Comparing a Salt-Simmered Chicken and Onion Dish Called "Garbage" with the Chicken Steak Recommended by a Hater

According to Ryuji, it all began with a post saying, "Ryuji's cooking uses too much Ajinomoto, and it's made their taste buds stupid." The person went on to say, "I can make something 100 times tastier than Ryuji's recipes," and asked whether Ryuji would make it if they shared the recipe. Ryuji agreed to make it, and the result was the deleted video, "About My Cooking Being Called Garbage." Before that, the other person had described Ryuji's chicken and onion stew as "garbage" in a video of their own. Ryuji says they thought it was fine for someone to find it not tasty, since that is a personal matter.

The takedown was a claim over Ryuji's use, in the video, of images the other person had posted on X (formerly Twitter). According to Ryuji, they used the images because a comparison would be meaningless without pictures of the dish the other person made. Ryuji says the source was credited and the other person's name could be found in the description. Since the video was made because the other person had said "go ahead and make it," Ryuji feels the claim is misplaced. However, Ryuji also says it seems that whatever you argue, a claim gets accepted once it is filed.

There was also a disagreement over names. In the video, Ryuji referred to the other person not by name but as "the Ajinomoto hater." Ryuji's understanding is that the other person filed the claim apparently because they were unhappy their name was not mentioned. Ryuji withheld the name because they thought mentioning it could amount to defamation, and also because they did not want to carelessly expose the person's name. Ryuji adds that, as a culinary researcher, their own dish had been called "garbage" by name.

After the takedown, Ryuji says, the other person sent a message to the effect of "If you want it reinstated, agree to talk." Ryuji felt this was "a little close to a threat." Having made what they were told to make, Ryuji decided there was no need to agree to a discussion. Ryuji says they re-uploaded the video anyway because people asked them to keep it up, since it is informative, including the pasta variation of the salt stew and tips for cooking chicken steak more deliciously.

The first criticism targeted a ground pork and curry powder recipe that Ryuji features in a pinned post. This recipe uses Ajinomoto as a seasoning, and it drew the comment that it "makes your taste buds stupid." According to Ryuji, the same post also includes a curry bento recipe that does not use Ajinomoto. That one doesn't need Ajinomoto because the onions provide umami.

Ryuji's position is that dishes with umami seasoning and dishes without it are both good. Ajinomoto is something you add when there isn't enough umami, and you don't use it when there is enough. Ryuji counters that if Ajinomoto made your taste buds stupid, they would not be able to enjoy dishes made without it. Ryuji then encouraged the person to try making a dish that does not use Ajinomoto. The dish the person made was Chicken and Onions Simmered with Just Salt, and their verdict was "garbage." They then said, "There's a recipe tastier than this garbage, so make it," which led to this project of "recreating a dish made by a hater."

Ryuji had expected that a stewed dish would be offered to compete with a chicken stew. What was actually presented was a chicken steak. Ryuji points out that, as anyone who cooks would understand, comparisons are basically made within the same category. Still, Ryuji decided to let that slide.

The method was to line a frying pan with aluminum foil and cook the chicken while pressing it down with a pot filled with water placed on top as a weight. Ryuji had done this method themselves two years ago. When Ryuji told the person it was a similar method, the person pointed out a difference. Ryuji, not wanting the meat to cool, had put 40°C lukewarm water in the weighted pot, whereas the person used plain water. The person said "water and hot water make it taste different," so this time Ryuji follows the person's instructions on that point too and uses water. Ryuji, who also once ran a series called "Chicken Steak Every Day," explains that pressing the meat down while cooking is a fairly popular method.

Ryuji also touches on the conditions of the evaluation. Viewers will likely think that if only Ryuji and the staff are eating, they can say whatever they like. But the other person also ate and judged alone, so the conditions are the same. Ryuji also states that they don't lie to their own palate.

First, Chicken and Onions Simmered with Just Salt is made according to the original recipe. Ryuji had seen the person recreate this dish in their own video and points out several differences in how it was made. The person used one chicken thigh and half the water. Moreover, instead of the domestic broiler chicken sold in supermarkets, they used Nagoya Cochin. Ryuji says they don't really understand why Nagoya Cochin was used. Making a half batch changes the flavor, and the person's result looked quite different in color, so Ryuji suspects it wasn't browned enough either.

The chicken skin is cooked until crisp and browned, and then the onion, cut in half crosswise, is seared. This time Ryuji prepared ordinary onions. According to the staff, only new-season onions were available nearby, and thinking that wouldn't be faithful to the video, they went to a distant supermarket to buy regular ones. The onions are cooked until charred. Ryuji explains that the char is the Maillard reaction and that it creates richness. The seared onions go into the pot together with the chicken fat, along with 250 cc of water and one and a half teaspoons of salt. Once it boils, the heat is reduced to a truly low flame, and it is covered and simmered for 45 minutes.

