I was born in a small town called Nobeoka on the southern island of Kyushu, Japan. Nobeoka isn’t known for much, but their virtually unknown claim to fame is a small diner not far from Nobeoka station, that invented Chicken Nanban (チキン南蛮). Through some miracle (or because the dish is so damn good), this humble dish managed to work its way from my hometown into Japanese restaurants across the world.
The irony is, like many famous Japanese dishes, Chicken Nanban has foreign roots. According to the creator, it was inspired by a dish called Nanbanzuké, which is made with fried fish and onions soaked in a sweet vinegar sauce.
If you think that this sounds a lot like escabeche, you’d be right. The Portuguese brought Peixe Frito de Escabeche to Japan in the mid 17th century along with other fried dishes such as Peixinhos Da Horta (better known as Tempura). The term “nanban” was originally used to refer to these European traders and missionaries, so nanbanzuké simply means “soaked European-style”
JuJust as the Portuguese dish evolved after arriving in Japan, Chicken Nanban has seen its share of changes as it spread back around the globe. Most recipes today have you prepare a flour or starch-coated Karaage, which is then soaked in sweet and sour nanban sauce. While it’s hard to go wrong with marinated fried chicken, the original recipe is simpler, yet the crisp, fluffy tendrils of egg coating the chicken are what make the dish so magical. Like a meringue, the egg makes an incredibly light batter that’s both adept at soaking up the Nanban sauce while disappearing into a pool of flavor as the strands of egg dissolve in your mouth. Topped with a chunky lemon tartar sauce, the contrast of tastes and textures is sublime.
The trick to getting Naochan’s trademark shag carpet of egg on top is to pour a little extra egg onto each piece of chicken after it’s been added to the oil. The egg blooms into a wooly nest as it hits the hot oil, while gravity pulls it down and anchors it to the chicken. After being fried, the chicken is usually soaked in the Nanban sauce for a few seconds.
Chicken Nanban is always served with a side of Japanese tartar sauce, and it usually includes some thinly shredded cabbage on the side. In a Chicken Nanban Teishoku (定食 – set meal), it also typically includes a bowl of rice and miso soup.
In Japan, Chicken Nanban is usually prepared using skin-on boneless chicken leg, which includes the meat from the thigh and drumstick in one piece. If you can’t find this cut near you, you can either debone whole chicken legs yourself, or you can substitute chicken thighs. This can also be made with chicken breast, but I recommend butterflying the breast, so that it cooks through more evenly, and it will not be as juicy or flavorful as using chicken legs.
While it won’t stay crisp forever, the egg coating won’t dissolve into mush over time like a flour or potato starch coating would, which makes Chicken Nanban perfect for packing into a bento box lunch. You can include the whole leg sliced, or you can cut the leg into smaller bite-size pieces before dusting it with flour and coating it with egg.
Ingredients
Tartar Sauce
- 1 medium-boiled egg peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon celery finely chopped
- 1/2 scallion minced
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise Japanese mayo works best
- 1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper (to taste)
- 1 pinch salt (to taste)
Nanban Sauce
- 2 tablespoons usukuchi soy sauce light color , not low sodium
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
Chicken
- vegetable oil for frying
- 450 grams boneless skin-on chicken thighs
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour for dusting
- 1 jumbo egg
Steps
- To prepare the tartar sauce, add the boiled egg, celery, scallion, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon zest, and lemon juice to a bowl and stir to combine. Add salt and white pepper to taste.
To make the nanban sauce, add the soy sauce, sake, sugar and ginger to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Continue boiling for 1 minute and then turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar.
- Add 2-inches of oil to heavy bottomed pot and heat to 340 degrees F (170 C) and prepare a wire rack and pan.
- Trim any excess fat off the chicken and lightly salt and pepper.
- Dust the chicken with flour.
- Beat the egg in a bowl until uniform and then dip the chicken in the egg to thoroughly coat.
- Gently lower the egg coated chicken skin-side down into the hot oil and then drizzle a little of the remaining egg onto the tops of each piece of chicken. The egg will quickly “bloom” and spread out.
- Use tongs or chopsticks to fold the egg back over the chicken.
Fry the chicken until it's golden brown and cooked through (about 6-8 minutes). You'll want to flip the chicken over a few times, but be careful not to break the crust off off the chicken.
Dip the fried chicken in the sauce, flipping it over a few times to coat it evenly.
Slice and serve the chicken with the tartar sauce.
I spent two years living in Kyushu, not as an esl teacher or a student but to do community service. I spent most of my time in Miyakonojo which is a small town in Miyazaki. I loved it there. One family that I got to know well cooked Chicken Nanban as a regular meal, and it was always amazing. Hokka Hokka Tei serves a mediocre bento version, but this recipe reminds me of the food I came to love. Thanks Marc for taking the time to prep this dish!
Hi Stephen, what a coincidence, my grandfather was from Miyakonojo and I still have family there. Anyway thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoy!
Just tried the recipe! Been drooling over it since I saw it! My kids LOOOVED it, even my hard-to-feed, picky eldest son.
This is definitely not the last time we are making this. Thank you for sharing! Happy New Year’s!
This looks incredible!
Oh I love this recipe, Marc! I had no idea what chicken nanban was, but thanks to your explanation now I know! Learning something every day… 🙂
Yum! I’m a little timid with anything that involves more than a few tablespoons of oil but it looks sooo good and I love Asian food so much I’m trying it. Thanks!!
