How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
Stuffed cabbage is not a traditional Japanese dish. It came to Japan from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. It has a very soft texture and amazing flavor. Japanese like to have it in chicken soup style or tomato sauce style.
Cabbage is high in vitamin C and U. Vitamin U is officially called S-methylmethionine which is a good ingredient for stomach problems such as digestion, upper stomachache and so on. Japanese have the highest incidence of stomach issues in the world, despite having lower rates of most other health problems, because of our stomach/gut shape. Therefore, we often eat fresh cabbage for salad and for garnish. And also we have many kind of stomach medicine (over the counter) and most of those use vitamin U as an ingredient.
I believe you will enjoy this dish as a fancy and healthy dinner!
Today I will teach you how to make Japanese style Burger Patties, which is the most popular style in Japan. The ingredients are ground chicken, tofu, mushroom and onion.
It is common to add Tofu to some dishes in Japan, as an ingredient, such as meatball, pancakes, muffins and so on. It makes the dishes healthier and it requires fewer ingredients. The texture of the patties is amazingly soft because of the tofu’s texture. Tofu is high in quality protein, so this patty has great nutrition!
Japanese usually have homemade burger patties with sides of vegetables and white rice, not with hamburger buns.
[Ingredients (servings 4)]
1-pound ground chicken
7-ounce (1/2 package) firm tofu
3 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Drain the tofu and wrap it in paper towels, then microwave for two minutes. Let it sit at room temperature until cool down.
In a bowl, combine the chicken, onion, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Mix for at least 2 minutes until very well combined. Shape the mixture into 8 palm-size balls, and flatten them with your hands. In a skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat and cook the burgers for 3 minutes. Flip them, cook the burgers over low heat with a cover for 7 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Today I introduce you to “Sautéed Chicken and Pumpkin with Miso Sauce”. It is a delicious, flavorful and hearty dish.
I use winter squash Kabocha in the recipe. Kabocha is a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine. It is high in vitamins, potassium, fiber and beta-carotene. The taste is slightly sweet and the texture is very soft when it is cooked.
Today I introduce you to “Japanese-style braised chicken thighs with tomato”.
In the recipe, I use cooking sake, bay leaf, sugar, salt and pepper as seasonings and it is marvelous! The reason to add cooking sake is that it makes chicken soft and juicy and it rids the meat of its smell.
In Japan, people sometimes season tomato sauce dishes with soy sauce too. This adds great Asian flavor to the dish.
The dish is very hearty but the recipe is not complicated. You can cook with just one pan.
Cook chicken in a pan and set aside. With the pan, make tomato sauce. Put chicken back in the sauce and simmer.
Japanese-style fried chicken called Karaage in Japanese, is made in a very thin batter so it is very juicy, tender and has great ginger soy sauce and garlic flavor. I am sure once you have a bite, you will not be able to stop eating because it is so yum!
In the traditional recipe, the chicken is deep-fried in oil but I cook them in the oven that makes the dish healthier, and of course it still tastes divine!! Also I use corn starch and gluten free soy sauce, so the dish is great for people who follow gluten-free diet.
In Japan, there are many kinds of Karaage, such as chicken, chicken gristle, shrimp, calamari, octopus, fish, fish bone and so on. You can use this recipe for those ingredients too.
The recipe is very quick and easy. There is no need to wait for marinating!!
Season the chicken and dredge in corn starch. Brush with some oil and bake on a prepared baking sheet in the oven.
Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Oven-fried chicken
Ingredients (Servings 2)
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Today I introduce you to “Homemade Ginger Chicken.” This is an incredibly flavorful dish marinated mainly with ginger and soy sauce.
As you know, ginger is extremely healthy. When you cook ginger, Gingerol, which is a flavor ingredient, changes chemically to Shogaol. This warms up our body and increases our metabolism. I often use ginger in my meals to make dishes flavorful and healthier!!
In this recipe I use chicken, but you can use pork instead of chicken if you prefer. If you use pork just make sure it is sliced thinly.
The recipe is very easy.
Marinate cut chicken in a zipper plastic bag. Cook it with sliced onion in a pan.
Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Ginger Chicken Thigh
Ingredients (Servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I introduce you to Easy Chicken Meatball Soup. It takes only about 15 minutes to cook so is great to add as one more dish for weekday dinners. You can use any kind of ground meat that you have in your refrigerator.
I sometimes add tofu to my meatballs recipes but in this recipe I use only ground chicken so it is very juicy and flavorful!!
It is low calorie and low fat dish. This dish makes you warm, gives your metabolism a boost, and helps improve your immunity so it is great to help you recover from sickness and get back a good appetite.
The recipe is very easy.
Mix ground chicken and seasoning well, and cook in the soup.
Today I will introduce you to Ginger Chicken Crumble. This is a common recipe in Japan. We usually eat this chicken crumble with rice and sometimes put it in a rice ball. It is also great with salad, pasta and so on. The picture shows my original chicken crumble rice bowl which has sautéed spinach, pickled belle pepper, carrot with sesame dressing and poached egg. It is divine!!
In addition you can store it in the refrigerator for about 4 days so this dish works well for you to add protein to your meal easily.
In this recipe I use traditional seasonings which give the dish a savory-sweet taste. But because of the simple recipe, you can change the seasonings as you want. You can make it spicy, salty or curry flavor!
Today I introduce you to “Japanese Fried Chicken with Egg Drop Dashi”.
This is a very delicious dish and is a popular dish in Japan. It is fried chicken breast in an egg-drop Dashi soup. Japanese fried food has very thin batter and a crunchy texture. We add the soup to the chicken right before we eat it so that we can enjoy the flavorful soup and crunchy fried chicken together. Mostly the dish is put on steamed rice so it is called Donburi. It provides carbohydrate and protein in one bowl so we usually have this during the busy lunch time.
The recipe is
(Fried Chicken)
Season a chicken breast with salt and pepper and batter with flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs. (See the picture, I sometimes use a supermarket flyers or newspaper to batter with flour and bread crumbs. This makes easy to cleanup!)
Fry about 5 minutes on each side. Slice and place on a plate.
(Egg-Drop Sauce)
Heat Dashi stock, sugar, cooking Sake, soy sauce and Mirin in a pan and pour beaten egg in the boiled soup.
Pour the egg-drop dashi soup on the fried chicken and sprinkle with green onion (to taste) right before serving.
I used bonito dashi stock but you can use any kind of stock. This is a Japanese style dish so It would be better to use bonito, shiitake mushroom, kelp, or anchovy dashi stock if it’s possible.
If you frequently want to add chopped green onion with a minimum of fuss to your dishes, here is a tip to store the chopped green onion. When you have time, chop some washed green onion, dry with paper towels, put in a plastic zipper bag and keep it in the freezer. Use within a month. You can add some to your dishes without defrosting.
Ingredients (servings 2) *Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*
Today I will introduce you to “Homemade Chicken Teriyaki”.
This is a main dish I highly recommend. It is a very popular dish all over the world because it is very flavorful and extremely delicious!!
However, in my opinion in the U.S. the taste (from the sauce) is slightly different from Japanese Teriyaki. In the U.S. the Teriyaki sauce is too sweet by Japanese standards.
I want you to be able to taste “Authentic Teriyaki,” which has a great taste and is not greasy. And also I want to show you how to cook juicy chicken using a pan. The tip is pan-frying and steaming. This makes the chicken soft, juicy and perfectly moist.
The recipe is very easy. It takes less than 20 minutes.
Cook chicken and simmer it with seasonings.
Ingredients (servings 2)
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