Poor Man's Surf and Turf

I went to Mitsuwa, our favorite Japanese supermarket, to buy some groceries and I wanted to cook some fish. However, walking down the meat aisle I saw some jidori chicken. Jidori chicken is basically organic, cage free chicken raised really well. After being blown away by the jidori at LAN, I needed to buy some and see how it performs. Below are the recipe / results.

Broiled Jidori Chicken and Asian Style Scrambled Eggs
Ingredients
1 pack (1 pound?) Jidori Chicken thighs
2/3 cup Dry Sake
Sea Salt
5 Large Organic Eggs
1 Scallion - white part only - finely minced
1 garlic clove finely minced
1 tsp finely minced ginger
1/3 cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1 Lemon
Japanese White rice cooked according to package instructions

1) Marinate chicken in 1/3 cup dry sake for about 10 minutes. Not sure what this does, but according to Porthos it's traditional Japanese.
2) Whisk eggs, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and remaining sake in a bowl. Whisk until foamy and pale - maybe 5-10 minutes. Not sure if this helps that much, but saw some chicken farmer in France make eggs this way on Tyler's Ultimate. Set aside.
3) Dry chicken thoroughly and place in a baking dish, skin side up. Turn on broiler and wait till it gets to the maximum heat
4) Add a pinch of sea salt to both sides of the chicken.
5) Place baking dish under broiler. Cook until skin is incredibly crispy - maybe 5 minutes. Turn the chicken around and cook until finished. Maybe 3 minutes depending on your broiler. Chicken should have crispy skin and be super juicy on the inside. If it's still raw, cook some more, but make sure the skin doesn't burn. Let rest for 5 minutes.
6) While chicken is resting, heat up a non-stick pan on medium heat. Add egg mixture and gently fold until curds start forming. Once curds start forming, stir until a little less than 1/2 the mixture is liquid. Take off heat and fold some more until only 5% of mixture is liquid.
7) Serve Rice, add scrambled eggs, then add chicken on top. Top chicken with a squeeze of lemon and garnish with more scallions.

The flavor of the chicken is really good, but I was expecting phenomenal stuff since it was Jidori chicken. I was still pleased though. Crispy skin, super moist meat, and pretty good chicken flavor - way better than your supermarket Perdue chicken. The combination of the rice, egg, and chicken are heavenly.



Pan Seared Salmon
Ingredients
2 Salmon Fillets Scaled, Pin Bones Removed
1/3 cup Dry Sake
Sea Salt

1) Marinate Salmon in sake for 10 minutes.
2) Turn on non-stick pan to medium heat. Remove salmon and pat dry. Season liberally with salt on both sides.
3) Add a little peanut oil to pan. When oil is shimmering, add salmon skin side down.
4) Keep cooking skin side down side until 3/4 of the side of the fillet looks completed cooked - maybe 5 minutes. Important step is to not move the salmon at all.
5) Flip fillet over. Skin should be super crispy. Cook for another 2 minutes and take off the heat and cover the pan.
6) Let rest for 10 minutes and serve with chicken and asian style scrambled eggs.

The key here is to get real good salmon that looks fatty - nice thick white streaks between the flesh. If you have good salmon, you don't need to do much. Again, not sure what the sake did, but I'm adding it to my repertoire. Crispy skin, moist fatty salmon, and sea salt make for a nice fish. This combined with the Jidori and Asian Style Scramble Eggs makes for a tasty poor man's surf and turf.