A Sponsored Video Shelved for a Year: Ryuji Takes On One-Pan Sake Chicken Soba with "Gokujo Al Dente"

At the start, Ryuji reveals that this video was filmed a year ago. The pasta used in it sold so well that production couldn't keep up, and for a year, releasing the video would have meant viewers couldn't buy the product. Now that availability is in sight and supply has caught up, he says, they are finally releasing it.

This sponsored video introduces two Oh My Premium products. The 1.8 mm "Spaghetti with Delicious Chewy Texture" has a springy, chewy texture that suits rich carbonara and cream sauces. The 1.7 mm "Spaghetti with Delicious Gokujo Al Dente" has a firm core and a satisfying bite, and Ryuji describes it as an all-rounder that works both with light pastas like peperoncino and with tomato sauces.

Recently, Ryuji has been asking company representatives to speak about their passion for the product in his sponsored videos. If he simply says "it's delicious," that's no different from a TV commercial; precisely because this is YouTube, he wants the manufacturer to present why it's delicious.

Ryuji also shares his own view of Japanese pasta. When he started cooking more than 20 years ago, he felt Japanese pasta wasn't very good and bought Italian pasta instead. After becoming a culinary researcher, he felt the quality of Japanese pasta had improved, but still thought it "hadn't quite gotten there" — and that was when this product came out.

According to the representative, Nippn surveyed about 60,000 consumers. The results showed that many people think "all noodles are the same" and "the sauce determines how good it tastes." The starting point, the representative says, was wanting to convey as a pasta maker that changing the noodles makes the whole dish taste better.

The survey found that Japanese people today show a strong preference for a chewy texture. Ryuji responds that many restaurants also serve fresh pasta. The representative explains that rather than taking the approach that "authentic Italian is always right," they gave shape to what Japanese people like, resulting in "Spaghetti with Delicious Chewy Texture." On the other hand, there was also a segment that preferred a firm texture, so they explored not Italian al dente but "the al dente Japanese people like," and that is how "Gokujo Al Dente" came about.

The representative describes the texture as having a strong, taut, bouncy exterior with a dense, springy interior. Ryuji takes it less as the core remaining firm and more as the noodle itself having a kind of snap.

Ryuji says everyone has their own idea of al dente. The chef at an Italian restaurant where he once worked liked al dente so hard you'd wonder whether the pasta had been boiled at all. That experience made Ryuji dislike al dente a little, he says. His ideal is firm but soft on the outside, letting you enjoy that gradation. He praises this product for its cohesiveness, with the bite gradually increasing from the outside toward the core.

Asked for the secret, the representative answered that they are particular about ingredients, using only the central part of North American raw materials to achieve the texture. Ryuji responds, "That's like how sake is made."

The dish this time is "Sake Chicken Soba," which has been viewed more than 1 million times. He says it has the highest repeat rate among his original pastas. This is the first time he's releasing a one-pan version.

As his reason, Ryuji says that "almost all the pastas that went viral are one-pan." As a manufacturer, Nippn would first like people to enjoy the flavor of the noodles boiled separately. But Ryuji figured that viewers of his Buzz Recipe channel would inevitably wonder, "Can I really use it in one pan?", so he tried to prove it by actually testing it. Later in the video, the representative admits they don't really recommend one-pan cooking. Ryuji revealed that he had heard it "wasn't recommended" and pushed to be allowed to do it anyway.

The ingredients are chicken thigh, garlic, dried red chili, chopped green onion, and the 1.7 mm Gokujo Al Dente. Ryuji starts cooking while drinking sake (separate from the sake used for cooking).

He uses a generous 10 g of garlic. Crushing it releases its aroma, so he crushes it first and then minces it. If you don't want to crush it with a knife, you can use another tool.

While working, Ryuji remarks, "Everyone is particular about ramen noodles, but not about pasta." Cheap noodles can shed powder and break easily, so pasta quality matters, he says. Supermarkets carry many varieties, so he recommends comparing them, suggesting you boil them and eat them with just salt and olive oil.

He uses chicken thigh. You can make it with breast, but it turns out firmer. The fat from the skin coats the pasta, so the skin is used too. He cuts the chicken diagonally into wide, long pieces. This makes them easier to spear with a fork; there are, surprisingly, cuts well suited to pasta toppings, he says. There's a lot of chicken for a pasta, but that's because this recipe extracts umami from the chicken. He seasons the chicken with a pinch of salt and removes any blood clots.

He adds rice bran oil and heats it over medium heat. Since it's hard to tell how much to reduce in one-pan cooking, Ryuji says he'll show it uncut. This recipe uses no umami seasoning and relies solely on the umami of the chicken and the sake.

For two servings, double the ingredients and use 650 cc of water instead of 400 cc (about 1.6 times). Use a larger frying pan. He used to make this in a small pan, but water evaporated slowly and the noodles tended to get soft. A large pan makes it easier to manage the liquid and easier to fit the pasta in, he says.

First he sears the chicken skin side down thoroughly to get it nicely browned. Ryuji describes it as "transferring the browned bits to the pasta," saying the browning carries umami so it should be seared well. The flesh will cook later, so it doesn't need much searing. He adds a little more oil along the way, about 1 tablespoon in total.

A staff member asks, "Pasta often starts by flavoring oil with garlic, so why does the chicken go first?" Ryuji's answer is that if you add the garlic first, it will burn before the chicken browns. Searing the chicken as if making yakitori and then adding the garlic ends up tasting better, he says. He explained that he used rice bran oil instead of olive oil because he wants the chicken, not the olive oil, to stand out.

