Chicken Tataki for Home Cooks: Cooked Through with Residual Heat, Not Served Raw

At the start, Ryuji warns that if you made something like chicken sashimi at home, it would "cause a huge backlash." According to him, the near-raw chicken tataki served at izakayas comes from places like Kagoshima Prefecture and is produced under very strict hygiene controls, which is why it can be eaten as tataki. If you want to eat it raw, he says, buy products made specifically for that purpose.

What he makes this time, then, is tataki that is properly cooked all the way through rather than raw. Ryuji stresses that while tataki has a strong association with raw meat, cooked tataki is also very delicious. It goes well with rice or as a snack with drinks, and it's easy to make.

He uses 350 g of chicken thigh. Breast is also delicious, and either is fine, but this time he goes with thigh. The aromatics are myoga ginger, shiso leaves, Japanese leek, and ginger, which he realizes partway through he forgot to bring out. For seasoning, there's salt, ponzu of your choice, and yuzu kosho.

He recommends coarse salt. Ryuji uses "Seto no Honjio," a favorite of his lately, but says regular salt is fine too. However, it's better to avoid salts with added umami seasoning, such as "Ajishio." He explains that they add too much umami and make things heavy once you pour on the ponzu.

Bring plenty of water to a boil in a large pot. Ryuji uses induction, saying it's faster for boiling water.

Put the chicken in a bag, add about two pinches of salt, and massage it in from the outside of the bag. This way your hands don't get very dirty. Next, as an optional step if you can, submerge the bag in water and use the water pressure to push out the air. The reasoning is that air left in the bag makes the chicken cook less evenly, so you remove as much as possible before tying it shut.

Putting the bag in the boiling water lowers the temperature, so bring it back to a boil. Once it's bubbling vigorously, turn off the heat and cover with a lid. Ryuji says that if you don't turn off the heat, it will overcook, and chicken thigh gets tough when boiled too long. When a staff member asks if this is like the method for making chicken ham, Ryuji answers, "Yeah, exactly."

Leaving it like this for about 20 to 30 minutes cooks it slowly through to the center at a relatively low temperature. If using breast, butterflying it slightly or making cuts in the thick parts helps it cook through more easily.

A staff member asks whether the meat needs to be brought to room temperature first. Ryuji replies that breast is better brought up a bit, but thigh isn't that thick, so it's fine straight from the fridge.

There's also a caution about where to leave it. If the room is extremely cold, it may not cook through, so he asks that you keep it somewhere lukewarm. In winter you should be a little careful, but in summer it's no problem at all, in Ryuji's view. Asked whether it's okay to leave it for an hour, he answers that it's fine since the water only cools down; it will be completely cold, but that might actually be better.

While the meat rests, cut the aromatics. The myoga is chopped on the diagonal, about two as a rough guide, though it's fine to use all three. Ryuji calls it a "must," since its fragrance and crisp texture evoke summer.

About five shiso leaves; if you love them, you can use ten. Roll them up and slice thinly. The leek is minced rather than julienned, because that gives a nicer mouthfeel.

Chop about 5 g of ginger. When a staff member asks, "No garlic today?", Ryuji laughs and replies that garlic would work too, but people probably think he just throws garlic into everything, and if he's tired of it, the viewers must be even more tired of it. Ginger suits the refreshing feel of summer, and uncooked ginger cools the body, making it good for summer, he explains.

Seeing him chop so many aromatics, the conversation turns to a past collaboration with Hasegawa. They chopped lots of aromatics then too, and he recalls it as a great collab that many viewers cooked along with. There's also some chat that, according to the stats, about 70% of Buzz Recipe viewers lately are men, and that the easy-to-understand seasoning seems to appeal to men.

Ryuji cites the fact that this recipe uses no oil at all as an advantage. That keeps the calories down, and using breast lowers them further, he says. During the tasting later, he repeats that since fat drips off when you sear it, it has far fewer calories than a typical meat dish, and suggests it might be good for people on a diet.

You could cook rice while it rests, but since the dish is eaten with ponzu, he recommends having it with somen at this time of year. His suggestion is that this way, everything is covered in one meal.

Checking the pot after about 25 minutes, the water is still quite hot. It's tasty warm, but since it's tataki, it's better cold if possible, so he moves it, bag and all, into ice water to cool it quickly. He says all the flavor is sealed inside the bag.

