Your Home for Homemade Japanese Food

How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!


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Homemade Chicken Teriyaki (Gluten-Free)

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.

collage_fotorteriyaki
Cook chicken and simmer it with seasonings.


Ingredients (servings 2)
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

2 pieces Chicken Thigh

3 Tbsp. Cooking Sake (total)

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 tsp. Sugar

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil


Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Homemade Chicken-Teriyaki

 

 

Recipe Video on YouTube “How to Cook Chicken Teriyaki”


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Japanese-Style Homemade Chicken Meatballs (Gluten-Free)

Today I introduce you to Japanese Style Homemade Chicken Meatballs: “Tori-Tsukune”. This is a kind of Yakitori so you can have it in Yakitori restaurants. These homemade meatballs are delicious, easy to cook and great for to-go-lunches!

I used ground chicken, green onion and tofu as the meatballs ingredients. Tofu gives the meatballs a soft texture and makes them more nutritious. It also allows you to make a larger number of meatballs. You can use only ground chicken if you don’t want to use tofu. In addition, you can add more vegetables secretly if your family doesn’t like vegetables very much, such as onions, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and so on. I recommend mincing them really well and then adding the meat mixture.

What I love about Japanese style meatballs is they are very flavorful because they are seasoned with grated ginger. And the sauce is sweet-savory like a Teriyaki sauce. It is seriously delicious!!

The recipe is easy.

collage_fotortsukune

Mix the meatballs ingredients.
Cook the meatballs and dress with the sauce prepared in advance.
Skewer the meatballs if you want to make the final presentation great!


{Ingredients (25 balls)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

[For Meatballs]

½ lb. Ground Chicken

½ cup Minced Green Onion

¼ pack (3~4 oz.) Firm Tofu

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

¼ tsp. Salt

2 Tbsp. Corn Starch

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

[For Sauce]

2 tsp. Sugar

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)


Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: japanese-chicken-meatballs

How to Cook on YouTube:


15 Comments

Japanese Home-Style Chicken and Rice (Gluten Free)

This “Chicken and Rice” recipe is a very popular dish in Japan. A chicken fried rice dish is seasoned with KETCHUP. In Japan, many kids love the dish and it is a great quick and nutritious meal for many adults!

The recipe is so easy, quick and delicious! This dish also tastes good cold so it is a perfect lunchbox stuffer!!

Cut every ingredient.

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Saute the ingredients and add rice and ketchup.

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Stir well.

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You can use any kind of vegetables and meats, and also you can add more or less ketchup to taste.

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 piece Chicken Thigh (about 0.2 lb.)

1 small Onion

1 Carrot

A half Green Bell Pepper

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

¼ tsp. Salt and Pepper

½ cup Gluten-Free Ketchup

2 cups Steamed Rice
(Recommended Rice)Nishiki Premium Rice (Recommended Brown Rice)Tamanishiki Super Premium Brown Rice

Detailed and visual instructions can be found in the recipe PDF: Japanese Home-Style Chicken and Rice

Steamed Rice Recipe in PDF: Japanese Home-Style Chicken and Rice


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My mother’s “Keema Curry”

This is my mother’s original “Keema Curry” recipe which she made for us as kids when we couldn’t handle spicy food. It is a little different from authentic Keema Curry, but its great for the whole family.

We label this dish as a “Dry Curry” in Japanese because there is no soup. “Keema Curry” basically means a curry dish using ground meat. In Japan, Curry is very popular especially among kids because we can eat it with steamed rice.

I used “Curry Powder.” The ingredients in the powder are: paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and saffron. It is very nutritious and is high in vitamin E, vitamin K, iron, beta-carotene, potassium, magnesium and so on. These helps increase our metabolism and also have antioxidant properties.

Additionally, this dish is great for mothers and fathers who have children who are picky eaters because you can mince and add various vegetables and cook with ground meat. The curry taste helps cover the taste of most vegetables so even picky eaters can get a lot of good nutrition.

