Making Takikomi Gohan with KFC Chicken, and Even Turning the Leftover Bones into Soup

Ryuji has put out a recipe using KFC chicken before. That one, however, was pilaf-style and called for a generous amount of butter and other ingredients. The person whose post went viral on X seemed to be using a different method, and he says this time he wanted to make a pure takikomi gohan.

Before getting started, the two of them first eat the chicken as is. Ryuji says that for cooking in rice, the piece called the thigh is good, and that the dark meat might be better suited than the breast since it's juicier, though he adds that he isn't sure. Ryuji himself likes the meat around the drumstick bone. Even as he grumbles, "It's a waste to cook this in rice," he explains the point of using up leftover chicken: everyone buys tons at Christmas, so there are leftovers. Leftover KFC isn't freshly fried, so it doesn't taste good. But cook it in rice and the flavor comes back.

The ingredients are 2 rice-cooker cups of rice and 2 pieces of chicken, and the only seasonings are soy sauce and kombu dashi. Ryuji figures that people looking to use up KFC chicken aren't going to bother chopping vegetables, so he keeps the ingredients to a minimum. He uses a rice brand he personally recommends, saying it has a firm texture and tastes great in takikomi gohan.

There's a reason behind his choice of dashi. Ryuji usually seasons his takikomi gohan with soy sauce, salt, and dashi, but adding bonito dashi would get in the way of the chicken's flavor. So this time he chose kombu dashi. Rather than using chicken stock just because it's chicken, the idea is to aim for a synergy between the umami released by the chicken and the umami of the kombu. The amounts are 1 1/2 teaspoons of kombu dashi and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Since the chicken itself is strongly flavored, he says there's no need to add sweetness. Spices like pepper can be added later, he says.

You can fill the water to the 2-cup line as usual. The breading absorbs water, so if you like your rice firm, he suggests using a little less. All you do is place the 2 pieces of chicken on top and cook on the regular setting.

At this point, something unplanned happened. Right after adding the chicken, Ryuji got a drinking invitation from an acquaintance saying "there's a seat open at the counter," so he halted the shoot and went out. Planning to cook it the next day, he put the rice cooker pot in the fridge with the chicken still in it. But the breading soaked up all the water in the pot, and the Original Recipe chicken swelled to about twice its size. Ryuji warns viewers not to store the chicken in the fridge with the pot. He reflects that he should have taken the chicken out. He says he dealt with that batch in another way.

Filming resumed the following night. Using chicken bought at lunchtime, he made the takikomi gohan again with just soy sauce, kombu dashi, and chicken. Ryuji framed the setup itself, buying the chicken at lunch and cooking it at night, as a recreation of "leftover chicken."

The bones from the chicken eaten the previous day had been saved rather than thrown out. When A-ko asks what they're for, Ryuji replies that he'll simmer them to make soup. The plan is to simmer the bones from the 2 pieces in the cooked pot together with bones from about 6 more pieces, turning them into chicken soup and finishing with ochazuke.

He says cracking the bones makes it easier for the marrow to release flavor. But you don't have to crack them. Ryuji explains why by describing his channel's approach. On a chef's channel, if the chef says "do it," viewers will do it. But Buzz Recipe is like a "daycare," and if you ask too much of people, they won't do it. So instead of saying "crack them," he just says "it's tasty if you do." Sure enough, A-ko said she isn't strong enough to crack them. Ryuji added that anyone who wants to go all out can crack them with a hammer or the like, and that cracking them is only for extracting stock in a short time. This segment also included a tangent about how his uncle taught him that if you hit something with a bottle, you should use the sturdy part, not the thin part.

While waiting for the rice to cook, he decides takikomi gohan alone isn't enough and makes a salad. Instead of KFC's coleslaw, it's an original KFC salad made with lettuce. The lettuce on hand was wilted and on the verge of going bad.

This is where the 50-degree (Celsius) wash comes in. The hot water from Ryuji's tap comes out at around 42–43 degrees, and he says that works too. Wash the lettuce in lukewarm water and let it sit for a while, and its crispness comes back. As for how it works, he would only say he thinks he heard something about the fibers absorbing the warm water, and suggested asking a scientist for the details. After tasting lettuce that had soaked for about 15 minutes, A-ko was surprised that it tasted so fresh, nothing like lettuce that had been about to go bad.

When he spun the lettuce in a salad spinner to dry it, there was a loud crack and the spinner broke. He managed to finish using it by holding it together, and Ryuji grumbled that replacing it would be a hassle.

