- 1 day ago
Give the old potato salad recipe an Asian flavor upgrade! In this video, Chef John shows you how to make Japanese potato salad with teriyaki chicken, a fun twist on the classic Southern side. For this version, chicken is marinated in a spiced soy sauce marinade to give it a ham-like effect. Combine your ingredients before adding the star teriyaki chicken and mixing with mayonnaise and seasoned rice vinegar for a creamy, tangy side dish. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and green onions and enjoy!
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Japanese Potato Salad with Teriyaki Chicken.
00:09That's right, this incredible potato salad is usually made with ham,
00:13but I decided to use a teriyaki method to turn some chicken into ham,
00:17and the results really were amazing.
00:20Okay, this is without a doubt the best potato salad you've never had.
00:24And to get started, we'll put together our marinade,
00:26and that will include some soy sauce, some sake, and some mirin,
00:31which is like a sweet Japanese cooking wine.
00:34And you'll usually find that right next to the soy sauce and the rice vinegar at the market.
00:38And then to turn this teriyaki marinade into something more like a brine,
00:42we'll add some brown sugar, some salt, as well as a little bit of smoked paprika.
00:47Since as I mentioned, we're going to use this to turn some chicken thighs
00:50into something that has a very similar taste and texture to ham,
00:54which, by the way, Michelle calls teaching pigs to fly.
00:57But anyway, once that's mixed up, and we've transferred our thighs in,
01:01we will toss those around until they're nicely coated,
01:04and then we'll push and poke them down into the brine as best we can.
01:08And yes, if you have to, you could use one big chicken breast,
01:11but the thighs really do work much better here,
01:14for the hammy effect we're going for.
01:17But either way, once that's set, we'll go ahead and pop on the lid,
01:20and we'll pop it in the fridge overnight.
01:23And while it's in there, if you want to give it a toss or two, go ahead.
01:26And yes, we could just do this for a couple hours,
01:28but for a ham-like effect, we definitely want to go overnight.
01:32And then the next day, or whenever you're going to cook this,
01:35we'll place a pan over medium-high heat,
01:37with a little bit of sesame oil in it,
01:39and we'll transfer those chicken thighs in, smooth side down.
01:43And as soon as these start to cook, a bunch of liquid's going to come out.
01:46But that's totally fine,
01:48since that will eventually evaporate and start to caramelize.
01:51And about three or four minutes later,
01:54our pan's going to look like this.
01:56And what we'll do is go ahead and flip those over.
01:58And once that's accomplished, we'll pour in our marinade.
02:01And by the way, if I was actually going to serve this as teriyaki chicken,
02:06we would probably want to brown and caramelize the surface a little more than this.
02:09But because we're going to cube it up and use it in our salad,
02:12that's really not going to matter.
02:14But anyway, once our marinade's in, we'll wait for that to come to a boil,
02:19at which point we can reduce our heat to medium.
02:21And we'll let that cook for about five or six minutes,
02:24or until the liquids are reduced by about half.
02:27And our chicken is safely cooked through.
02:30And once that happens, what we'll do is pull this off the heat,
02:33and we'll transfer that into a clean container,
02:35and we will pour what's turned into an absolutely gorgeous teriyaki sauce over the top.
02:40And that's it.
02:41We'll simply let that cool down,
02:43and then pop it in the fridge until we need it.
02:45And we can move on to making our Japanese potato salad,
02:49which for me is going to start with some Yukon gold potatoes,
02:52that I've peeled and rinsed.
02:54And we will cut those in half through the narrow side,
02:57which is going to give us the most surface area.
03:00And then once halved,
03:01we will cut them lengthwise twice into three pieces,
03:05and then we'll turn and slice across,
03:07to hopefully get some very uniform cubes.
03:10And I prefer these to be about a half inch to three quarters of an inch in size.
03:14But the most important factor here,
03:17is no matter what size you end up with that first potato,
03:20try to repeat that as close as you can to the rest of your potatoes.
03:23So these cook nice and evenly.
