chicken katsu

Chicken katsu (katsu is Japanese for the literal translation of cutlet), is a variation of the Japanese dish, Tonkatsu, a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. The dish can be served as a single dish, or as filling for sandwiches or accompanied by other dishes such as rice or pasta.

The preparation is pretty simple; in fact, I’ll use fewer words for this recipe and any other I have written. Have a boneless chicken breast, cut them into strips (size and length as per own liking), season with salt and pepper, dredged lightly in flour, dipped into beaten egg and then coat with bread crumbs before deep frying them until golden.

If meant to be served as a single dish, best to eat them with thick sauce such as HP or Worcestershire sauce.

classic tray-baked chicken

This dish should be in the repertoire of every home cooks who owns an oven at home. Instead of frying them in oil all the time, which most M’sian does, and with the by-product laced with unhealthy fat and cholestrol, why not tray-bake them? It uses a minimal amount of ingredients – chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper (and if you want gravy, chicken stock) and is especially useful on those busy days when you are just too busy to think of other creative dish to do with with chicken parts. Though it may considerably takes longer than frying, the result is mesmerizing and the aroma is irresistable. The entire kitchen will smells good and your taste palate will be rewarded well.

3-4 pounds of chicken parts (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings)

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a whole bulb of garlic, crushed

1/2 cup chicken stock, to make gravy (optional)

2 sprigs of thyme and rosemary (optional)

Preheat oven to 230 degree C.  Rinse chicken pieces in water and pat dry with paper towels.  Coat the bottom of a roasting pan with olive oil.  Rub some olive oil over all of the chicken pieces in the roasting pan.  Sprinkle both sides of the chicken pieces with liberal amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Arrange the pieces skin-side up in the roasting pan so the largest pieces are in the center (the breasts) and there is a little room between pieces so they aren’t crowded in the pan. Chuck in the garlic in the pan and if you prefer to have a wonderful aroma, lay a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme in between the chicken pieces. (I also like to add some tomatoes, quartered, into the roasting pan together with the chicken as i always love roasted tomatoes). Another alternative which resulted in a wonderfully spicy chicken is to rub them with paprika apart from the salt & pepper.

Roast in the oven for at least 30 minutes or until the juices run clear (not pink) when poked with a sharp knife. If your chicken pieces aren’t browning to your satisfaction, you can put them under the broiler for the last 5 minutes of cooking, until browned sufficiently.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove them to a serving plate and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This will be a great opportunity to make the gravy. To make gravy for the chicken, take the roasting pan with its drippings and place on a medium setting on the stovetop.  Use a metal spatula to scrape up the drippings stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add a half cup of chicken stock to the pan to help deglaze the drippings from the pan. Strain the stock and dripping mixture into a small saucepan and heat on medium high to reduce to desired thickness. Add a few spoonful of corn starch to thicken the sauce more if you still feel the sauce is too loose.

perfect roasted chicken

There are three finese points to a perfect chicken. Though there are many variables that make one roasted chicken different from another, only three key components are essential to ensure you end up with the perfect roasted chicken: 1) Seasoning, 2) oven temperature and 3) the maintenance of juicy breast and fully cooked thighs. Seasoning in this case is salt. A chicken should be liberally salted. It should have a visible coating of salt. An agressive use of salt ensure the chicken tastes delicious. It also helps dehydrate the skin so that you wind up with a crisp brown skin and not a pale soggy one.

Chicken should be roasted in a very hot oven, at least 220 degree C, where it should accomplish two important jobs: browns the skin and cooks the leg and thigh fast, giving the breast less opportunity to dry out. The most common mistake people made that they ended up with flavorless breast is that they fail to understand what is happening in the cavity of the bird. If the leg is not tied up, or the cavity is left empty, hot air swirls around the cavity of the bird, cooking the breast from the inside out. To prevent this, you should truss the chicken (binding the legs together), which most home cooks don’t bother with. If you don’t, simply stuff the cavity with something, lemon, onion, garlic or herbs, where my preferrence is lemon.

To prevent overcooking your chicken, a 1 hour at temperature of 230 degree C is sufficient enough for a 4-pound/1.8kg bird (50 minutes for a bird under that). But as a rule of thumb, use the cavity juices to judge doneness. After 45 minutes, if you tilt the bird so the juices spill from the cavity into the rendered fat are clear instead of red in color, it is then safe to take the bird out of the oven. Once done, the chicken should be rested for a good 15 minutes before you cut into it. The bird wont get cold i promised you, since they would still be cooking internally once you’ve taken it out of the oven.

(Good enough to) serve 4

One 3 to 4 pound/1.4 to 1.8 kg chicken

1 lemon

a whole bulb of garlic

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pound/1.5 to 2 kg of Russet potatoes, peeled.

About an hour before cooking time, salt the chicken entirely with salt and pepper (salting the bird hours earlier in advance will result in the skin being smooth shiny and golden instead of being crispy) . Cut the potatoes to the size of a golf ball. Bring a pot of water to boil and boil the lemon, potatoes and garlic for about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander, prick the lemon a few times to let off the steam. Stuff the lemon and garlic into the cavity of the bird. Truss the chicken well. Sit the chicken inside a roasting tray just big enough to ensure the bird fit snugly. Add in the potatoes around the chicken and drizzle a good amount of olive oil so it coats the potatoes well. Slide the tray into the oven and cook for about an hour. Check the color of the juice, if it runs red, give it more time in the oven.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the chicken and serve with any sauces of your choice.