This Chicken Chashu is rolled into a roulade making it easy to slice into beautiful rounds to top your favorite ramen recipe . It also make for a great side to a bowl of hot rice, or other Asian noodle soups .
- Why My Recipe Works
- What is Chicken Chashu?
- How to Make Chicken Chashu
- How to Serve Chicken Chashu
- 📖 Recipe
- Comments
Why My Recipe Works
- The layers of dark and light chicken mimic the look of pork belly chashu while creating contrasts in texture and taste.
- Marinating the chicken seasons it all the way through, drawing out excess moisture and tenderizing it.
- Rolling the chicken into a roulade and steaming the chashu keeps the meat moist and tender while giving it a nice shape to slice and use as a ramen topping.
What is Chicken Chashu?
Chashu is the Japanese version of Chinese Char Siu . Unlike its grilled Chinese counterpart, the Japanese version is typically made by rolling pork belly into a log and braising it until tender. It’s then unbound and sliced before being used to garnish bowls of ramen. When served on hot rice, or over a bowl of steaming noodle soup, the fat in the pork melts, making the meat literally fall apart in your mouth.
Recently I was working on creating a recipe for chicken ramen for those that can’t eat pork and decided I needed to develop a chicken version of chashu to finish it off. It started out as a garnish for chicken chashu ramen, but it was so good I ended up having most of it on rice and in sandwiches. This recipe makes two good size logs, so make it on a weekend and slice it up and enjoy it during the busy workweek.
How to Make Chicken Chashu
The first challenge in making chashu chicken was the shape. Pork belly is relatively flat and rolls up nicely, but how do you get chicken to look round? Sure, you could roll and tie it, but as the separate pieces of meat cooked I was pretty sure it would lose its shape. To solve this, I wrapped the whole roll in a few layers of foil before tying it with twine. This not only gives it a great cylindrical shape, it holds much of the juices in, helping to keep it moist.
Since pork belly is loaded with fat, you can cook it until it’s fall-apart tender without rendering out all the fat and making it dry. This presented the second challenge. How do you cook leaner chicken until tender while retaining the collagen and fat that make it moist? For this I took inspiration from a terrine, and steamed it instead of braising it. I also used skin on chicken thigh and wrapped it around leaner strips of breast meat (a.k.a. chicken tenders) to create a contrast of textures and colors that mimic pork belly.
The last quandary was that of flavor. Since my chicken was now going to be wrapped tightly in foil and steamed it didn’t leave a lot of opportunity to season the chicken while cooking. That’s why I decided to marinate the chicken in advance. This not only ensures the chicken is evenly seasoned, it reduces the water content of the chicken which concentrates its flavor and firms up the texture of the meat.
How to Serve Chicken Chashu
This chicken chashu makes the perfect topping for my twenty-minute Shoyu Ramen , which features a chicken ramen broth that tastes like it was simmered all day. If you’re a ramen fan, be sure to check it out. It also makes a delicious topping for a bowl of rice, or a filling for sandwiches.
If you enjoyed this recipe, I also have a sous vide version of chicken chashu over on Marc’s Recipes .
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients1x2x3x
- 1.14 kilograms boneless skin-on chicken thighs
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger (grated)
- ground white pepper
- 4 small chicken tenders
Instructions
- Put the ¼ cup soy sauce , 2 tablespoons sake , 1 tablespoon granulated sugar , and 2 teaspoons fresh ginger in a large Ziploc bag and mix together. Add the 1.14 kilograms boneless skin-on chicken thighs and make sure each piece is coated with the marinade. Press as much air out of the bag as possible, then seal and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, tear off a 3 foot long sheet of aluminum foil with the shiny side up. Lay half the marinated chicken thighs on the foil, skin-side down, to form a rectangle about 6 inches wide. Sprinkle the chicken generously with ground white pepper . Lay two of the 4 small chicken tenders on the chicken thighs. Since tenders taper on one end, you want to lay them facing in opposite directions so you end up with a core of chicken tenders that is roughly the same thickness of both ends.
- Tightly roll the chicken being careful not to sandwich the foil between the layers of chicken. When the chicken portion is rolled, continue rolling with the rest of the foil to form a tight cylinder. Twist both ends of the foil shut.
- Cut an 8 foot length of twine, fold the twine in half, then tuck the midpoint under one end of the roll. Bring both ends of the twine up either side of the roll, cris-cross the twine, then flip the roll over and bring it back around. Repeat until you’ve reached the other end of the roll, then tie the twine in a knot. The twine should look like a laced shoe on either side. Make a second roll using the rest of the chicken.
- Bring a steamer to a boil, then add the rolled chicken. Cover with a lid and steam for 1 hour. When it’s done, remove the chicken from the steamer and allow it to cool. Place the roll in the refrigerator overnight to let the collagen set.
- When your chicken chashu is ready, unwrap it, slice it and put it on a bowl of chicken ramen, or have it on top of rice as a donburi.
Nutrition Facts
Chicken Chashu
Ingredients
- 1.14 kilograms boneless skin-on chicken thighs
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger (grated)
- ground white pepper
- 4 small chicken tenders
Instructions
- Put the ¼ cup soy sauce , 2 tablespoons sake , 1 tablespoon granulated sugar , and 2 teaspoons fresh ginger in a large Ziploc bag and mix together. Add the 1.14 kilograms boneless skin-on chicken thighs and make sure each piece is coated with the marinade. Press as much air out of the bag as possible, then seal and refrigerate overnight. 1.14 kilograms boneless skin-on chicken thighs, ¼ cup soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sake, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
- The next day, tear off a 3 foot long sheet of aluminum foil with the shiny side up. Lay half the marinated chicken thighs on the foil, skin-side down, to form a rectangle about 6 inches wide. Sprinkle the chicken generously with ground white pepper . Lay two of the 4 small chicken tenders on the chicken thighs. Since tenders taper on one end, you want to lay them facing in opposite directions so you end up with a core of chicken tenders that is roughly the same thickness of both ends. ground white pepper, 4 small chicken tenders
- Tightly roll the chicken being careful not to sandwich the foil between the layers of chicken. When the chicken portion is rolled, continue rolling with the rest of the foil to form a tight cylinder. Twist both ends of the foil shut.
- Cut an 8 foot length of twine, fold the twine in half, then tuck the midpoint under one end of the roll. Bring both ends of the twine up either side of the roll, cris-cross the twine, then flip the roll over and bring it back around. Repeat until you’ve reached the other end of the roll, then tie the twine in a knot. The twine should look like a laced shoe on either side. Make a second roll using the rest of the chicken.
- Bring a steamer to a boil, then add the rolled chicken. Cover with a lid and steam for 1 hour. When it’s done, remove the chicken from the steamer and allow it to cool. Place the roll in the refrigerator overnight to let the collagen set.
- When your chicken chashu is ready, unwrap it, slice it and put it on a bowl of chicken ramen, or have it on top of rice as a donburi.
