Izakaya-Style Japanese German Potato
One of the things my mum has taken off of my plate this month since she’s been visiting us from Japan is the household cooking, which has been amazing, because I’ve been able to juggle so much more writing with childcare, and Tom can come back from a long shift of transplanting livers to an amazing home cooked meal without having to deal with me crashing out and being overstimulated
She made us ‘german potato’, which is an example of yoshoku - a westernised Japanese dish that you tend to find more in izakayas or at home instead of in a restaurant. I’m sure it would be perplexing for any Germans watching this, but it’s such amazing comfort food. A lot of these ingredients will probably already be in your fridge, but the mean tip is to not leave out the potato starch, or katakuriko, which adds that crispiness that you often find in karaage fried chicken, and the use of mentsuyu - a concentrated soup base that my mother uses to add a little umami to absolutely everything.
The recipe is below, it’s simple but so so delicious, especially in the autumn and winter months when we crave a little bit more comfort.
What I love about this dish is that it’s just one hot pan, which makes it easy to keep an eye on if you are prone to get distracted while cooking. You can also make it quite quickly if you either parboil the potatoes beforehand, or - a genius tip from my mum - you microwave the potatoes so that they’re softened to the point you can get a fork through it. She literally just microwaves potatoes that have been washed and prepared anywhere between 5 to ten minutes (checking throughout) which drastically cuts down cooking time.
250g chicken thighs (cubed)
300g potatoes (also cubed)
2 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko)
3 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard (wholegrain if possible)
2 tbsp mentsuyu or soy sauce
Minced garlic
Spring onions (garnish)
Cooking oil
S&P
Season the chicken thighs, and coat in the potato starch. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, on low/medium heat before adding in the potato starch covered chicken. We don’t want to go in too hot too quickly, because we want the chicken to be moist and juicy - we’ll turn up the heat later once we add the potato and the sauces.
While the chicken is cooking low and slow, we combine the wet ingredients (mayo, mustard, mentsuyu) and the garlic in a bowl. Once the chicken is looking opaque and not completely translucent, turn up the heat and add the potatoes and half of the sauce. A lot of yoshoku dishes often incorporate mayonnaise in frying, the combination of the vinegar and fat helping to tenderise and marinate the meat (or so my mother says). The combination of the sauce and the higher heat will hopefully add a bit of colour to everything in the pan, and once the chicken is cooked through take everything off of the heat.
Let it cool slightly, and toss everything in the remainder of the sauce so it coats it all evenly. Garnish with spring onions, and serve with a side salad and some rice.
