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.
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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
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
Why it works- 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
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Ahmad says
I left the sake out and it still tasted really good. Thanks for sharing!
Marc Matsumoto says
Happy to hear you enjoyed it Ahmad! Thanks for letting me know!
Lindsay says
Turned out great. We loved this as a ramen topping.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Lindsay, glad to hear this turned out well for you!
EC says
Somehow I wrong-headedly rolled mine wrong (tenders end to end lengthwise instead of doubled across the shortest length of the thighs), but I’m still looking forward to the result. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Marc Matsumoto says
That might effect the shape but it shouldn't have too big of an impact on the taste. I hope you enjoy it!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Aymen, Mirin is a type of rice wine which was originally intended for direct consumption (though most Mirin sold outside Japan is a fake "cooking wine" with salt and sugar added). Although it won't have the same taste, you could substitute water for the sake.
Aymen Ely says
Can I use Mirin? (I know its a wine but its not meant for direct consumption). I cannot use sake for religion purposes.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Giftz, I'm not sure where you heard that mirin is low alcohol, but it typically contains 14% ABV which is roughly the same as sake. It's also much sweeter than sake, so you'd need to cut back on the sugar in the recipe to compensate.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Giftz, do you eat bread? If so I can guarantee that there is some alcohol remaining even after it has been baked. Likewise Soy Sauce (and many other fermented foods) contain trace amounts of alcohol. Just leave the sake out if you want to make this.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Giftz, in most cases when you cook alcohol, the alcohol itself burns off, leaving just the flavor. Both bread and soy sauce contain trace amounts of alcohol because it is created in the production process. That being said, for this dish because it's wrapped and steamed the alcohol probably won't fully burn off. It won't taste the same, but you could just leave the sake out.
Giftz says
Yes, it's fine but ALL the alcohol has to be out in order for it to be ok to eat. I just want to enjoy ramen with chashu without the need of pork of alcohol. ;(
Giftz says
Will mirin work? As it has such a low alcohol content that there will probably be no alcohol remain when cooked. Or is it more preferred to just do water?
Giftz says
I cannot consume alcohol for religious reasons. 🙁
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Krishna, a couple things with mirin. First, most mirin sold outside Japan is fake (or at least not very high quality). If the ingredient label shows anything other than water, rice, and koji, it is not real mirin. That's why I don't usually use mirin in my recipes. The second thing is that it is much sweeter than sake, so you do decide to use mirin instead of sake, you probably won't need to add any sugar. The last thing is that if you are able to find real mirin, it has a similar flavor profile to sake, but it's much more concentrated, so you may find the taste overwhelms the chicken.
Krishna says
Hi, I was wondering if its possible to substitute sake with mirin?
Tom Windwllow says
Bone the thigh. Very easy with boning or paring knife. Slide the knif carefully down the femur on both sides then use your fingers to tease the bone from the meat.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Sadia, it will work from a taste perspective, but without the gelatin from the skin I can't guarantee it will hold it's shape when you slice it.
Sadia says
i cant find boneless chicken thigh with skin in England can i use it without skin will it work?
Herr Yamamoto says
yeah of course, this was how i planned it 🙂 ...well i see now i tied it very tight, but didn't chris cross the twine, hope it works out anyway
Marc Matsumoto says
If you're going to freeze it you may want to steam it first and then freeze it, as you're going to lose a ton of water when you defrost the marinated chicken.
Herr Yamamoto says
Thanks for your reply, how about deepfreeze the rest for next time?
Herr Yamamoto says
Could i marinade the chicken for 2 days?