Hawaiian or Mochiko Chicken
MANILA, Philippines — How would you like your chicken? Is it filleted, crispy and golden, or served with a drizzling of sweet and spicy sauce on top?
Achieve this delightfully refreshing fried chicken goodness with The Maya Kitchen’s Hawaiian Chicken, which also answers to the name Mochiko Chicken.
Hawaiian Chicken is a popular chicken dish where the chicken is cooked and served with a tropical-inspired sweet and savory glaze. It usually has pineapple juice as an ingredient, which is why it is called Hawaiian Chicken. But sometimes it can so without pineapple juice so that it turns out a slightly different natural flavor.
Without pineapple juice and with sweet rice flour (achieved through a combination of glutinous rice flour and sugar) made even deeper in flavor with Japanese ingredients, such as mirin and Japanese soy sauce, it crosses over to become a version of Mochiko Chicken.
"Mochiko" refers to sweet rice flour, and classic Mochiko Chicken is Hawaiian-style deep-fried chicken with a light, crunchy bite. It is best enjoyed over a bowl of freshly cooked rice to absorb all that lovely glazed sauce.
The Maya Kitchen shows how to prepare the dish and add toppings that will add more touches of Japanese flavors for a full appreciation of the dish.
Hawaiian Chicken or Mochiko Chicken
Ingredients:
1/2 kg. chicken thigh fillet or breast fillet
1/4 cup Japanese soy sauce
3 tbsps. white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. mirin*
1 tbsp. grated garlic
1 tsp. fresh ginger juice (squeezed from 1 tbsp. grated ginger)
1/3 cup glutinous rice flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup Maya Cornstarch
Cooking oil, for deep-frying
Furikake (Japanese rice seasoning flakes), for topping
Japanese mayonnaise, for topping
Chili sauce, for topping
Procedure:
1. Cut chicken fillet into chunks. Set aside.
2. Prepare the marinade. In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sugar, salt, beaten egg, mirin, garlic, ginger juice, glutinous rice flour, baking powder, and Maya Cornstarch. Mix together.
3. Add chicken pieces to the marinade and mix to fully cover chicken with the marinade. Cover and allow chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4. To cook, heat cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Deep-fry chicken pieces, one at a time, until golden and crisp. Remove chicken and set on a paper towel or colander to drain off excess oil.
5. To serve, scoop rice into a bowl. Top with Hawaiian fried chicken. Drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise and chili sauce, if desired. Finally, sprinkle with furikake. Serve hot!
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