03:25And by the way, some russets would also be a good choice here.
03:28So if you prefer those, feel free.
03:31I mean, you are after all the Mark Matsumoto,
03:33of which potato to go to.
03:35And by the way, Mark's an old friend,
03:37and I've adapted this recipe from one of his.
03:41And once our potatoes are cut,
03:43we'll go ahead and transfer those into a saucepan.
03:45And we will cover those with some nice cold fresh water,
03:48along with, of course, a little bit of salt.
03:51And we will wait for that to come up to a boil.
03:53And while we do,
03:55we should have plenty of time to slice our carrot,
03:57which I'm going to start by cutting it in half first.
04:00Since for the smaller bottom half,
04:01we'll just cut that into rounds.
04:04And then for the larger section,
04:05we will very carefully cut that in half lengthwise,
04:08being sure once we start the cut,
04:10our hands are on top of the blade.
04:12So there's zero chance at slicing our fingers.
04:15And I will lay those pieces down on the flat side
04:18and slice across the same width,
04:20which is probably going to be somewhere
04:21between an eighth and a quarter inch.
04:24All right, I hate to give measurements in sixteenths,
04:26but I think it's three of those.
04:28And the reason we want to cut these
04:29while our water comes up to a boil
04:31is because just as soon as it does,
04:33we're going to toss the carrots in with the potatoes,
04:36which have gotten a nice head start.
04:39And by the time those potatoes finish cooking
04:41and are nice and tender,
04:42which is probably going to be
04:43about seven or eight minutes from now,
04:45our pieces of carrots should be nice and sweet
04:47and just barely tender,
04:49which texturally is going to be perfect for this salad.
04:52But the more important key here
04:54is to cook the potatoes perfectly.
04:56So make sure you're checking them early and often.
04:59And what we want is the tip of a knife
05:01to slide in very easily,
05:03which means our potatoes are going to be nice and tender,
05:06but we do not want the potatoes collapsing
05:08and falling apart.
05:10And once we decide they are perfect,
05:12we'll go ahead and drain those really well
05:14and then transfer everything into a mixing bowl
05:16where I like to let them cool down
05:18until they're just barely warm.
05:19So I'm going to let those sit there
05:21at least 20 minutes or so.
05:22And while we're waiting,
05:23we can go ahead and slice our cucumber,
05:26which is one of the unique ingredients
05:28featured in a Japanese style potato salad.
05:30And I'm going to use a mandolin
05:32to get some beautifully thin and uniform slices.
05:35And we'll shoot for something
05:37about an eighth of an inch thick.
05:38And as you can see, I'm using mini cucumbers,
05:41also sometimes sold as Persian cucumbers.
05:44But if you're using bigger ones,
05:45you can just cut them in half.
05:47And then once those are sliced,
05:48we have to do a critical step,
05:50which is sprinkling these with salt,
05:53after which we'll give them a nice toss.
05:55And what we'll do is let these sit
05:56for about 15 minutes or so,
05:58during which time the salt's going to pull out water.
06:01Oh, and about every five minutes,
06:03it's good to give them another mix.
06:05And as they start to soften,
06:06a little bit of a massage.
06:08And then if we're going to include
06:09a little bit of diced onion in our salad,
06:12which I am,
06:13we will toss that with a little bit of salt as well.
06:16And what's so interesting about the salt's effect,
06:18especially with the cucumbers,
06:20is that it will draw water and soften them
06:22and improve the flavor.
06:24But they'll still retain a very pleasant, crisp texture.
06:27And they will not get soft and mushy.
06:29So don't worry.
06:31And once our 15 minutes is up,
06:33what we'll do is rinse the onions
06:35and toss those into our salad.
06:37And then we'll take our salted cucumbers
06:39and we'll squeeze out as much water as possible
06:41before we add those to our potatoes as well.
06:45And I think you'll be shocked
06:46at just how much moisture actually comes out.
06:49And that's it.
06:50Before we dress this,
06:51we'll add our last component,
06:53which would normally be diced ham,
06:55but not this time.
