America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen"... Keith makes Julia chicken teriyaki, Jack talks all about potatoes, and Dan makes Bridget nikujaga.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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-Chicken teriyaki is a favorite meal at my house.

In fact, I make it at least once a week, which is why I'm excited that Keith's going to make a version for me today.

-So, teriyaki is hugely popular in the United States.

Salty, sweet, umami packed pieces of chicken.

Absolutely delicious.

But we wanted to learn a little bit more about the dish.

So we talked to a Japanese cooking authority, Elizabeth Andoh, and kind of learned how it's prepared in Japan versus what's prepared in the United States, and it's a little different.

So, it starts with the chicken.

In Japan, they're always using skin-on pieces of chicken, and the skin is there because you're going to sear the chicken pretty hard, and you want that skin to protect the flesh.

So you don't want to use skinless parts here.

So, we have 2 pounds of thighs here.

A lot of collagen in there.

It's going to keep it nice and moist when we sear it.

But we don't want the bone, because we're going to sear this in small pieces.

So we need to get rid of the bone, but we need to keep the skin.

It's very simple.

This is the skin side, so you want to flip that over to expose the bone and have that up.

And we want to get rid of the majority of the skin.

We need the skin for some protection, but we don't want so much in there that it gets greasy.

So I'm gonna actually start with a paring knife, and I'm just gonna take off this excess skin and fat right here.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now, for this bone, you can see there's a line of fat right here that resides right over that bone.

And I'm just going to take my paring knife and cut down until I can feel the tip of my paring knife hit that bone.

And now that I've reached that bone, I'm just going to cut down on either side of it with my paring knife.

And I'm only using the tip.

I'm not using the blade up here.

I'm just kind of using that to flick that meat away from the bone to expose the bone.

And now that -- once I've exposed most of that bone, I can take the tip of the knife and put it underneath the bone, poke like that, and just, whoop, like that.

-Nice.

-So -- And now I can hold that up and just scrape down, again, using the side of the blade, exposing the end, and then cutting the bone out like that.

So now I'll lie that flat, make sure our skin is in place.

And then I just want to come over here, and you can see there's a little piece of cartilage right there that I've missed.

I want to get rid of that.

So, we're going to cut this into pieces that are chopstick-friendly.

-Ah.

-And also, we're going to expose more surface area for the glaze to attach to.

-Ah.

-So I'm just going to take this, and I'll just transfer this over to a bowl.

Again, cut strips, making sure to cut through the skin all the way.

So, I'm going to finish up cutting these thighs, taking the bone out, cutting them into 1 1/2 inch pieces, I'll wash my hands, and we can go to the glaze.

-Alright.

-Before we cook the chicken, I'm just going to do one thing to it.

So, a lot of recipes out there will marinate in the same flavors that are in the teriyaki sauce.

But this is one thing that we learned from Elizabeth Andoh is that you really want to have levels of flavor here.

So you want to be able to taste the chicken.

You want it to have a nice, chicken-y bite to it, and the glaze should just be on the exterior.

So we don't want to marinate it, but we do want to give it a little bit of extra protection before it goes in the skillet.

So I'm going to add 1 1/2 tablespoons of sake.

-Mmm.

-That's going to give it a nice savory flavor.

And I have 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in here.

Now, cornstarch is going to do a couple things.

It's going to provide protection in the skillet, and it will keep it from becoming leathery.

But it will also help the glaze stick to the pieces of chicken.

So, I'm just going to toss this together until that cornstarch is mixed in there, and I want to do this a little gently.

I don't want to disturb those pieces of skin.

And now we can look at the sauce.

-Mmm.

-Not many ingredients in teriyaki sauce.

-No.

-You have to have soy sauce.

-Yep.

-So I have 3 tablespoons of soy sauce in here.

I'm going to add 2 tablespoons of sake to that.

Sake is going to add a ton of complexity.

And I'm also going to add 1 tablespoon of sugar.

So, I'm going to give this a quick stir and microwave this for 30 seconds.

And warming that up will allow the sugar to dissolve.

So, we can see that the soy is just steaming a little bit, which is exactly what we want.

So I'm just going to stir this and make sure that that sugar is all dissolved in there.

So, one last ingredient.

We wanted to add a little bit of brightness, liven it up a little bit.

-Mm-hmm.

-So ginger is a common addition.

Um, but we're going to add this in a very unique way.

I'm going to take 2 tablespoons of grated ginger.

And then rather than putting the ginger whole into the sauce and flavoring it that way... -Mm-hmm.

-...I'm going to take it, and I'm going to put it into a fine mesh strainer.

And I'm going to press this.

And so I'm just going to get the juice... -Ah.

-...to flavor it.

And that way, we get the ginger flavor, but we don't have any flecks of ginger in there.