Enjoy this curry dish with steamed rice or your favorite bread!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 lb. Ground Chicken

½ Eggplant

1 Carrot

1 small Onion

3 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 tsp. Curry Powder (ingredients: paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and saffron)

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Black Pepper

15 dashes Worcestershire Sauce

½ Tbsp. Ketchup

½ Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Steamed Rice, for serving
(Recommended Dried Rice) Nishiki Premium Rice

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Keema Curry


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Non-Spicy “Mapo-Tofu”(Gluten-Free)

Mapo-Tofu is a popular Chinese dish. This recipe is totally my mother’s creation based on Mapo-Tofu. My mother came up with this recipe because the original dish is so spicy and I couldn’t handle it. This dish is very healthy because it has great protein, which comes from a combination of meat and tofu, so we always had this Non-Spicy Mapo-Tofu in our house.

The recipe is so easy to cook. It basically involves cooking ground chicken and tofu in chicken broth and then seasoning it in the same pan.

You can also use any kind of ground meat and any kind of broth in this recipe.

I recommend you enjoy tasting everything on the plate, the meat, the tofu, and the soup flavor! Because of the finished presentation you may think of it is a soup dish, but we eat it as a main dish with steamed rice.

Enjoy your new healthy and yummy dish!!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}

7 oz. (half pack) firm Tofu

½ lb. ground Chicken

1 tsp. minced Garlic (about 1 clove)

1 tsp. minced Ginger

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 cup low-sodium Chicken Broth
(Recommended Gluten-Free Chicken Broth)Reduced Sodium Chicken Flavor Broth

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Potato Starch or Corn Starch (for slurry)

2 Tbsp. water (for slurry)

1 tsp. Pure Sesame Oil


Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Non-Spicy Mapo-Tofu


6 Comments

Incredibly Flavorful “Ginger Chicken”(Gluten-Free)

This is an incredibly flavorful homemade chicken dish marinated mainly with ginger and soy sauce.

As you know, ginger is extremely healthy.

It has Cineol (known generally as Eucalyptol), which is  a scent ingredient. Cineol increases our appetite and makes our body recover from fatigue. Because of this, I eat ginger a lot in the summer time.

When you cook ginger, Gingerol, which is flavor ingredient, changes chemically to Shogaol. This warms up our body and increases our metabolism. So I also eat ginger in winter time. I use ginger in my meals any time to be 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.

Also, you can use white wine as a substitute for cooking Sake. When you use cooking Sake, however, you get more wonderful Japanese flavor.

Enjoy your new healthy dish!!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}

2 Chicken Breast (boneless and skinless)

1 Onion

1 Tbsp. Grated Ginger

4 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Mirin Sweet Cooking Sake

4 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil


Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Ginger Chicken


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Quick, Easy and Yum!! “Microwave Chicken Roll” (Gluten-Free)

This is a delicious chicken breast and vegetables recipe. The best point to this recipe is that it is very quick and tasty!! You don’t need to heat oil up or preheat your oven. Just prepare the ingredients and microwave!

This is totally my mother’s original recipe. She was a great cook and her dishes were awesome. That doesn’t mean she always took time to cook. She was also working so she kept creating her recipes to be quicker and more delicious!!

If you have chicken meat, you don’t need to go grocery shopping to cook this recipe. I just use colorful vegetables from my refrigerator. You can choose any vegetables you want.

I recommend that you cook this recipe on week nights when you don’t have enough time to cook more time consuming dishes. And when you keep the leftovers in the refrigerator, you can eat it for your breakfast or lunch next day, which also saves your time!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}

2 pieces boneless and skinless Chicken Breast

½ Bell Pepper

½ Carrot

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake or White Wine

Pinch of Salt and Black Pepper


Here is the my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Microwave Chicken Roll


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Stuffed Baby Peppers

Japanese “Sweet Pepper” is slightly different from bell pepper. It is smaller, thinner, has a little bit of bitter taste, has fewer seeds, and is always green.