Ryuji surmises from watching the person's stream that they simmered it over medium heat rather than low. Ryuji says low heat is very important because at high temperatures the flavor escapes. Ryuji and the staff also discuss that the person may have started timing the 45 minutes at a different point.

The person had said of this dish that the chicken, once stewed, turns into spent stock meat that is dry and not tasty. Their claim was that it's better to throw the chicken away and drink the remaining broth. Ryuji accepts that "our sensibilities are different," but says they don't really understand the part about it becoming dry.

Between cooking steps, Ryuji and the staff talk about the person. One staff member shared the impression that this is someone who cooks a variety of dishes and seems to like cooking. Ryuji also says the person's dishes have a very distinctive look. Since Ryuji also makes "kyomu-meshi" (void meals), Ryuji thinks it doesn't matter how food looks as long as it's tasty, and says the appearance that everyone was bashing doesn't matter. Ryuji also says the person probably has their own particular commitment to cooking.

On the other hand, Ryuji speculates that the person may not have much cooking experience. The reasoning is that someone who cooks a wide range of dishes wouldn't bring a chicken steak to compete with a stew. Ryuji also says the person probably dislikes stewed dishes. Ryuji goes on to say that experience is important in cooking. People who have eaten many different things have a wide range of tolerance. Someone eating a certain country's cuisine for the first time probably won't find it tasty until they get used to it. That's why, Ryuji says, it's better to eat a variety of things.

While waiting for the stew, Ryuji said that the opinion "it's not tasty" in itself can't be helped. Ryuji doesn't find chestnuts or matcha tasty at all. Even so, Ryuji wouldn't tell someone eating a matcha parfait, "You're eating garbage." Saying "I don't find it tasty" is fine, but being told your food is garbage doesn't feel good — that is Ryuji's view.

Ryuji says everyone has their own tastes in food, and understanding that is important. Ryuji also says the person seems to have a sensibility that refuses to acknowledge anything they themselves didn't find tasty. That's fine in its own way, and Ryuji doesn't mind if the person rejects Ryuji or Ryuji's cooking. However, Ryuji raises the question of how the person feels about the people who say that dish is tasty.

The chicken steak uses ordinary domestic chicken thigh. It was prepared by the staff, and Ryuji describes it as a "slightly nice" branded chicken. The key points of the person's instructions are as follows.

• Don't season it beforehand; add salt when eating
• Cook the meat whole without cutting it
• Place it skin-side down, spread flat, in a cold frying pan, lay aluminum foil over it, and use a pot filled with water as a weight
• Cook over medium heat for 7 minutes from when it starts crackling, then flip and cook for 4 minutes
• The onions are best steam-fried in the fat rendered from the chicken, but the steak should be eaten fresh off the heat

Judging from how the onions are handled, Ryuji sees them as being no more than a side garnish to the person.

What Ryuji objects to most is the lack of pre-seasoning. This cooking method leaves the surface crisp with no moisture. Sprinkling salt on afterward won't distribute the flavor throughout. Ryuji thinks that if you cut it with a knife and dab salt on as you eat, the salt concentrates in one spot and the flavor lacks cohesion. Ryuji adds the caveat that it also depends on whether the salt goes on the skin side or the cut surface. Ryuji also explains that chicken has a lot of moisture, and salting it draws out moisture and firms up the meat, making it tastier. Ryuji says they have eaten chicken grilled over charcoal and salted afterward, but have never eaten a crispy-skinned chicken steak this way.

As for the ingredients, Ryuji believes there's a difference compared with Nagoya Cochin. Nagoya Cochin has thick skin and firm meat. Since good ingredients naturally taste good, Ryuji wishes the person had used domestic broiler chicken to keep the conditions the same if possible. However, Ryuji adds that Nagoya Cochin is also delicious when stewed. As for the reason for the weight, Ryuji explains that it compresses the chicken so the skin cooks up crisp. There is a tool called a meat press for pressing meat down while cooking, and this method is for people who don't own one.

Once cooking started, Ryuji felt that 7 minutes from the crackling was a long time. When flipped, there were parts the weight alone hadn't cooked. These were at the boundaries between sections of the cut, and the texture is disappointing only in those spots. Ryuji points out that the same parts weren't cooked in the person's video either. The fix is to add oil, which seeps into the gaps and crisps them up. Although the person didn't mention it, Ryuji judged that the weight shouldn't be put back on after flipping, since doing so would ruin the crispy skin. Ryuji also remarked that the 4 minutes after flipping might not be necessary.

The finished steak had crisp skin and was perfectly cooked inside. Ryuji thinks it probably turned out about the same as the person's. When Ryuji tried to sprinkle salt on it, the skin repelled the salt.

