Katsuobushi Sous Vide Fried Chicken

64ºC Katsuobushi Sous Vide Fried Chicken is the Best Chicken

So we don’t like to brag…but this chicken is the best chicken. Basically ever.

We had the chance to serve these magical pieces of poultry to the guests at an event benefitting the Heritage Radio Network in NYC and let’s just say people came back for way more than seconds. It was more like fourths or fifths, with several “This is my favorite dish!”, “Sorry, can I grab just ONE more piece (but really they mean they’ll come back several more times for more)?”, or “MMMM!”

Cofounder Bam tested his recipe several times before perfecting it and has written it below to share with you all! Enjoy! 

DASHI MARINADE

• • 1L Drinking Water

  • 150g Katsuobushi flakes (more or less for strength to your liking)

  • 10g dried wakame 

  • 1 tablespoon sea salt

  • 1/2 cup tamari sauce

CHICKEN

• • 20pcs Skinless chicken thigh de-boned and cut into bite sized pieces around 100 pcs

KATSUO FLOUR (dredging)

• • 200g Potato starch

  • 200g Wondra Flour

  • 20g katsuobushi powder (blended flakes)

  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt 

OIL

• • 500ml grape seed oil or soya oil for high temp frying

SRIRACHA AIOLI

• • basic mayo

  • a few squirts of sriracha

  • salt to taste

Begin by making dashi

1. Boil 1L water covered in a bigger pot than normal. Once boiled, add all ingredients and shut off the flame immediately. Don’t be surprised at how much 150g of dried katsuo there is for a little bit of water, that’s what the extra big pot is for. Stir rapidly to dissolve flavor from dried ingredients. Dashi is done in within 60 - 75 seconds. Strain and squeeze flavorful liquid from soaked katsuo and wakame. 

2. Taste, then Let cool in a bowl. It should be much saltier than you would want to drink as soup. Reserve for use later in refrigerator.

Marinate the meat

1. Cut and marinade the bite size chicken thigh in the reserved dashi. Thoroughly stir to expose all meat to the salty dashi. Let the salt equalize with the meat (1 hour or up to to overnight)

2. Once equalized, the meat should plump up and there should be a lot less liquid. 

3. Bag the chicken meat along with the marinade.

Cook Sous Vide

1. Sous vide at 63-64ºC (this is lower temp than usual for thigh meat because it will be fried as a second step. Reserving the doneness a little below desired eating temperature will guard against overcooking.)

2. The meat should be done after 2 hours. The marinade will now separate from the meat in a darker color liquid. 

3. Open the bag and discard the liquid (it’s delicious so save it if you want, for other sauces but it’s not for this recipe). The meat will look like it’s one giant piece in the bag due to the cross-linking of protein from the salt (a lot like how sausages meat stick from just using salt) but just a gentle squeeze will free the bite sized pieces from one another. 

Fry

1. Set the fryer oil temperature to around 185-190ºC (365-374ºF). Prep a bowl for salting

2. Dredge the chicken pieces in the katsuo flour to get a thin coat, shake them gently to get rid of the excess.

3. Drop the pieces into hot oil as close as possible and away from you. The chicken will be crispy within two minutes.

4. Drop the crispy pieces while hot in the prepped bowl and sprinkle salt while tossing the pieces to get an even sprinkle. It’s important to do this fast because salt will only stick to fried food while it’s hot. 

Serve

Hot on a plate for you hungry people with sriracha aioli or with cracked black pepper.