I have a 12-inch skillet here.

It's heating over medium heat with 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in it.

-Okay, and it's nonstick.

-Yeah.

We want to have nonstick.

We want to have the browning on the chicken.

We don't necessarily want to leave it in the pan.

-Makes sense.

-So, now that we have some shimmering, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-You can see it kind of skitter across the surface of the pan.

I'm just going to add the chicken piece by piece with the skin side down.

Now, you don't want to dump it all in at once, because you want to make sure that that skin is facing down.

I'm going to take some time to get these in here nicely.

This pan is going to be a little crowded.

That's okay.

Okay, now the chicken is in there.

If I can ask you to turn that up to medium-high, and I'm going to wash my hands really quickly.

-Okeydoke.

-Now we're going to wait.

We're not going to touch this chicken.

We want to make sure that the skin renders and browns.

We want to cook this for 6 to 8 minutes.

We're going to cook it mostly on this first side... -Ah.

-...to make sure that that skin gets nice and brown.

So most of the cooking will happen on this side, and we'll just turn it over really quickly and cook it for 1 or 2 minutes.

But before we do that, you want to use the splatter screen.

-May I?

-You can see it's just been a minute or two.

-Yes.

-And we have a lot of grease right here.

-Mm-hmm.

-So if this is going to go 6 to 8 minutes, you're going to have a lot of grease.

So highly recommend using a splatter screen.

It's been 7 minutes, so let's check on our chicken.

-Oh, they really have cooked through.

-Yeah, so this is absolutely perfect.

This is what we're looking for.

You can see that there's a little bit of raw color right there.

But the outside of that piece, a 1/4 inch or a 1/2 inch, is opaque.

-Mm-hmm.

-So that means it's time to flip it over.

So I'm just going to do that off the heat.

Let's see what we got.

Oh, look at that skin.

-Ohh!

-Look at that beautifully brown skin.

-That is mahogany gorgeous.

-Yeah.

Okay, so we have all of our pieces flipped over.

I'm just going to go back over the burner over medium heat, and we just want to let this cook on the second side 1 to 2 minutes.

It's been a minute and a half, and our chicken has cooked through, so I just want to get this out of the skillet.

-Cooked through and gorgeous, Keith.

-So, I'm just going to transfer this over to a paper-towel-lined plate, and that will wick away any of this excess grease.

-Mmm.

-Okay.

So, I'm going to pour off all of this fat.

We don't need that anymore.

We'll wipe out any bits of skin.

Now we can return the chicken to the skillet... ...and add our glaze.

-Ah.

-Just give this a quick stir to make sure it's all dissolved.

Add that.

Now we're going to let this cook over medium heat.

And what we're looking for is that that is going to reduce down to, like, a maple-syrup-like consistency.

It will take 1 to 2 minutes.

I'll just go in there.

Give that a shake.

-Mmm.

-Make sure we start to get that chicken nice and coated in that glaze.

-Okay.

-So, it's been a minute, and you can see that that glaze has reduced down nicely.

And also, the cornstarch that was on the chicken earlier, that's also helped to thicken that sauce.

And you can see how nice and thick that is.

-Beautiful.

-Beautiful.

So I'll just shut the heat off.

Get this out of the skillet using our slotted spoon.

-Man, that looks good, Keith.

-Can't wait to eat this.

-Me, neither.

-So, one last thing.

This is not an absolutely necessary step, but I'm going to strain our sauce off one more time.

We want a really nice, smooth glaze here.

So I'll return just a little bit of this glaze, a couple tablespoons.

Drizzle that over our chicken.

-Goodness.

-You see that we don't have that much here.

This stuff is pretty strong, so we don't need that much.

So, I have some steamed white rice in these bowls, which is traditionally how you would see this eaten.

I have some watercress here.

Mizuna is another option.

-Ooh.

-And it just helps kind of break up the saltiness of the sauce.

-Yeah.

-I want to give you just a little drizzle of sauce over everything.

-Mmm.

-Over your rice.

-And my mouth has been watering for the past five minutes.

-Smells wonderful.

-Oh, it smells amazing.

[ Chuckles ] Mmm.

Mmm!

That's incredible.

-I love the layers of flavor.

So, it tastes like chicken.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's not so pervasive in the teriyaki.

So you have this chicken-y bite followed by that kind of intensely flavored teriyaki sauce.

-Yes.

Oh, and the chicken skin is so crisp.

You get that crackling bit.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is the most elegant chicken teriyaki I have ever eaten.

Thank you for showing me how.

-You're welcome.

-So, there you have it.

If you want to make a fantastic chicken teriyaki, start by using skin-on chicken thighs, but remove the bones.

Toss the chicken with a combination of sake and cornstarch, and brown the chicken in a nonstick skillet, then finish simmering in the glaze.