WEll my goodness there’s so much information in your post, I love it. Your chicken looks delicious!
I love everything about this–it is pretty much my ideal food blog post. Great pics, interesting international food, great back story. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! I had chicken nanban for the very first time on Friday and I was very interested in knowing where this recipe originated. It’s actually quite a westernized dish at first sight. Thanks for the history lesson! I have to try this at home. By the way, can I use mirin in the nanban sauce in replace of the sake?
Hi Audrey, a couple of things with mirin. I don’t use it much in my recipes because most mirin you can buy outside Japan is fake (i.e. it’s alcohol, corn syrup, salt, flavorings and preservatives). If you can get your hands on real mirin (only ingredients should be rice, water and koji), it can be a great way to add some more flavor to a dish, but it has a vey powerful flavor, which is why it’s used sparingly. If you were to replace the sake with real mirin in this recipe, I think the flavor of the mirin would overpower the other ingredients, which is why I’d recommend using a mixture of mirin and sake. The other thing you will need to do is lower the amount of sugar since mirin is pretty sweet.
Hi Marc, thanks for your fast reply. I only recently started cooking with mirin and it never occurred to me that there is an issue with the ingredients/brand when buying mirin. If I had known earlier, I would’ve been more careful before purchasing that huge bottle of mirin. Thank you for your advice because I do find it quite sweet and I use very little each time I make a sauce. What kind of sake is good for cooking? Around what price range ($) should I be looking at? Thanks a lot!
Hi Audrey, it’s hard to say by price, because there’s so much variance, but when you cook sake, the alcohol and most of the aroma gets vaporized, so the real purpose is to add umami to a sauce/dish. This is something that even an inexpensive sake should be able to do just fine, so as long as it’s sake (not “cooking sake”) you should be fine. Aside from being labelled as such, cooking sake usually has stuff like salt and preservatives added, which can ruin a recipe.
Thank you so much for your professional advice. Japanese cuisine is one that I have very little experience in. I’m looking forward to improving my skills!
Hi Marc!
We just finished the Nanban dinner. It was something really special! Very easy to prepare. Also I have made last week the beef hamburger. This is will be in our menu very often. Thanks a lot! Oksana
Hi Marc:
Hi Marc: Let’s try this again. I have a tfal airfryer. It has a paddle inside that rotates around. Could I do the chicken in this. If so for how long? It looks so delicious!
Hi Charlie, I’ve never tried this with an air frying however based on what I know of air fryers(which isn’t much), I don’t think this will work. For the egg to form the tendrils that makes the breading, it needs to be suspended in a liquid. If you made this in an air frying I think you’re going to end up with chicken surrounded by an omelette.
It’s incredibly hard to find skin-on, boneless chicken on the east coast of the US. Any ideas? I love skin-on teriyaki, etc. but everything here either has bones or is boneless and skinless…
Hi Ilonka, I’m not sure where on the east coast you’re on, if you’re near a big city you can try a Japanese grocery store. Otherwise you should be able to ask a butcher to debone either whole legs or thighs. The last option and the one I used to do when I lived there is to buy whole thighs and debone them yourself. It’s not hard and there are tutorials online if you’re not sure how.
Love this recipe! Thanks again for another great recipe.
You’re welcome Eileen!
Tried the recipe, with a few mishaps but still good. At least now I don’t have to get the bento version from the combini when the craving strikes. Thank you.
Hi Cykii, sorry to hear you had some mishaps, can I ask what went wrong? Would love to have a chance to clear up any confusing parts of the recipe.
I lived in Nobeoka back in the early 90s. I miss chicken nanban so much. Thank you for this recipe – I’m definitely going to try it.
Hi Tom, thanks for dropping by to share! I hope you enjoy this and it’s able to bring back some memories😉
Me too! I was in Nobeoka as an alt 95-96! We were on a family holiday and had chicken nanban in Singapore before going back to Uk. Oh my goodness, it was like stepping back in time to Nobeoka. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed it and Nobeoka! Just the best comfort food. My boys and husband fell in love with it too and now I’m going try it on Wednesday for my eldest’s birthday dinner! Wish me luck! Just hope I can find sake in Sutton Coldfield!
Hi Suzanne, thanks for dropping in to share your story! Good luck, and I hope your family enjoys it!
Thanks Marc. Great recipe. We haven’t been able to go to our favorite local Japanese restaurant (in Toronto Canada) for chicken Nanban due to the lockdown. It’s my daughter’s favorite dish and thanks to you I am making it at home now! Tastes awesome 😎
Hi Clement, I’m glad to hear you and your family enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by to let me know!
I’ve totally subscribed. I love the way you presented the article. I haven’t made the dish yet but I had to leave a comment. I’ve made other versions of it but I am excited to try this recipe
Thanks Martin, I hope you enjoy it! This is one of my favorite dishes.
I can say WOW! As a cook I am very careful with recipes I follow and ready to adjust but this was so good. I am very pleasantly surprised. The only thing I did was add chili sauce before the tartare sauce. Wife said she didn’t need it LOL. But yes a really good recipe and I live in Japan!
Hi David, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this! Thanks for stopping by to let me know. I love the idea of adding chili sauce to the marinade. I’m gonna try it next time!