Chicken and Onions Simmered with Nothing but Salt: What Ryuji Wanted to Convey with "Additive-Free Cooking"

The ingredients are two chicken thighs (about 600 g), three onions (about 600 g), salt and water. The chicken and onions end up weighing nearly the same. Ryuji explains that the recipe serves about four, though that varies depending on how it is eaten. It can be served on small plates as a snack with drinks, but Ryuji describes it as something like a "chicken stew made with only salt."

Since it uses no dairy, it can become either a stew or a curry, and Ryuji calls it a dish that serves as "the base for everything." When asked by the interviewer whether it could also become ramen or pasta, Ryuji answered that it could become either. For ramen, the onions melt down so much that it becomes something like mazesoba, Ryuji said.

Ryuji had thought new-season onions would work too, but none were on sale at the time of filming, so regular onions were used. Stored onions that have been cured after harvest are plenty tasty, and either kind is fine. Since new-season onions are only available in spring, Ryuji frames this recipe, which works with regular onions, as one that can be used all year round.

In between cooking steps, Ryuji talked about why they recently started making additive-free dishes. There are still people who say that "chemical seasonings ruin your palate." Ryuji uses Ajinomoto a lot, but if their palate were ruined, they wouldn't be able to taste anything without Ajinomoto, and shouldn't be able to make delicious additive-free food. If they can make something delicious without additives, their palate isn't ruined. So the reasoning is that Ryuji makes additive-free dishes to show that the claim is an "illusion."

At the same time, Ryuji is critical of the tendency to treat being able to make delicious additive-free food as something special. "Sometimes people act like it's amazing if you can make something tasty without additives, but it's not amazing at all," Ryuji said, adding that there are countless ways to make delicious food without additives. Professional chefs also say that neither using nor not using Ajinomoto makes one superior to the other, and for a chef working at the top level, that kind of thing doesn't diminish the value of their cooking, Ryuji said.

Additive-free food tastes good if the ingredients are good. It's tasty only because the ingredients are tasty, and that's no big deal, Ryuji said. But not everyone can get luxurious ingredients. That's exactly why Ajinomoto and seasonings exist. Because you can rely on the umami of seasonings instead of the umami of the ingredients, it lowers costs and saves time—that is Ryuji's explanation.

In conversation with the interviewer, the topic also came up that people with more money tend to gravitate toward additive-free food. Since becoming a cooking expert, Ryuji has eaten expensive additive-free meals many times for social or business reasons, but personally doesn't mind either way. Ryuji said they think people who are fixated on that don't understand cooking, then immediately added, "I said something a bit provocative there."

Peel the onions and cut them in half crosswise. Positioned with the ring-shaped cut surface showing, they look like little logs. That's the end of the prep, and the chicken isn't cut either.

Since there are almost no seasonings, the flavor has to be determined by the cooking method, Ryuji explains. Ryuji initially planned to use a little oil but switched to no oil on the spot. The chicken thighs are placed skin-side down in a frying pan and cooked using only the fat that renders from the chicken.

Cooking without oil assumes a Teflon-coated pan. Ryuji added that anyone using a pan without a Teflon coating should add just a little oil before cooking.

Searing the skin creates browning through the Maillard reaction, and that aroma becomes umami. Searing only the skin side is enough, Ryuji said. As it cooks, more and more fat comes out of the chicken, so no additional oil is needed.

Ryuji says the dish works because the chicken releases umami on par with Ajinomoto. Ryuji also said they think there isn't much difference in flavor between a broth made by simmering chicken and one made with chicken bouillon or Ajinomoto. From Ryuji's experience, of beef, pork and chicken, chicken produces the most stock. Pork bones also make good stock, but supermarkets rarely carry them, they're large and require equipment, so they aren't suited to home cooking. Chicken is easy to handle at home and stable in price—that's Ryuji's view.

Although Ryuji presents a careful process, they say that if it's too much trouble, simply putting all the onions and chicken in a pot and simmering them with salt is plenty tasty. However, that alone tends to make the flavor monotonous. It's precisely because you add a toasty aroma by searing that no other ingredients are needed. This time Ryuji didn't even use garlic. When the interviewer remarked that this was unusual, Ryuji admitted they would normally always use it, but replied that it's entirely possible to make dishes without relying on garlic.

While the chicken seared, the conversation shifted to the public image of Ryuji's recipes. There's a strong impression that Ryuji's recipes are junky and use nothing but Ajinomoto and mentsuyu. The interviewer asked whether that image came from the days when Ryuji made hearty, heavy dishes, but Ryuji answered that they had always made dishes like this too—people just didn't watch them. Healthy recipes don't go viral, Ryuji said.

Recently, someone on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, "I wish there were some diet meal recipes," but Ryuji has already published a book of diet meals. Laughing, "They seriously haven't looked at anything," Ryuji said that image matters, and continued that it's enough if the people watching this channel understand.

Ryuji says they haven't decided to always add Ajinomoto, and is actually quite good at dishes that don't use it. But there are many dishes that taste better or can be made cheaper with Ajinomoto. So Ryuji doesn't mind being told "you're a bad cook because you use Ajinomoto." Ryuji wants to develop and share all sorts of dishes for everyone's happiness, so doesn't protect their own pride. Ryuji makes dishes with Ajinomoto and dishes without it. Ryuji also said they're the type to make something right away if the world wants it, and that a cook doesn't need to define a signature "taste of this person."

Once the skin side is well browned, the chicken is transferred to a stewing pot. Chicken fat remains in the frying pan, so to avoid wasting it, the onions are seared in the same pan. The idea is to brown the cut surfaces, using fairly high heat. Searing the onions also brings out aroma, sweetness and umami, so garlic becomes unnecessary, Ryuji explains.