From "America's Test Kitchen" with help from Elizabeth Andoh, an amazing recipe for chicken teriyaki.

This puts mine to shame.

-It's the new family favorite, right?

-Yeah.

Oh, I can't wait to make this for Marta.

She's going to flip.

-My Italian grandmother fed me an awful lot of pasta.

And my Irish grandmother, yeah, you guessed it -- a lot of potatoes.

There are actually hundreds of potato varieties out there, but I'm going to keep it simple for you.

Three categories -- baking, all-purpose, and boiling.

Now, let's start with the baking potatoes down here.

We've got russets.

These are the high-starch potatoes.

It's 20% to 22% starch.

They do a great job of drinking up butter and cream for mashed potatoes.

They're great for French fries and of course for baking.

Now, the in-between potatoes, which are known as all-purpose, the best-known is probably the Yukon Gold.

These have a moderate amount of starch.

This is going to be more like 18% to 20%.

The purple Peruvian here in the front are another all-purpose variety.

They do a good job of holding their shape compared to the baking potatoes, so you can use them in a salad or a soup.

They will fall apart a little bit, but not as much as the baking potatoes.

You can also bake and fry and even mash the Yukon Golds.

And the third category is the boiling potatoes.

Now, these are the firmest potatoes, the lowest starch content, 16% to 18%.

They're the choice for roasting or salads or when you want nice chunks in a soup.

You want to use a red bliss like here or these cute little fingerlings, also in the boiling category.

Now, you may see new potatoes, and I've got some new potatoes here.

New potatoes are kind of what they sound like, in the sense they're relatively recently harvested.

Typically, when they harvest potatoes, they first cut off the vines and then leave the potatoes in the soil for several weeks.

What that does is it hardens the skin, makes it thicker, more durable so it will last longer in storage.

With new potatoes, they skip that step.

They immediately pull the potatoes out of the ground.

The skins are really thin.

You can actually kind of rub off the skin with your thumb.

And they're super moist and sweet.

I love to boil them and toss them with butter to really appreciate their flavor.

Now, all of these potatoes need to stay somewhere cool and dry and away from onions, which is actually going to encourage the sprouting of them.

I like to buy loose potatoes rather than bagged so I can see what I'm going to get.

Also, the bags kind of can cause a little bit of sprouting.

And I try to avoid green potatoes.

Whatever you do, don't leave the potatoes on the counter.

This is what happens.

We actually did this here in the test kitchen, and in a couple of days, they turned green.

The chlorophyll is doing its magic, but there's also a toxin that's released that can give you a belly ache or actually make you sick.

And so I'm going to show you here, if there's just a little bit of green -- Oh, yeah, that looks pretty green -- you can try to peel it away.

I wouldn't bake this potato and eat the skin, because I don't want to make myself a little ill. You can avoid this problem by just storing them properly somewhere cool and somewhere away from light.

So, there you have it.

All of these potatoes, I have to thank my grandmother, Dorothy O'Keefe Bishop, for teaching me the love of potatoes.

-Beef and potatoes.

It's a classic combo, but when those two ingredients are paired together to make a Japanese stew called nikujaga, it might be perfection.

And Dan's here.

He's going to show us how to bring this perfection to our own home kitchens.

-So, I'm excited about this.

This is true Japanese home cooking.

It's considered ofukuro no aji, which means "mother's taste."

-Mm.

-So it's that kind of dish where you're like -- You're eating it, and you're like, "Okay, Mom made this."

It's that super, super comforting effect.

So, it starts with dashi, which is fundamental to Japanese cuisine.

You know, obviously, it shows up in miso soup.

-Right.

-But it's just throughout the cuisine.

It adds this incredible base note and layer to everything.

And that begins with kombu, so, kombu, which is giant sea kelp that's been dried.

So, these are going to go into our water over here.

So, this is a quart of water, and it's cold, and I'm going to put it over medium heat.

We're going to bring it to a simmer.

Okay, so, this is just starting to simmer.

You can see some of those little bubbles popping.

I want to get the kombu out right away.

-Okay.

-So we want to get that out, and we're going to actually shut this heat off.

So, don't toss the kombu at this point.

You can make a lot of really cool dishes with it.

One that I really love is kind of a simmered, reduced dish where it gets really, really flavorful called kombu tsukudani.

-Great.

-So definitely save that.

There's more for it to give.

Okay, next up, I'm going to add our second dashi ingredient, which is katsuobushi.

So, this stuff is just unbelievable.

It starts with a whole bonito, which is a beautiful fish that's pretty rich and oily.

-Very rich.

-And through a process that takes months and months of boiling, drying, there's a few smoking steps, curing in a really interesting mold, it comes out, and it loses so much water.