The chicken is shredded by hand and placed on the lettuce. This batch was boneless chicken that staff member Taya had for some reason bought. Ryuji says he doesn't know anyone who chooses boneless at KFC, though he admits it has the advantage of being easy to shred. When A-ko asks whether he shouldn't reheat it, he answers that you can, but that just as you don't heat up salad chicken, he thinks it's fine as is. The skin is seasoned and is arguably the essence of KFC, so it goes in too.

The dressing is Ryuji's own Cobb salad dressing. The ingredients are 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of ketchup, just under 1 teaspoon of cumin, 6 shakes of Tabasco, and a pinch of salt. According to Ryuji, the key is the cumin. Think of a dressing with chili powder in it; adding cumin makes it taste like Cobb salad. If you don't have cumin, curry powder will do, he says. He also mentions that he used to eat Cobb salad a lot at Denny's.

This time the only topping is the chicken, but you could also scatter sliced boiled eggs, avocado, tomato, and so on. Adding cherry tomatoes he had left over at home gave it a Christmassy look in green and red. Black olives would be even better, he says.

If the dressing is too thick, thin it out with about 1 teaspoon of soy milk. Regular milk works too, and in a pinch, even water is fine. Ryuji explains that making it runny like store-bought dressing helps it coat everything evenly instead of sitting in heavy clumps. To keep the salad from going limp, the dressing goes on just before eating, and he finished it with a sprinkle of black pepper.

When he opened the cooked pot, the chicken fat had spread throughout and the rice had come out firm. He removes the large bones, leaves the meat in the pot, and mixes it in. It's best to remove as many small bones as possible, but Ryuji says that this part alone is a hassle, so it's fine to just pick them out as you eat. A-ko countered that spitting bones out of your mouth is embarrassing on, say, a date at home, and that some people do mind. Ryuji replied that he doesn't get that feeling at all, and the exchange ended with him asking anyone who agrees with her to leave a comment.

The removed bones go into a pot together with the previous day's bones and are simmered in 300–350 cc of water. After just a few minutes of boiling, it turned into a cloudy white paitan soup, which surprised A-ko. He simmered it for about 10 more minutes to finish.

The plated takikomi gohan is topped with a generous amount of scallions. Since the dish contains almost no vegetables, more is better, he says. Sprinkle with black pepper and add mayonnaise if you like. The breading is already well spiced, so he said a heavy hand with the pepper is fine.

After trying the takikomi gohan, A-ko declared it "500 million times better than I imagined." She says you'd never guess the chicken had been sitting for a day. Ryuji reflects that his earlier recipe added butter and other things, but that none of it was necessary. Ryuji's conclusion is that soy sauce and kombu dashi alone make the ultimate chicken rice. A-ko said the rice comes out firm because the chicken fat coats the grains, probably the same principle as pilaf. It's not too firm, just right, and the scallions added on top go great with it, she says.

The two also rated the salad highly, saying the dressing is delicious and the cherry tomatoes go really well with it. A-ko remarked that its light flavor, without too much fuss, balances perfectly with the takikomi gohan.

The soup isn't for drinking but for ochazuke. Ryuji initially considered adding chicken stock powder, but decided about 1/3 teaspoon of salt was enough. It's a soup chazuke poured over the takikomi gohan, and you can add wasabi or yuzu kosho if you like.

A-ko, who tasted the soup first, was surprised that it was rich enough to open a ramen shop, when she had expected just a faint chicken flavor. Ryuji explains that it tastes the same as the soup at a yakitori restaurant. KFC chicken is fried in a pressure fryer, so the flavor comes out easily into the soup, and that's why it gets this rich in just 10 minutes, he says. Making soup from the bones is a fairly well-known technique, but Ryuji's view is that many people probably don't bother because they assume it'll be weak.

To wrap up, Ryuji says few people do anything creative with KFC. A-ko agreed, saying the idea of reworking it had never even occurred to her. If a family of two or three buys a party barrel, there will be leftovers, but those can become something to look forward to the next day. Ryuji named three highlights of this episode: the takikomi gohan, the salad with the dressing, and the rich soup from the leftover bones, adding that it also helps reduce food waste. He says the soup can also be enjoyed on its own with scallions instead of as chazuke.

Ryuji says he thinks KFC tastes best eaten as is, but if you buy extra and save it for the next day, it might just end up tasting even better than biting into it straight. He closed the video by urging viewers who try it not to add any strange twists, but to follow exactly the same method.