Chikuzen Ni, Chicken and Vegetables

Chikuzen Ni, Chiken and Vegetables has many roots vegetables in the one tasety meal.   I make this Japanese Chicken and Vegetables dish often here in U.S.   I can buy Gobo from local Whole Foods store or Asian store, now.  Shiitake, I can find local grocery store easily.  Well,  Konnyaku, rotus roots and bamboo shoots are difficult to find at local store but I can often  find in Asian store.

Chikuzen Ni has many roots vegetables and they have very good fiber and nutritous food.  Those roots vegetables make your body warm when you eat them.  Raw vegetables like you see in regular salad make your body cool.  It is very healthy to eat roots vegetables, especially winter time.

Chikuzen Ni  is very orthodox Japanese taste food, sugar, sake, soy sauce, and mirin taste.  And Chicken, I use thigh is better than breast.  Japanese people eat chicken skin often so I would like to use without skin but I cook this time without skin.  Still little fat and it makes very good flavor for this food.    One of the ingredients you may not know which is Konnyaku.  If you don’t know about Konnyaku, read this page.   It is very healthy food.

You can see this Chicken and Vegetables Japanese  food in 1st of January.  Chikuzen is place name in Japan and that is  this food origin.  Now a days, this is popular Japanese Chicken and Vegetables food.  Usually Chikuzen Ni is not main dish but could be a second dish.  I think this is very unique food that you don’t see those mixed ingredients, even other asian countries.

Chikuzen ni Ingredients:

14 oz                         Chicken thighs, boned
1  (5 1/4 oz)             Carrot
1 (3 1/2 oz)              Burdock root (Gobou root)
2 inch (3 1/2 oz)     Lotus root
1/2 cake                   Konnyaku
3 1/2 oz                    Bamboo cooked
5 (I didn’t put it on this picture)            Shiitake mushroom
2tbs                           Vegitable oil
Sauce
2 1/2 cups                Dashi
2tbs                           Sugar
2tbs                           Mirin
5tbs                           Soy sauce
1tbs                           Sake

Instruction

1 Cut chicken into bite sized pieces.
2 Cut carrot, gobou, bamboo shoot and rotus root like picture below.

3 If you put Shiitake mushroom, cut half and take off the stem.

4 Tear connyaku into bite sized pieces by hand. parboil briefly.  But before you tear connyaku, put salt on konnyaku and rub it.  This way, salt makes water in konnyaku out of itself.

5 Put oil in the skillet,  and fry connyaku first.  This takes off the water inside of  konnyaku.  When you cook konnyaku, dashi and all flavor go into the konnyaku.  Tear the konnyaku by hand is also the effect that flavor easily goes  into the konnyaku than you use knife to cut it.

6 Heat oil in a skillet, add chicken, carrot, burdock, lotus root, konnyaku and bamboo in order, and stir fry.

7 Add dashi, sugar, and mirin, sake and cover with a drop-lid.

8 Bring to a boil, then lower heat. Cook until vegetables are tender, skimming.

9 Add soy sauce and keep cooking over medium heat until the sauce is almost gone.