Don/丼

Chicken wings rice bowl

I believe that properly cooked chicken skin is loaded with umami flavor. I particularly like it cooked till crisp. But for some, they simply don’t care enough so they remove skin from the meat and transfer it to my plate…Oh, thanks hon. My husband does the same for salmon skin.

It will be difficult to separate skin and meat with this recipe however, a measly amount of meat is all that is on the chicken wings and the rest is epidermis. This is technically teriyaki chicken in a donburi (bowl) style, don for short – rice and whatever dish in one bowl. For me having a meal this way, always stimulates my appetite. And less dishes to wash.

When the donburi style was started is not clear. Some say that a restaurant in Asakusa,Tokyo served Unagi (eel) don in 1837. As the popularity grew, other ‘don’ dish like oyako (chicken and egg ) don was created in 1891, and my fav, katsudon (fried pork cutlet) was introduced in 1913…genius!

Note: Preparing chicken wings is rather tricky and bothersome though, it’s all worth it in the end. You're using just middle part of the wing (tebachu/手羽中)keep the rest for other dishes. The chicken wings shrink as it cooks so make plenty. I will show you the recipes using the rest of chicken wings at next post.

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings  (Print recipe here) 
Modified recipe of Masahiro Kasahara – see his other recipe here

• 8 Chicken wings – 4 chicken wings per donburi
• For sauce (the amount is for 8 chicken wings)
        Soy sauce, sake and  Mirin 2 Tablespoons each
        Sugar 1 Tablespoon Whisk to combine well.
• Cooked rice 1 cup per donburi. Keep warm
• Seaweed (optional)
• Powdered sansho pepper (Japanese pepper)
• White toasted sesame seeds
• White radish sprout or long onion julienned for garnish.

1. Prepare wings  - wash chicken wings in large bowl full of water to inspect for any dirt or feathers and clean. Dry with a paper towel.
   A. Cut off the pointy part of the chicken wing.
   B. Slit skin in the between the middle section and rest. Grab both
        ends and bend to break the bone joint then cut off with a knife.
   
   C. Hold the flabby skin and slide knife above and along side of  bones to butterfly.
   
   

   D. Cut connecting tip of two bones. Scrape off the bones from meat. Remove any cartilage left on skin. After I was done with this I found an easier way to remove bones on YouTube. I definitely will try that method next time…just butterfly after you pulled off both bones…so much for the futile effort.

    
2. Heat non-stick pan at medium heat. Lay the prepared chicken wings in the pan skin side down and brown. Turn over to brown the other side. Be careful, chicken releases a lot of fat, it may splash. Turn off heat and wipe the excess oil up with a paper towel. Note: grill them until charred instead of pan fry if you like.
   
3. Turn the heat back on and pour the prepared sauce and cook until well coated.
4. Assembly – put rice in donburi, scatter torn seaweed on top of rice (if using), Place 4 pieces of chicken wings with some sauce over the rice, sprinkle with sesame seeds and Japanese pepper. Garnish with radish sprout or long onion. Serve warm.
   .

We finally tackled the procrastinated attic clean up. Guess what I found? Japanese currency. Lucky!

And a Disney dollar!

….from when we went to Disneyland for Christmas time many years ago… forgotten photos are destructing when you have more boxes to go through. Stand with Minnie quick! I demanded. No? My daughter was way too cool to pose for a photo with Disney characters.

Wow! How neat to find a photo of my brother-in-law. He is much older than my husband but they are close…super nice guy. I bet he is not happy that the San Antonio Spurs did not sweep the Portland Trail Blazers team in the playoffs last night.

Old records…collector items? Yeah, that’s us said my husband. ‘Junk collector’My very first ‘don’ that I made…this was in a mystery box #7, so many boxes so little time…

Always happy to receive flowers on Mother’s Day or any other day.And dinner at Masu was fantastic! From left – rip city rolls, fried tofu mousse, lamb curry rice and orange chocolate ice cream with edible flower.

So good that we finished it all up!