Boneless Chicken Thighs
• 2 cups Dashi Stock
• 2 tbs Mirin
• 3 tbs Cooking Sake
• 3 tbs Soy Sauce
• 1 Burdock – peeled
• 1 Taro Potatoes – peeled
• 6 to 8 Shiitake Mushrooms – rehydrated
• 1 pack Konnyaku Yam Cake – drained (optional)
• 1 Renkon Lotus Root – peeled
• 1 Carrot
• a few Snow Peas
Suggested Japanese Drink: Shochu, native to Kyushu.

How to prepare

Begin by cutting your chicken thigh meat and drained yam cake into bite size pieces, roughly chop your vegetables. Hard vegetables in rolling wedges will make your dish look particularly pleasing. Prepare your dashi stock according to the packet instructions.
Par boil the snow peas and cut in half with a diagonal line. Grab a pan and stir fry the chicken first with a bit of vegetable oil. Once your chicken is browned add the vegetables (minus the snow peas) and yam cake and continue to cook, stirring frequently.
After frying for a few minutes, you can now add the sake and the cups of prepared dashi stock. Mix a bit, bring to the boil and skim off any impurities.

You can now add the mirin and soy sauce and leave the mixture to simmer on a low heat for around 15 minutes. Cook to reduce the liquid to half, turn back to high until the sauce is almost gone, finally add the snow peas. Your Chikuzen Ni is done and ready to be enjoyed!

Tips and information

• Dried shiitake mushrooms are a good choice for simmered recipes. They absorb the flavours better than fresh ones.
• Serve with a bowl of sticky white rice and miso soup.