The onions are cooked until they take on a quite dark color. When the interviewer checked, "So it's fine to go this far?", Ryuji replied that it's fine to sear them this thoroughly. The char from slow searing becomes umami, making consommé or chicken bouillon unnecessary, Ryuji said. Ryuji also mentioned that new-season onions might release more moisture. The seared onions are placed on top of the chicken. Ryuji said, "You've never seen a dish like this, right?", and the interviewer responded that they couldn't imagine how it would turn out.

Browned bits from the onions remain stuck to the frying pan. Ryuji says there's umami there too, adds water and scrapes them off with a spatula. The water turns cloudy, taking on a color like consommé. The chicken fat dissolves into it as well. Once it comes to a boil, the browned bits come off cleanly, so Ryuji cautions against scrubbing hard and damaging the Teflon.

Ryuji initially said 300 cc of water but ultimately used about 250 cc. This is poured into the pot.

The heat is medium-low. Add one and a half teaspoons of salt—about 8 g by Ryuji's estimate. Salting is tricky, so Ryuji says to start with this amount and add more later if it's not enough.

Cover and simmer for 45 minutes, at a gentle bubbling simmer. Ryuji explained that covering keeps the moisture in, and the onions release moisture too, so they think it turns out better. After 45 minutes of simmering, the chicken becomes fall-apart tender, Ryuji said.

When the lid came off after 45 minutes, the broth had turned a deep color. The interviewer described it as "the color of consommé." According to Ryuji, the char from the seared onions comes through in the color. The ingredients are just salt, chicken and onions—nothing else was used. Ryuji calls this "subtraction cooking," and said that as long as the ingredients are good—and Japanese chicken is very tasty—this alone makes a satisfying meal.

The chicken is tender enough to cut with chopsticks. That's why there's no need to cut it at the start. The onions also fall apart easily with chopsticks. If you like chunky ingredients, leave them as they are; if you want to eat it fall-apart tender like a stew, break them up further, Ryuji said.

Two ways of plating were tried. One was to serve the chicken and whole onions as they are, which the interviewer said looked like something on a Western-style diner menu. The other was to break up the chicken and onions, serve it stew-style and scatter green onions on top. This one looks Japanese-style, like a snack at an izakaya. One pot can be a main dish or a drinking snack, Ryuji says. Shichimi togarashi can also be sprinkled on top.

On tasting, the interviewer was first surprised at how the onions melted away instantly. Ryuji said the umami is no less than in their other viral recipes—if anything, it's stronger. The reason the flavor is complex despite using only salt is that it's "the flavor of searing," Ryuji said. Of the broth, the interviewer said it was good how well the chicken fat had melted into it. Ryuji recommends it with beer or shochu as well.

To change up the flavor, mustard, wasabi or karashi can be added, Ryuji said. The interviewer tried it with a little karashi and replied, "That works."

Comparing it with the broken-up stew-style version, the interviewer said the impression of the flavor was completely different. Ryuji said that even when the taste is exactly the same, the way the flavor changes depending on how it's cut and served is what makes cooking deep and interesting. Ryuji then emphasized that this dish is simply seared and simmered, with time taking care of the rest—an easy recipe. Ryuji also said they don't distinguish between addition cooking, multiplication cooking and subtraction cooking; as long as the result is delicious, that's what matters.

During filming, after about half had been eaten, the rest was turned into curry. For curry, it's better to break up the ingredients. When broken up and piping hot, the melted onions act like a roux, so it's done just by adding curry powder.

Ryuji used "Indian Curry" curry powder, which they've been using a lot lately. The advantage is that it isn't spicy, so kids can eat it too; Ryuji compared it to curry made with the red-can curry powder, which people often say is spicy. It's sold at Kaldi and on Amazon, Ryuji said. During filming, Ryuji added it without measuring and estimated that about one and a half tablespoons went in. Ryuji said they think about two to two and a half tablespoons would taste better for this amount, adding that viewers should trust their own taste and adjust while tasting.

Because there are so many onions, it isn't quite a soup curry, but it becomes a curry with a bit more liquid. The interviewer, eating it over rice, said in surprise, "This is delicious," and Ryuji said that if there were a restaurant serving this curry, they'd go. The saltiness is set by the initial one and a half teaspoons, so if it's not enough, add a little salt, and if it's too salty, add water to adjust, Ryuji said.

Ryuji emphasizes that this curry is healthy because no oil is added. The fat comes from the chicken, but store-bought curry roux contains a lot of oil, and ordinary curry also adds fat from pork and the like. By comparison, the only fat here is from the chicken, so calories are drastically reduced—that's Ryuji's explanation. When the interviewer said, "About half the calories," Ryuji responded that it might be much less than half. The reason Ryuji has been using curry powder lately is also that it contains no oil, and since eating out tends to involve a lot of oil, Ryuji recommends this curry, which can be made with less oil at home. The interviewer said they'd like to recommend it to people on a diet as well.

For pasta, add pasta boiled slightly firm to the broken-up stew, simmer it a little and add salt. The interviewer agreed that for pasta, it seemed better to add a bit more salt.

For batch cooking, Ryuji suggests making a double batch in a large pot. Searing a family pack of chicken all at once, searing the onions and simmering everything together saves effort. It can also be frozen: break it up, put it in storage bags and freeze, and it can be thawed and eaten as is, Ryuji said. It can also be used as a stew on the first day and turned into curry the next day.

After finishing the tasting, the interviewer said they were genuinely full, and Ryuji again emphasized that the ingredients are just three: chicken, onions and salt. Since the two of them nearly emptied the pot, a double batch might be good for a family, Ryuji also said. Finally, Ryuji recommended making it with new-season onions at this time of year, which makes it meltingly tender and very delicious, and closed by encouraging viewers to try making everything from the stew to the curry.