The verdict was "grilled chicken." The staff also said it was "like grilled chicken" and "just as expected," and while they said the crispy skin was tasty, they wanted a bit more flavor. Someone tried adding black shichimi, and others said they wanted a sauce. Ryuji also says that with ordinary chicken, a sauce or something would be better. At a barbecue, the charcoal aroma makes salt alone delicious, but this time there was no such aroma. Ryuji also noted that yuzu might have helped, and that the meat juices were leaking out. One staff member said that when you cook regularly, you end up thinking "it's ordinary." Even so, everyone agreed that it wasn't bad.

During the tasting, Ryuji said there was just one thing the person said that Ryuji wanted to refute. The person had also shown up during a livestream Ryuji did at Belc and posted about 150 comments alone. Ryuji, being a performer there, couldn't respond, but thanked them for livening things up.

During that stream, there was a moment when Ryuji checked which brand of mayonnaise was being used. The person reportedly commented that Ryuji couldn't use Kewpie because of a contract with Ajinomoto's "Pure Select Mayonnaise." Ryuji explains that, unusually among culinary researchers, Ryuji never signs exclusivity contracts — that is, contracts prohibiting the use of competitors' products. As proof, Ryuji brought out Kewpie mayonnaise on the spot and ate some.

Ryuji says they checked the brand on the stream because they thought Pure Select would taste better for a sandwich. It has no sourness and goes well with chashu. Kewpie is delicious in its own way, but its flavor is strong, so you wouldn't need aji-shio. That's all there was to it, Ryuji says.

After simmering for 45 minutes, the chicken and onions fell apart when broken up, tender enough to cut with chopsticks. Ryuji says it's best to break up the onion and eat it with the chicken. The staff were surprised — "Is this really just salt?" — and one after another said the broth and onions were delicious. Ryuji explains that it looks like soup because it's simmered together with the fat from searing the chicken. The key is deliberately simmering it for 45 minutes until it falls apart; people who regularly make simmered chicken don't usually cook it this long. Ryuji also praised the seared aroma and the onion aroma, and referring to the person's "throw away the chicken and just drink the broth," said, "I can't see this as garbage." Ryuji actually prefers the variation with curry powder, which goes great with rice, but said there was no need to do it this time.

"With no favoritism," Ryuji judged their own Chicken and Onions Simmered with Just Salt to be overwhelmingly tastier. The chicken steak is meat cooked well with crispy skin, but nothing more than that, and Ryuji says everyone on the staff, being used to cooking, could imagine how it would taste. Salt-grilled chicken without sauce works with good chicken. But since the person had said "if it can be done for the same cost as mine," Ryuji sees the problem as the fact that it isn't tasty unless you use branded chicken. With Nagoya Cochin, you'd be told "enjoy it with salt," but nobody would suggest eating ordinary domestic chicken simply salt-grilled.

When comparing with domestic chicken, Ryuji says the stew, which also has an element of surprise, is tastier. Domestic young chicken actually produces a lot of stock — so much that it holds up well even against branded chicken. Simmering transfers that stock throughout the onions, and you eat the fall-apart chicken, onions, and broth together. That, Ryuji explains, is what makes this dish delicious. As for the chicken steak, Ryuji advised that with ordinary chicken, it's better to salt it, let it sit, and wipe off the released moisture to concentrate the flavor. Then it's delicious eaten with your preferred salt or sauce. Ryuji also said that, except for people who especially love grilled meat, anyone would probably choose the stew.

One staff member gave the win to the stew, noting that the process is simple and that they could taste the umami from the charred onions. Another said the grilled chicken is tasty, but the stew makes you go "wow, that's good." Ryuji says that when food comes with surprise or discovery, the brain enjoys it and perceives it as tastier, and suggests that may be where the difference came from.

Finally, Ryuji encouraged viewers to make both, judge which was tastier, and share their verdict in a reply. Both are easy, Ryuji says. Ryuji also reaffirmed that the chicken steak is a delicious chicken steak. Ryuji added that if there's enough response, they might make their own chicken steak too. Ryuji closed the main part by saying that, having said they'd make it, they did it without running away, and asked to let this video serve as their answer to the hater.

Feeling that the main part alone didn't give viewers much to learn, Ryuji introduced a pasta variation using the leftover stew. Thick 1.8 mm pasta is boiled for about 8 minutes in water with a salt concentration of about 1% and drained in a colander. The chicken from the stew is broken up and combined with the pasta in a frying pan along with the liquid. Ryuji calls this chicken ragù, explaining that ragù is a dish in which a stewed sauce is tossed with pasta. The key is to boil the pasta a little short and simmer it briefly with the sauce. Toss with olive oil, sprinkle with dried parsley, and it's done.

The staff who tasted it said, "So good," "It's amazing you can get this flavor from just seasonings," and "That's the umami of the chicken." Adding acidity with Lemosco as a flavor change also works well. Ryuji recommended turning any leftover broth into curry or pasta. Regarding finding this variation, Ryuji repeated "thanks to the hater," perhaps with a touch of irony, and ended the video by encouraging viewers to give it a try.