Japanese Chicken Konjac Stew

I had a varient of this dish on the Sunflower Ferry from Beppu to Osaka. They had an absolutely stacked all-you-can-eat buffet dinner, and this simple stew was one of my favorites. This recipe is adapted from this recipe and this official kikoman recipe. It is very flexible, you can add a lot of variations for stew items.

Required Ingredients:

• Chicken. I have also done with drumstick. 4 drumsticks or 3-4 thighs. Either way cut into bite-size pieces.

• Konjac, 1 pack (both noodle style and hunk is ok. If it is in the hunk form, first slice into 1cm thick sheets)

• Sesame oil

• Soy Sauce (can use mixture of normal and 鲜酱油)

• Mirin

• Sugar

• Sake/ shaoxing cooking wine

• Dashi packet

Optional add-ins

• Daikon. Cut into rounds and cross-hatch to promote flavor absorption

• Other root vegetables like onion, potato, carrot, or lotus root

• Wheat gluten

• rehydrated shiitake mushrooms

• fresh mushrooms like king oyster, shiitake, or enoki

• blanched snow peas (garnish)

Procedure:

• Sear chicken in pot with oil. You want nice browning, it’s important for skin to be crispy at this stage. Can start with canola or other high-heat oil, and add some sesame in at the end.

• If using dried shiitake mushrooms or wheat gluten, add in to sear as well.

• Add water and dashi packets. Add soy sauce and mirin. Once mixture is boiled, can start adjusting to taste. Add sugar if need more sweetness, may not be necessary

• Add all other ingredients into stew, and braise until everything is cooked. Daikon usually takes the longest to soften. It is important to cut chicken small so chicken cooks before daikon.

• Remove dashi packet before serving. Good with rice.