This recipe is similar to other countries’ Stuffed Pepper recipes. But because Japanese sweet pepper has a thinner flesh, we can cook this recipe in a pan easily. I also sprinkle it with some soy sauce when I serve, but you can use any sauce you like.

I use Mini Peppers in this recipe. You can find these at many grocery stores.

Japanese sweet pepper is high in vitamin C and A. You might want to cook this pepper with some cooking oil because the oil helps our bodies get vitamin A more easily. This is a summer vegetable so it is good to eat during the Summer.

Enjoy!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 lb. Ground Chicken

12 Mini Peppers

¼ Onion

¼ Carrot

1 tsp. Grated Ginger

¼ tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Black Pepper

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp. Flour, plus more for dusting the peppers


Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Stuffed Baby Pepper


2 Comments

Traditional Cold Japanese Wheat Noodle Recipe

Japanese wheat noodles (So-men) are made from flour. They have a very thin and smooth texture so they are easy to eat and don’t take much time to cook (basically about 2 minutes to boil).

This is Organic Somen Noodles I used in this recipe.

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In Japan, traditionally we eat cold So-men with cold soup in the summer. It helps our bodies cool down and it has better taste and texture on a hot summer day than rice or other Japanese noodles.

I use anchovy Dashi stock in my soup recipe. You can also use kelp Dashi, bonito Dashi, shiitake mushroom Dashi and so on. And also you can get Japanese Dashi stock powder, which has so much flavor and is very useful, at many Asian markets.

So-men is mostly carbohydrate, so we can add meat and vegetables to add protein, vitamins and minerals. Adding meat and/or vegetables creates a good balance of nutrition. In my recipe, I always have So-men with egg, tomato, cucumber and chicken. Also, I sometimes add shiitake mushroom sauté, green onion, shrimp, lettuce, seaweed, okra, carrot and so on.

Enjoy your new noodle recipe!!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

2 bunches Organic Somen Noodles

1 piece Chicken Breast

2 Tomatoes

2 Eggs

½ Cucumber

2 cups Kelp Dashi Stock
(Recommended Dried Kelp for Dashi stock) Dashi Dried Kelp
*Any kind of Dashi stock is okay*
(Recommended instant bonito Dashi powder)Ajinomoto – Hon Dashi

3 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Cooking Sake (total)

2 Tbsp.Mirin Sweet Cooking Rice Wine

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1 ½ tsp. Salt (total)


Here is my recipe in PDF (6 MB): Cold Japanese Wheat Noodle

Here is my “Anchovy Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF: Homemade Anchovy Dashi Stock

Here is my “Kelp Dashi Stock” recipe in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock


3 Comments

Chicken Tenderloin with Delicious Plum Sauce! (Gluten-Free)

This is a very easy and tasty traditional side dish. Mainly we eat it in the summer time because it is cold and contains pickled plum.

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Pickled plum (Umeboshi) is a Japanese traditional healthy food. The recipe for pickled plum is to salt fresh plums and then dry them under the sun. Pickled plum has protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and so on. We eat it very often, but especially when we feel tired, we have a sore throat, and most importantly when we want to prevent heat stroke while outside in summer time. Pickled plum also has antibacterial effect so we sometimes put it on rice in our lunch box to keep the rice from going bad.

This plum sauce contains sesame seeds so it is a very nutritious and flavorful sauce. You can use this sauce for other meat or fish dishes. And if you add olive oil to the sauce, you can use it as a dressing for your salads.

Chicken tenderloin has great taste and nutrition. It doesn’t take much time to cook but if you over cook it, the meat will be hard. In this recipe, I show how to get tender chicken tenderloin. If you use this method, you can always get good tender chicken for any of your  dishes.

Enjoy this divine chicken dish!!


{Ingredients (servings 2)}

3 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

3 Pickled Plums

2 tsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

1 tsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 tsp. Cooking Sake

Boiled Water (for boiling tenderloin)


Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Chicken Tenderloin with Plum Sauce