Hayato Morita's Brine for Moist Chicken Tenderloins and Peperoncino

Before cooking, Morita shared his impressions after trying this olive oil many times. First, he called it "incredibly fresh" and rated it as one of the all-purpose seasonings that suit Japanese palates. He said it is good at drawing out the flavor and aroma of ingredients, and the bitterness that comes afterward is quite restrained. He also said that, compared with other olive oils, its ability to absorb the aromas of other foods is "overwhelmingly high." This is Morita's personal assessment.

Morita acknowledged that, compared with the strongly bitter types common in Italian oils, olive oil lovers might find it lacking. He then explained that because Japanese ingredients have "powerful" flavors, this oil makes a good supporting player in dishes that use them. It doesn't get in the way even in Japanese cuisine, which layers many flavors, and it doesn't mask the taste of soy sauce, so it would hold up in restaurants too. He added that he thought it might be a type not often found overseas. Ryuji replied that he always uses this olive oil when pairing with soy sauce.

The pasta is 1.8mm with a labeled cooking time of 11 minutes, cooked for 10 minutes, one minute less. It's a noodle with a chewy, springy texture. Morita compared pasta to "the rice in sushi." Since half the plate is noodles, choosing the noodle is quite important, he said.

For the meat, he chose tenderloins rather than chicken breast. Breast meat varies in thickness and size, while tenderloins are generally uniform in size. The other ingredients are garlic, parsley, dried red chili, butter, and Hi-Me.

The first thing to make is the brine (soaking liquid). Add 8g of salt (2%), 16g of sugar (4%), and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to 400g of water and bring to a boil. For measuring, they used the measuring spoons Ryuji sells, which Morita recommended, calling them a "magic item." The basic ratio of tenderloin to brine is 1 to 4, he said.

Morita's explanation goes like this: when tenderloin is at its "isoelectric point," around pH 5.5, the fat, umami, and moisture inside all come out. So salt and sugar are added to season it and raise its water retention, making it harder for the moisture to escape. Then the lemon pushes it sharply toward the acidic side, shifting it away from the isoelectric point. Partway through the explanation, Morita laughed and said, "The people on this channel might not understand what I'm saying," adding that you can do it just by watching the result and copying it.

Poke holes in 3 tenderloins (about 150g) with a fork. A cheap, thin fork you have at home is best, he said. The fibers in tenderloin run in two directions, so you poke lengthwise along the fibers. Morita emphasized that it's important to watch the direction so you don't go against the grain.

Morita says that if you simmer tenderloins directly, the whole thing turns dry. Tenderloin is sterilized and safe to eat once it's cooked to 65°C, and taking it to 68°C is considered "perfect." So the boiling brine is poured into a heatproof container holding the tenderloins. The underside isn't cooked, so they're flipped once. According to Morita, mixing with the original temperature of the tenderloins brings the liquid to settle right around 70°C. Left as is, the heat escapes, so it's covered, and after 10 minutes it's done, he said. At one point they couldn't find a lid, and Ryuji improvised with something on hand.

Cut off the root end of the garlic, split it, and remove the germ in the center if there is one. If the germ is left in, it adds off-flavors. This time, though, it hadn't developed much, so they just split and used it as is. There's no need to chop it; Morita says just crushing it brings out plenty of the garlic's umami.

Emulsification is a common topic with both aglio olio and peperoncino. Morita said there's no problem if you don't think about emulsification at this stage, since it gets emulsified later. The parsley can be chopped without being too fussy, and the stems can be used too. Even if it gets a bit bitter, that's tasty as well, he said.

Put the pan over medium heat and heat the garlic and dried chili in 2 tablespoons (30cc) of olive oil. If you don't like spice, remove the chili seeds, and you can add the chili whole without chopping it finely. Leave it as is for a while while it's bubbling. Then turn off the heat and let it cook slowly in the residual heat.

Here Morita explained the emulsification ratio. He said the easiest ratio to emulsify at home is a certain ratio of oil to water (the specific number couldn't be made out from the subtitles). This time, they make it with more oil than that, at "1 part water to 1 part oil." At this ratio, the oil usually doesn't emulsify easily, so butter and Hi-Me are used to compensate.

