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Chikuzenni (Simmered Chicken and Root Vegetables)

Chikuzenni (Simmered Chicken and Root Vegetables) reads umami 6.6, salinity 5.2 and sweetness 5.1 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Japanese main, about 5 hr 10 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 7.4 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 5.5 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 0.9 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 2.8 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 5.5 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 1.2 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.6 · Salinity 5.2 · Sweetness 5.1 · Richness 4.4 · Nutty 3.7 · Funk & Ferment 2.7 · Earthy 2.7 · Fruity 1.3 · Floral 1.2 · Bitterness 0.9 · Herbaceous 0.8 · Sourness 0.7

What's in it (15)

• shiitake mushrooms — 20 g
• chicken thigh — 400 g
• burdock root — 200 g
• lotus root — 200 g
• carrot — 150 g
• taro root — 150 g
• salt — 5 g
• konnyaku — 100 g
• sesame oil — 20 g
• niban dashi — 400 g
• sake — 44 g
• mirin — 30 g
• caster sugar — 13 g
• soy sauce — 44 g
• snow peas — 60 g

Time & effort: about 5 hr 10 min (50 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 143.8 kcal, 3.1 g protein, 10.8 g fat, 9 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

1. Squeeze the soaked shiitake out over the bowl, keep the soaking water, cut off the hard stems and quarter the caps. Strain the soaking liquid through a cloth to leave the grit behind; it is the backbone of the simmering broth and should not be thrown away.
2. Tear rather than cut the konnyaku: the ragged surface takes up seasoning where a knife-cut face does not. Parboil it 2 minutes to drive off its lime smell.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a heavy pan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken skin-side down for 3 minutes. Add the gobo, renkon, carrot, satoimo, konnyaku and shiitake and stir-fry 4 to 5 minutes until every surface is coated in oil and the edges of the root vegetables are turning translucent. Frying before simmering is what separates chikuzenni, also called gameni, from a plain nimono.
4. Pour in the dashi, the strained shiitake water and the sake, bring to a boil and skim off the foam for a minute. Add the sugar and mirin, lay on a drop lid and simmer 15 minutes.
5. Add the soy sauce and simmer 20 to 25 minutes more, uncovering for the last 10 so the liquid reduces to a shallow, glossy pool that just films the vegetables. Shake the pan rather than stirring, so the satoimo does not break down and cloud the sauce.
6. Let it stand 20 minutes off the heat, then scatter the snow peas over. Chikuzenni is the New Year dish of northern Kyushu, where the old province of Chikuzen was, but it is cooked all winter as an ordinary family supper and eaten at room temperature as readily as hot.
7. Substitutions: overnight can stand in for the dried shiitake mushrooms.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Kiriboshi Daikon no Nimono (Simmered Dried Daikon Strips) — Japanese
• Hijiki no Nimono (Simmered Hijiki with Soybeans and Fried Tofu) — Japanese
• Claypot Rice with Lap Cheong (Bo Zai Fan) — Chinese · Cantonese
• Kenchinjiru (Temple Soup of Root Vegetables and Crumbled Tofu) — Japanese
• Kinpira Gobo (Braised Burdock and Carrot with Sesame) — Japanese

Keep reading: what umami, salinity, sweetness mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.