Recreating Sekai no Yamachan–Style Chicken Wings at Home: Unbreaded Frying, Sweet Sauce, and a Peppery Spice Blend

According to Ryuji, the key to Yamachan is the spice. He says this spice is delicious on fries, or on anything at all. In the video, he adapts Yamachan's process for home cooks: the wings are fried without any coating or seasoning, dipped in a sweet sauce, and then sprinkled with the spice.

He prepares 8 chicken wings (about 400g). Yamachan's wings are small ones sourced from overseas, so he recommends choosing the smallest ones you can find at the supermarket. He also said that because Japanese chickens are large, it's quite difficult to make an exact replica of Yamachan at home.

Since Yamachan's wings are fried plain, no pre-seasoning is applied. If you do anything to them, he says, it's these two things. First, poke holes on both sides of the thick part of the wing. The skin forms a pouch that can burst during frying, and poking holes prevents that. It also helps the wings cook through. Second, wipe off the surface moisture. With plain frying and no coating, any remaining moisture makes the oil more likely to spatter.

He uses 2 potatoes (about 200g) for the fries. The potatoes used in filming had been bought a while earlier and had some parts that had turned green. Ryuji warns that the green parts contain a toxin (solanine) and will upset your stomach if eaten. This toxin forms when the potato is exposed to light, which is why you're told to store potatoes in a cool, dark place. Although he is mindful of food waste, he recommends throwing away the green parts. He added that it's also better to remove the sprouts, and that if there's only a little green, the potato is fine to eat once peeled with a peeler.

Ryuji also mentioned that he has recently been shortening the opening talk so he can get straight to cooking. His view is that since this is a cooking channel, the chitchat can happen while cooking.

The fries served at Yamachan are long and thin, like McDonald's fries. Ryuji, however, cuts them into chunky irregular pieces, because cutting them into long thin strips makes the frying step a hassle. He says people who want thin fries can buy frozen ones and fry them for a McDonald's style, and if you're using raw potatoes there's no need to insist on the same shape as frozen fries. A staff member described this as "the real joy of home cooking."

Before frying, the cut potatoes are microwaved for about 5 minutes. This makes them fry up fluffy inside. There's no need to soak them in water. The microwaving can be done alongside the wings, and he says it's fine to skip it.

The spice is made by weighing the ingredients in grams. Instead of regular salt, he uses Aji-Shio, which contains umami seasoning. Ryuji explains that Yamachan also uses an umami-enhanced salt. The quantities, including enough for the fries, are 4g of Aji-Shio, 6g of table pepper, and 2g of garlic powder. He uses table pepper because it contains a good balance of black and white pepper. Yamachan's wings are quite spicy, so he uses plenty of pepper. Half the amount is enough for the wings alone, but he says it's good to make extra.

After tasting it, Ryuji said, "It's spicy, but it's crazy good," and concluded that a ratio of about 2:3:1 works.

At Yamachan, the plainly fried, unseasoned wings are dipped in sauce and then generously sprinkled with spice. The sauce is made with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoons of mirin, and 2 teaspoons of sugar, brought to a boil in a small frying pan. It's made a little sweet, but its defining feature is that it isn't too sweet, he says.

For umami seasoning, he used 4 shakes of Hi-Me. Ajinomoto works too, but he says Hi-Me adds a bit more depth and gets closer to the restaurant's flavor. When a staff member asked, "So with Ajinomoto, would it be double, 8 shakes?", Ryuji replied that 4 shakes is fine with Ajinomoto too. By weight, you only need half as much Hi-Me as Ajinomoto, but the Hi-Me shaker has smaller holes, so much less comes out per shake. He says that when he actually compared them before, the amount coming out of the Hi-Me shaker was considerably smaller.

The sauce is reduced. Because it contains sugar, the flavor won't stabilize unless it's reduced. Reducing it also helps it cling to the fried wings. However, it shouldn't be reduced until it's sticky; keep it slightly thin. The seasonings are all things Buzz Recipe viewers likely have at home, and when a staff member was surprised that "it's unexpectedly easy to make," Ryuji joked back, "That's why I might get taken down."

Since oil prices have gone up recently, he doesn't use as much as a restaurant would, filling the pot only about 1cm from the bottom. The heat is medium. Because the wings are fried plain, Ryuji says you can coat them with flour or not. Without a coating they're lighter to eat, and he explains that this is why you can eat Yamachan's wings endlessly.

When he first put them in, the oil spattered a lot. Ryuji corrected himself, saying the moisture should be wiped off more thoroughly. Supermarket wings tend to retain moisture, and it gets in between the bones too, so he repeated that you should wipe them carefully. He used an oil screen to deal with spattering, and recommends getting one, since with one you don't have to worry much about spatter.

He fries 4 wings at a time, a safe amount, in two batches. The crackling sound is the sound of moisture leaving the chicken. Ryuji likes them fried to a deep color, and flips them to fry both sides. The target is golden brown, which he says is the tastiest color. Because they're fried plain, excess chicken fat is also rendered out.

During cooking, a staff member worried, "Won't Yamachan get mad at us?" Ryuji replied that he has no intention of interfering with the restaurant's business. His reasoning is that the restaurant makes these fried wings every day, and there are plenty of people who don't have a Yamachan nearby.

The wings are best right after frying. Once fried, dip them in the sauce and sprinkle generously with spice. Ryuji said that Yamachan also piles the wings on top of each other when plating, and while showing off the spice-coated wings he said, "This peppery kick is Yamachan." With that, the Yamachan-style wings are done.

The potatoes are fried in the oil left over from frying the wings. There's a reason for this: the fat from the wings has transferred into the oil, so the potatoes pick up the chicken's flavor. Keeping the heat at medium-high is all you need. This time he prioritized ease and didn't use flour, but he says those who want them crispier can coat them in cake flour or bread flour.

Even without flour, the surface fried up crispy. According to Ryuji, the potato's own starch acts like a coating, so there's no need to dust them with flour. Ryuji called this method of "cutting into chunks, microwaving, and frying plain" the world's easiest french fries. Once fried, sprinkle lightly with salt, then finally toss with the spice. He said that since, unlike the wings, there's no sauce, it might be better to use more Aji-Shio.

For the tasting, he paired the food with Super Dry, which he doesn't usually drink much. Holding the wings by hand, he sprinkles spice on the underside as well. A staff member said that being able to adjust the amount of spice yourself is the advantage of making it at home.

After one bite, Ryuji said, "It's perfect," and a staff member responded, "You can tell it's Yamachan instantly." Ryuji confirmed that the level of pepper was about right and said the garlic powder is the key to the flavor. Yamachan blends a variety of spices, but his verdict was that this blend is more than enough. There was also a moment when he laughed that he should have made this at the end of the shoot, since it makes you want to keep drinking.

As for the fries, Ryuji said, "If anything, these are the more dangerous ones." The staff were also surprised that simply microwaving and frying them plain produced such a crunchy texture. A staff member who had never eaten at Yamachan also tried them and acknowledged how faithful the recreation was. One staff member said that ordinary izakayas don't have fries with this much pepper. He says that in the earlier visit video, too, it was Yamachan's fries that got the highest marks.

While eating, Ryuji said that something he'd noticed recently was that videos he doesn't enjoy making don't do well. He said this shoot is something like work and something like play. He said beer really does go best with peppery food, but added that a highball is fine too.

Finally, Ryuji wrapped up the video by urging viewers to make the Yamachan-style wings and try them, since the spice turned out especially well.