I was a fan of David Chang‘s cooking when I saw him eating raw ramen noodles sprinkled with instant noodle powder in Mind of a Chef. One of the dishes I’ve always wanted to try at Momofuku is the caviar and fried chicken. I’ve never been to New York with enough people, or enough money for that matter. So this feast always seemed out of reach.
Throwback someday to that time I couldn’t find Baohaus the day I’d planned to, so I ‘had to’ ? eat there and at Momofuku Ssäm Bar during the same lunch and then they had octopus on the menu so I had to get that as well as some pork belly.
Lady and Pups: Goddess of Aggressive Umami
But then I saw Lady and Pups post about her fried chicken and salmon roe. And I realized, off course! You can make this shit at home! And personally. I prefer salmon roe over caviar anyway, though that might be because I’ve never had the real deal. Either way making something like this at home means you can tweak it to suit your personal preferences.
For those of you who don’t know Lady and Pups, she is by far my favorite food blogger. All her recipes pack a punch and a lot of my cooking is inspired by her. She’s actually got a book coming out this fall, called The Art of Escapism Cooking and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
That said, I’m much more of a lazy cook than she is, so I just pulled together my own version of this dish.
Tokyo Cult Recipes
I got my recipe for kara-age from Maori Murota’s Tokyo Cult Recipes and used Kewpie mayo (extra delicious because the addition of MSG) with either salmon or trout roe, depending on what I can afford and what my fish monger has laying around at the time.
Of course you can also just have the chicken with some rice and pickled cucumber. But if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
What do I eat with Momofuku inspired fried chicken with ikura?
Have it with a nice cold glass of sake and a lightly dressed salad of wakame or cucumber with rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds and maybe some fries.
Momofuku Inspired Fried Chicken with Ikura
Equipment
- Plate x2
- Deep fat fryer
- Paper towels
Ingredients
- 1 medium egg
- 1 clove garlic finely grated
- 1" - 2.5 cm ginger peeled and finely grated
- 1 T - 15 ml sesame oil
- 1 1/2 T - 25 ml soy sauce Japanese preferred
- 1 t - 5 gr cane sugar plane will suffice if that's what you've got
- 5 T - 75 gr potato starch corn starch or rice flour will also work in a pinch
- 1 t - 5 gr cinnamon yes really
- pinch pepper
- 4 pieces chicken boneless, skinless, cut into1.5 inch/ 4 cm strips
- oil for deep fat frying
- salt
To serve
- Kewpie mayo to taste, if you can't get Kewpie, mix some MSG into 'regular' mayo
- salmon or trout roe (imitation) caviar also works (in a pinch?)
- 2 medium eggs soft boiled or poached, optional
Instructions
- Mix together 1 egg, 1 clove of garlic, 1" - 2.5 cm ginger, 1 T - 15 ml of sesame oil, 1 1/2 T - 22.5 ml of soy sauce, 1 t - 5 gr of sugar, 5 T - 75 gr potato starch, 1 t - 5 gr cinnamon and a pinch of pepper shallow plate. Add 4 pieces of chicken , cut into strips and leave to marinade for about 30 minutes in the flavored batter.
- Preheat your deep fat fryer to 180° C/ 360° F .
- Be sure to set up a plate with paper towels to move your chicken to once you're done frying.
- Now, stir the chicken and batter thoroughly before you fry the chicken in batches. The starch can sink to the bottom of the marinade and the chicken really needs a good layer of properly mixed batter to crisp up.
- Depending on the size of your fryer, fry the chicken in small batches until golden brown and crisp. This should take 5-10 minutes depending on the size of your pieces of chicken.
- Move to the kitchen towel lined plate while you fry up the remainder of your chicken. Finish the fried chicken with some salt.
To serve
- Plate this however you want. You can either stack all the strips of chicken on a big tray, douse them in Kewpie in a zig-zag or Jackson Pollock-style splatter pattern and then toss all the salmon roe on top in one go, or serve individual portions on smaller plates, mayhaps with a soft boiled egg, to avoid fights. Or serve the chicken, roe and Kewpie separately, and let your dinners 'build their own'. Either way you're in for a very good time.
Notes
