We've all had versions
of products using Koji,
like soy sauce,
miso, sake.
All of those goods
are started with Koji.
For example,
if I mixed Koji with
cooked soybeans and like
left that in a clay pot
in my house somewhere,
in a year, that would
just turn into miso.
How-To Make Koji Fried
Chicken With Angela
Dimayuga, Angela
Dimayuga Exec.
Chef, Mission Chinese.
My name's
Angela Dimayuga.
I'm the Executive Chef at
Mission Chinese Food in
New York City.
I'm gonna make
Koji Fried Chicken today.
Koji Fried Chicken is
a dish that we serve
at Mission Chinese Food.
The chicken is, just
marinated with, ginger,
scallion and garlic,
and then some Koji.
And then Koji is this
white culture that,
Japanese people use for
traditional fermentation
projects.
This is kind of like
a quick use of Koji.
I, I just pick it up at
like any Japanese market.
It just looks like
dry rice grains.
And the culture is just
in the, the rice grains.
And you just inoculate
it by cooking the Koji,
adding it to like
white rice and
water, and you just
make like a slurry.
It looks like porridge.
And then you just leave
that out for a week.
And just agitate
it every few days.
What you get is just like
this sweet-smelling like
race, that smells
sort of like sake.
That's what we use to
start the base marinades.
It also caramelizes the
outside of the chicken
really well when
you deep fry it, so
that we don't need to use
any starches or batters.
The Koji itself will
turn the protein
molecules into
more of sugars.
So, that's why it also
aids in like the color
and caramelization and
the flavor.
So, the first part
of this dish is just
marinating the chicken
with the Koji rub.
I just take some ginger,
like an,
a one inch piece.
Just about like two
cloves of garlic.
One scallion, and
then just cut it
really nice and thin.
I like to use
a microplane with ginger
just because it also just
leaves the tough fibers
that you don't
really need in this.
And then, this ginger or
garlic now,
so, these are just the
three like aromatics that
you're gonna use to
season your chicken.
Then, you're gonna
add your Koji to it,
which I have here.
It's totally like
this active culture.
It's really bubbly.
This one is like
about a month old,
so, the rice grains
have broken down.
Add like four
tablespoons there to it.
Tablespoon of salt.
And then, just mix
this all together.
So, I have
a whole chicken
that I just broke down
into two pieces here.
I just butcher the
chicken off of the rib
cage cuz that's also
how you, you typically
get your chicken served
with style over rice.
So, at this point you
want to cover your
chicken in this mixture,
and you really just wanna
get into like all the
groves here, so that it,
it totally, it just
like penetrates all
the parts of the chicken.
It ages it sort of in
a way that like you
age like dry aged beef,
like ribeye, and
with, the chicken I feel
like it's a little bit
uncommon to see like
an aged, chicken.
Just age it in
your refrigerator.
I'm just gonna put it
on just a sheet pan but
with a rack on it so the
air can get right under
the chicken as well.
And you always want to
leave it skin side up so
that the skin
gets really dry.
So, it just fries
really nicely and
gets really crisp.
So, at this point yeah,
you could just leave
it in your fridge.
You don't even
have to like
deal with it for
three days.
And this chicken has
been air dried for
three days now, you'll
just notice that the skin
just looks a lot more
translucent, which is,
that means that Koji
is really working and
aging the chicken.
At this point,
it's just ready to fry.
If you're frying this at
home, you just wanna have
a pot that's just
halfway filled with oil.
That's just to be safe
from like splattering,
you just want to make
sure the temperature is
at anywhere between
like 360 to 375.
I'm using a candy
thermometer to check out
the temperature, or,
for me at, at home,
I just use
a chopstick and
see if it has like
a nice, mellow bubble
that's coming out
of the chopstick.
It just needs about
4 to 6 minutes and
you can flip it over
to make sure all
the sides are immersed
in the oil.
And then, I usually,
I just use a,
neutral oil like soybean
oil or anyone could just
use like canola oil or
grape seed oil.
I'm just looking to
make sure that it's not
sticking to
the bottom and then,
just also making sure
it's totally immersed.
It's just gonna turn
into an even brown.
Like I said the Koji
just like allows that to
happen a lot faster than
if this was just salt,
like salted chicken.
So, you could see
that caramelization
already happening there.
I'm taking a cake tester.
And I always like to
keep this in my kitchen
at home too, because if
you're cooking protein,
you can feel what
temperature the internal
temperature is,
by body heat.