Once the chicken is crisp, he adds the garlic, lowers the heat, and adds the dried chili. If you don't like spice, half the amount is fine. He cooks it with the chicken fat to bring out the aroma, until it browns slightly without burning. He added that people who regularly make his recipes might find the umami lacking, in which case they can sprinkle in some umami seasoning at the end.

He uses 3 tablespoons of sake. You can add more if you like. Ryuji explains that sake is rich in umami compounds such as succinic acid, and reducing it with chicken makes it extremely delicious. He cooks off the alcohol thoroughly to concentrate the umami. Then he adds 400 cc of water. All the reduced umami stays in the water.

The package cooking time for the pasta is 8 minutes. The guideline is to cook it until the liquid in the pan is nearly gone a little before that. According to Ryuji, simmering in one pan gives the sauce body from the wheat starch, creating cohesion and making it taste better.

At first the pasta doesn't fit entirely in the pan, but it softens as it cooks and soon fits. He used to demonstrate a technique of twirling it around in the pan, but since many people couldn't do it well, he says using a larger pan is the easiest. The simmering time is 7 minutes.

He adds 1/3 teaspoon of salt. If you use salted cooking sake, 1/4 teaspoon — about a pinch and a half — is enough. According to Ryuji, a pinch is 1/6 teaspoon.

Some people remove chicken skin out of concern for calories, and when asked whether that would work for this recipe, Ryuji jokingly said, "If you don't want the skin, you don't have to make it," calling himself an "extremist." This pasta was taught to him by a senior colleague when he worked at a restaurant, and he can't change it lightly, he says. Those who want to remove the skin should make a different pasta.

While it simmers, a staff member asks, "What is al dente in the first place?" Ryuji explains that "dente" means tooth, and it means having a bite. In Italy, pasta boiled until limp isn't really liked, but Italians aren't all that fixated on al dente either. He suggested that in Japan, the word became popular during the Italian food boom.

In Ryuji's view, al dente doesn't mean it just has to be hard, nor does it mean it isn't al dente unless there's a firm core. Al dente is "a way of boiling that values texture," he says. Microwave cooking makes it hard to achieve al dente, but one-pan cooking can preserve texture, so he recommends it. If one-pan works with this noodle, it can be applied to his other one-pan pastas as well. However, since it's 1.7 mm, the key is to add a little more water, he says.

Someone also asked, "Wouldn't regular pasta become al dente if you just shortened the cooking time?" Ryuji answers that people often say one minute less than the package time, but there's no clear standard. His position is that if it has a bite and it's a texture you like, that's fine. He added that some people even cook it like the "harigane" (extra-firm) noodles of Hakata ramen.

In the context of the promotion, Ryuji said that he'll keep using products he promotes in later videos, so if you buy one to try, he won't let it go to waste. The staff reacted, "No other YouTuber goes that far."

The cooking liquid becomes soup-like as the chicken's umami dissolves into it. The noodles can be mostly left alone, but stirring a little keeps them from sticking together. With 2 minutes left, he lowered the heat according to the amount of sauce. This is to prevent it from reducing too much. If it reduces too much, just add water — "same as regular pasta," he says. This time it had reduced a bit, so he added about 1 tablespoon of water.

The finished liquid is "almost gone, but there's about 2 tablespoons," which Ryuji says is perfect. He plates it, scatters chopped green onion on top, and it's done.

The representative takes a bite first and says the chicken's umami comes through directly and the chili's kick is also delicious. Ryuji explains that it's basically a peperoncino, with the chicken's umami sealed into the al dente noodles. On how the noodles turned out, the representative answered, "Really, really good." Ryuji says that having confirmed that the noodles keep quite a bit of bite even with this one-pan method, he's curious how his past recipes would turn out with Gokujo Al Dente.

For a flavor change, he uses soy sauce. As Ryuji explains, the umami of chicken is inosinic acid (a nucleotide-type umami), while soy sauce is glutamic acid, and combining them creates a synergistic umami effect that makes the flavor richer. Since he wanted to let the umami of the chicken and sake carry the dish this time, he thinks soy sauce alone is enough without umami seasoning.

Ryuji praises the noodles for not being overpowered even though the chicken's umami is quite strong. He thinks 1.7 mm isn't normally a thickness used much for peperoncino, but says the texture is firm and the sauce clings well. Viewers have pointed out the weakness that "one-pan pasta doesn't keep its texture," but this method keeps it well. Ryuji suspects that not just the cooking method but the noodle's manufacturing process and quality play a big part. His verdict is that if you served it to pasta lovers, they wouldn't notice it was made in one pan.

Asked whether one-pan cooking is acceptable to the manufacturer, the representative answered that one-pan is popular these days, and they hope people enjoy pasta at home in all sorts of ways. Ryuji responded, "Glad it's a flexible company. If they'd said no, I'd have had to remake it."

Finally, Ryuji recommends first trying the noodles themselves boiled separately. Eating them should show you the difference, and if you then try his recipes, this one-pan method will turn out plenty delicious, he says. The representative said many people still haven't tried it, and they want to spread the word about the product more. Because they got so much good footage, the video was split into two, and the other one is a carbonara without bacon. Ryuji wraps up with the teaser, "It's probably the most delicious of all my carbonaras."