It's plenty tasty just sliced and topped with aromatics, but it's even better if you sear only the skin side or cook it in a frying pan. The best is searing over an open flame. A gas torch makes it easy, but as a method that works without one, he uses the stove flame this time.

Before searing, wipe off the moisture on the surface of the meat, because you want the skin to crisp up. Saying, "I didn't really wipe it off at all, but whatever," Ryuji gives it a rough wipe, stretches the skin out slightly, and starts searing. A charred aroma rises, and a staff member reacts, "Smells like a restaurant." Ryuji praises how this little effort adds such aroma, saying the smoke gives it a flavor like a yakitori shop.

Metal skewers are better, as bamboo ones will burn. Searing directly on the stove drips some fat and makes a mess, so you'll need to wipe off the grease afterward. Even if it gets a bit dirty, wiping it restores it to normal, Ryuji says. If you can't sear over an open flame, the only option is to cook the skin side in a frying pan.

Slicing the seared meat reveals a moist interior. Ryuji says you wouldn't get this by cooking it normally, and that this is what tataki is.

When a staff member asks whether the faint pink left in the cross-section is okay, Ryuji explains that this is the pink that appears when it's cooked, and there's no raw part. However, if the inside looks far too raw and pink, he asks that you cook it a bit more. In that case a microwave is fine, he adds, and since the doneness depends on factors like the size of the pot and the room temperature, use your own judgment.

At this point the meat is still warm. It's delicious served warm, and if you want it well chilled, cool it in the fridge before serving. Ryuji says that even though it's called tataki, it's fully cooked, so it's safe and reassuring. As the charred aroma drifts from the plate and around the room, a staff member describes it as "like Miyazaki on a plate."

Top the sliced meat with the aromatics in this order: ginger, plenty of leek, shiso, and finally myoga. Adding the red of the myoga makes it look much nicer, he says.

This time he boils a single serving of somen to go with it as a snack. The package says to boil for about 2 minutes, but Ryuji pulls them out at 45 seconds. That's his method, as it gives the noodles more firmness and makes them tastier. After boiling, rinse them in ice water to firm them up. If you have some left over, you can use the ice water from chilling the chicken.

He doesn't make a dipping sauce for the somen. Because so much care went into the chicken, it's delicious, and there's no need for an elaborate sauce. Saying yuzu-scented ponzu is refreshing and pairs well with the aromatics, he pours on a generous amount of his favorite ponzu (shown in the subtitles as "Kaori no Kura"). Since the somen will be eaten with this sauce too, it's fine to pour on extra. He adds a generous dab of Fundokin yuzu kosho, stressing, "This is important."

First, dip the aromatics and chicken in the ponzu and eat them together. Add yuzu kosho to taste. The staff react with "So good," "Refreshing," and "Luxurious," praising the moistness and the aroma of the charred bits. Ryuji says it's different from simply cooked chicken, and that he likes a little yuzu kosho for the added fragrance.

Next, toss the somen in the ponzu with the aromatics and eat. Ryuji says this is why he used so many aromatics. His claim is that somen eaten with ponzu is actually very delicious, and one staff member comments that, honestly, they had thought rice would be better, but maybe somen is the way to go. They also note that the chicken's umami has seeped into the ponzu.

Staff remark that even though it's supermarket chicken, it tastes like something a restaurant could serve, and that eating out, it could go for about 1,500 yen. They also mention that myoga usually comes in packs of three, so it's fine to use all of it, and that with vegetables from the aromatics and protein from the chicken, this makes a full meal.

When a staff member says you could make it at midday for lunch and also serve it as a snack for your husband in the evening, Ryuji adds that putting two pieces of chicken in the same pot takes the same amount of time, so you can make a double batch at once, chill one, and serve it at night. Ryuji's assessment is that it's actually a practical dish.

But you need to be careful when increasing the quantity. If making three or four pieces, put each in its own bag and use a large pot that can hold them all. With the pot used this time, two pieces is the limit. He explains that too much meat draws heat from the water and can leave it undercooked. If you want to cook more meat, use a bigger pot—that was the final caution.

At the end of the tasting, a staff member who doesn't usually eat leftovers finishes everything, and the episode wraps up with them saying that even though they were stuffed from eating plenty before filming, they could still eat it, and that since they like light, refreshing food, this kind of dish suits them.