According to Morita, Hi-Me changes faster than other seasonings when combined with water, making it the best for helping emulsification. He said it's scientifically proven. Ryuji was surprised to hear this. He puts Hi-Me or Ajinomoto in his own peperoncino, but he had never said in a video that it was promoting emulsification. Morita replied, "It definitely is."

Boil 160g of pasta in water salted at 1.5%. They mentioned about 1L of water.

After 10 minutes, the tenderloins were taken out, and the surface was jiggly; when cut, there was no red at all inside, and they were moist. They tore apart easily with the fingers, so Ryuji shredded them by hand. Ryuji was amazed, saying "I've never seen this" and "a technique I didn't know." Tasting it, he got excited: "I've never had tenderloin with this texture."

According to Morita, the salt penetrates to the center but the sugar doesn't, and the lemon coats the surface. That way, "this makes up for all of the tenderloin's weaknesses," he said. It works with any tenderloin, whether domestic or a brand-name chicken. The best ratio is 400 brine to 100 tenderloin, but he said it can handle increasing to around 150–160g as they did this time. The leftover brine isn't thrown out; it's used later in place of pasta water.

Into the pan with the heat off, first add half a teaspoon of Hi-Me. Next, add 10g of butter. If the temperature is high, the butter's aroma gets lost. Then add the parsley. Its color also suffers if the temperature rises, so this is the timing for it. Ryuji was impressed that the effort hardly changes. Morita also said you're just doing it ahead of time in the gap while the pasta is boiling anyway.

When there's a minute and a half left before the pasta is done, reheat the pan over medium heat. That way, the sauce's temperature rises just as the pasta finishes at 10 minutes. On high heat, the butter spatters and pops, so let it settle once. By this point, the garlic is soft and fluffy.

Combine the cooked pasta and the tenderloins. The tenderloins are around 60°C at this point and finish cooking with the heat of the pasta, he said. As it stands, there's a lot of oil and it's hard to combine, so add 2 tablespoons of brine. This makes it 1 part oil to 1 part water, and you toss it vigorously all at once to emulsify. The tossing takes about 30 seconds. Morita also pointed to the contrast between the white of the tenderloin and the color of the pasta.

The finished dish is the "Ultimate Tenderloin Peperoncino-Style." Ryuji said it was "better than anything I've ever eaten" and said the seasoning was spot on. Ryuji said he hadn't had a good impression of tenderloin pasta. He'd thought it was dry and that it didn't create contrast with the pasta, but he was surprised that this dish clearly had it.

Here Morita recommended drizzling olive oil over it after you start eating. When Ryuji poured some on, he reacted with "it got even better," saying the aroma rises all at once. According to Morita, this olive oil is made so cleanly that it has no quirks. Because of that, its presence is hard to notice when used in cooking, but adding it after the dish is finished properly brings back the olive oil's flavor, he said.

For a change of flavor, they used crushed cashews. Ideally, sautéing the nuts together in the pan would make it more harmonious, but this time they were crushed and scattered on afterward. Almonds also work, he said. Ryuji rated the combination of the nuts' texture and the olive oil with "This would sell."

Ryuji said he had eaten and made so much pasta, both out and at home, that he thought he'd never again come across a pasta that moved him. That's why he hardly ever eats pasta when dining out, he said. Morita replied that it was the same for him. Ryuji then said this pasta moved him, wondering how many years it had been since a pasta had done that, and said this was more impressive than the steak Morita had taught him last time. Morita revealed that because they've known each other a long time and Ryuji doesn't hold back to spare his feelings, he came in thinking he had to break through that wall.

Morita went back over the key points. Apart from the oil drizzled at the end, the sauce is roughly 1 to 1 oil and pasta water, a ratio that tends to make home cooks nervous. Even so, using glutamic acid brings it together, he emphasized. Ryuji replied that it's convincing coming from a chef. They also joked that since it was promoting Hi-Me, they should get a sponsorship fee from Ajinomoto too.

Finally, the two talked about a trip they had taken to Italy together. They hopped between several restaurants a day, but pasta was the one thing they never ordered. That's how high the bar for pasta is for the two of them. Morita struggled quite a bit with the subject for this video. He had been thinking of a tenderloin pasta but wavered at the last minute, contacted Ryuji late into the previous night, tried both candidates on the morning of the shoot, and finally settled on tenderloin, he revealed, as the video ends.