So, I usually just poke
it in the thickest part
of the meat, and
then just press it
against my lip.
What you're looking for
is a little bit above
body temperature, and
then you can pull it and
rest it.
It's about ready
to come out.
Season it while it's hot,
so
the salt just sticks
right to the chicken.
It looks good, while
that's resting, I'm just
gonna get a couple other
ingredients ready.
I'm serving today, my
Koji chicken with a hot
sauce that we make in
house using preserved
chilis and
preserved lemons.
If you're making it at
home, like, feel free
to just use anything
like Frank's Red Hot or
Sriracha or whatever you
have in your cupboard.
All I do is just cut up
some chili just like in
one-inch chunks,
and then,
cover it in a fair amount
of, salt just to cover.
You just, you just
toss that together and
then you just leave this
in a air tight container.
But I would just keep
this somewhere warm like
maybe near my oven and
then what happens is it
breaks down and
gets really juicy.
You wanna just check it
every day and just like,
give it a good shake so
that you make sure that
the salt's incorporated,
in all the pieces
of the pepper.
And as soon as
it looks like,
it's maybe been like
blanched or boiled,
where they look,
it looks really like.
It's flattened out.
The, the color will
change to like
a lighter green.
It's pretty much
ready to use and
I would just put it
in my refrigerator.
If you see like black
mold or green mold, it's,
you just have to
throw it away.
So, there should never
be any mold on it.
I also make
preserved lemons,
and it's pretty much the
same process to preserve
lemons except you have to
cover it, in some juice,
so, these are some
lemons that I preserved.
You just cover it in
a lot of salt as well,
it takes about at
minimum, like 3 weeks to
get to this stage where
it's nice and it's,
it's like kind of it
turns like clear.
It's, it also feels like
it had been blanched.
So, at this point,
you could use
the entire lemon.
But, I,
I prefer to just use the,
the flesh itself.
Like it's nice and
bitter but
I don't want it to
be too bitter, so,
you would just throw
that, the pith away,
the white pith.
I have my, just my lemons
that are just cleaned up.
And then, this is just
some of, the fermented
chili product after
it's been fermented for
about a week.
What we do is
just blend it
in your food processor.
You just get these
nice chunks.
So, now, I'm gonna just,
I'm just gonna
blend this up,
I'm also gonna
use some of the,
preserved lemon juice
to get this started.
And then at this point,
I just add a little
olive oil to
just balance
out that heat.
And then this is
just the end result.
The oil makes it
like nice and
bright, gives it a nice
yellow hue to it.
So, yeah, so,
there's the hot sauce.
And then,
like to serve it with
just like a lemon wedge.
You know, it's like soup,
kind of fatty cuz
it's just deep fried.
And then,
I always like to just
make a little salad.
Just like thinly sliced
cucumbers, and daikon.
I have a,
a green daikon here.
You don't have
to have daikon.
I think cucumber
would be fine too but
I just like the spiciness
of radishes and
the crunch.
Season these with
a little bit of salt.
And then your chicken
should just be nice and
rested at this point,
ready to slice.
I also like to just poke
at it to see like how
firm the meat is.
It should have
a little bit of give.
If it's, if it feels
really hard when you
press it, that means
you over cooked it, so,
it should bounce
back a little bit.
So, I just split
it at the breast.
Pick up my drumstick.
The wing,
which is my favorite part
cuz it's super crispy.
I just sliced my chicken
breast into about four or
five pieces.
And then, usually when
I'm cooking at home,
even though, you know,
say I made this Koji
Chicken at home and like
all these fermentation
projects take super long.
I get really im,
impatient about
making rice at home,
so, I'm really lazy and I
would just go downstairs
and get like a dollar
box from the takeout.
But, so,
here's my take out rice.
Just put a little on
the bottom basically just
to collect a lot
of juices.
At this point,
I'm gonna put my chicken
right over my rice.
And then a little salad.
I always take all the,
the bones from the,
from butchering chickens
and then just make it
into a really like
simple like, broth.
I always like to just
have some, like chicken
broth in my freezer if I
have anything leftover
from, making
a chicken dish.
So, I have some of that,
reduced.
Then I just use that
as a sauce too.
So, has ginger and
scallion in it.
And then a little
cilantro on
top, that's it.
I'm gonna go for my wing,
cuz that's the best
part to me.