06:57We're going to pull out
06:57our chilled teriyaki chicken
06:59and we'll go ahead and cube it up.
07:01And then we'll toss maybe like half in the salad
07:04and save the rest for the top.
07:06And if you sample a piece now,
07:08and I'm definitely going to,
07:09it really is surprisingly ham-like.
07:12Okay, if something could taste like teriyaki chicken
07:15and ham at the same time,
07:17this would be it.
07:19And even if you don't make the potato salad,
07:21I must insist you make this.
07:23And that's it.
07:24Once our chicken ham is in,
07:25we will dress this very simply
07:27with some mayonnaise.
07:29And yes, I splurged and got the Japanese kind.
07:32And then we'll finish with a splash
07:34of seasoned rice vinegar.
07:36And we'll go ahead and give this a toss.
07:38And by the way, as you stir this together,
07:40I like to give it a few pokes here and there
07:42just to smash up some of those
07:44smaller pieces of potato,
07:46which adds an extra touch of starchiness
07:47to the salad.
07:49But if your potatoes went a little bit past perfect
07:51and they're kind of falling apart on their own,
07:54you don't need to do that.
07:55And by the way, that wouldn't be a problem.
07:58All right, there's a lot of versions of this salad
07:59that are pretty close to actual mashed potatoes.
08:02And while I do enjoy that style once in a while,
08:05for this, especially since I was adding
08:07the chicken cubes,
08:08I decided to try to keep the pieces of potato intact.
08:12And when we first mix this,
08:13it's going to be kind of saucy.
08:15But what we're going to do is pop this in the fridge
08:17for a few hours.
08:18And you'll see things will really tighten up.
08:21Of course, I didn't actually do that.
08:23I could only wait about 30 minutes
08:24because the light was perfect for final shots.
08:28And also I was starving.
08:29But even just 30 minutes later,
08:32you'll see things have tightened up.
08:33And what we'll do is give this a final mix
08:36and, of course, an official taste
08:38to see if we want to adjust with more salt
08:40or more vinegar or more mayo.
08:43And once we're happy,
08:44we'll go ahead and plate or platter that up.
08:47And as promised,
08:48I went ahead and garnished the top
08:49with the rest of the chicken,
08:50which I tossed with a little bit of the extra sauce.
08:53And then for a couple final touches,
08:55I did a little sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds,
08:58followed by some thinly sliced scallion threads,
09:01which is green onion sliced lengthwise,
09:04super thin,
09:05and then soaked in cold water until it curls.
09:07And that's it.
09:08My Japanese potato salad with teriyaki chicken
09:12was ready to enjoy.
09:14And that, my friends, as I said in the intro,
09:16is probably the best potato salad you've never had.
09:20And while this would be fantastic
09:21with the traditional ham,
09:23I thought the teriyaki chicken
09:24that we sort of turned into ham
09:26worked so well
09:27and really paired perfectly
09:29with all these other ingredients.
09:31And I know,
09:32cucumber does sound kind of weird
09:33in a potato salad,
09:34but trust me,
09:35it really does work
09:36as long as you don't skip
09:38the salting and squeezing step.
09:40Oh, and then I probably shouldn't mention this,
09:42but I'm gonna anyway.
09:44All right, a lot of recipes call
09:45for adding corn to this,
09:46which personally,
09:47I think sounds terrible.
09:49All right, generally,
09:50I want my potato salad
09:51to be kind of soft and comforting.
09:53And I just feel like
09:54those kernels of corn
09:54would be too distracting.
09:56But no matter what you add to yours,
09:58this Japanese potato salad
10:00will be a star
10:01at your next cookout or barbecue,
10:03which is why I really do hope
10:05you give this a try soon.
10:07So please follow the links below
10:09for the ingredient amounts,
10:11a printable written recipe,
10:12and much more info as usual.
10:15And as always,
10:18enjoy!
10:21I don't know.
10:22I don't care.
10:25I don't know.
10:26So please.
10:31I'm going to go toPERF1,
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