It has like 18% water left, and then it can be shaved really thin into these flakes.

So you've packed so much flavor into this ingredient.

-Right.

-It just needs to sit in this water for about five minutes to extract, and then we'll strain it out.

-Great.

-Okay, so that's been five minutes, and I'm going to immediately strain it through this fine mesh strainer here.

-It smells so great already.

-Doesn't it?

-Yes.

-That smokiness from it, I really love.

It's so much complexity.

So, we have our beautiful dashi.

We're not going to wash that.

We're going to use it again.

-Okay.

-So, I have a lovely rib eye here.

This is about 3/4 of a pound.

-Gorgeous.

-Which is exactly what we want for this recipe.

Now, if you have a Japanese or Korean market near you, they sell really thinly sliced rib eye.

That's perfect for this recipe.

This is an easy way to fabricate it yourself.

So, we're going to cut this into 1 1/2 inch pieces this way, kind of a crosswise.

And we'll transfer back to our plate.

We're going to pop this in the freezer.

It's going to make it so much easier to slice.

-Right.

-It's going to take about 35 to 40 minutes until it gets very firm.

So, it's been 40 minutes.

So what I'm going to do is because we cut it in nice pieces like this, we can actually turn it this way, and that allows us to slice across the grain.

Some slices will be thicker and thinner, and that's okay, but you're just trying to get them as thin as you can.

Okay, great.

Set this aside.

So now we're going to hop over here, and I've got 2 ounces of snow peas.

Color is really important in Japanese cooking, and these are going to add a beautiful green punch to this dish, which is otherwise a lot of browns.

We have some orange, as well, in there.

-Okay.

-So these are going to go into a quart of boiling water along with a tablespoon of salt.

And we're going to cook these for just one minute.

We want them to be nice and crisp-tender.

Alright, so that's 60 seconds.

So next up, we're going to add our shirataki noodles.

So, these are really fascinating noodles.

They're made from a yam called the konjac yam.

-Mm-hmm.

-And they don't soften, really.

You have to chew them to break them down.

-Right.

-So, they come usually in a pouch with liquid, which would normally destroy any other noodle.

And they stay really, really firm and chewy.

Super cool.

So, I'm going to add those to our water here.

We're just going to blanch them really briefly, about one minute.

Really just freshens the noodles up as they come out of the package.

-Okay.

-So you can see they're still nice and springy.

-Yes.

-They're really fun.

So, I'm going to cut these in half, just make them a little bit more manageable in the stew, and we'll go back in our bowl.

-Okay.

Great.

-So, we're going to pay attention to all the details while we're prepping our vegetables here.

So we're going to start with some onion.

I've cut them pole to pole, and what I'm actually going to do is do kind of a radial cut so that I can have nice wedges so they're nice and even, as opposed to just going up and down.

-Nice.

-And about 1/2-inch wedges is what we're looking for.

Okay.

Next up, we have our carrot, and we're going to cut this -- We're going to do a roll cut which is called rangiri.

So we're going to start with it on an angle like this with our blade at an angle.

And we're going to make one cut, and then we're going to do a 1/4 turn and make that same diagonal cut.

Another quarter turn, same cut.

-So you get these little trapezoids.

-Exactly.

Okay.

Beautiful.

Set that aside.

And then we have our potatoes.

So, I'm using Yukon Golds, and these are peeled.

For small ones like this, I'm going to cut them in half, but if you have larger ones, you can quarter them.

Now I'm going to do one more step to make sure these potatoes are perfect.

So, we all know when we cook potatoes, they have these nice sharp edges.

And then as they cook, they soften there, 'cause it's much easier for that to overcook.

-Exactly.

-And that sloughs off into the stew.

-Right.

-Right?

Here, we don't want that.

We want them to maintain their shape.

So I'm going to do a technique called mentori, which is really fascinating.

So, it can be done with a knife like this where you're actually just going around the exterior, and you're trimming off that outer portion and giving kind of a beveled cut to it... -Mm.

-...and softening it that way.

I find that it's really easy with a peeler, as well.

If you've got really good knife skills, you can absolutely do it that way.

But you really are just dragging it around that outside.

-Mm-hmm.

-And you have a nice potato like that.

-Lovely.

-Okay, it is time to start cooking.

I've got a tablespoon of vegetable oil in my Dutch oven over here, and this is heating over medium heat until shimmering.

We're going to use some lower temperature here, because another part of this is we're not looking for browning.

We want everything to remain its separate self and then have a really nice, clean broth.

First, I'm going to go in with my onion.

[ Quiet sizzling ] We just want a little sizzle happening in there.

This is going to be about two minutes.

We're looking for wilting, little bit of translucency around the edge.

Okay, so next up, we're going to add our beef.

And I'm going to drop the heat to medium-low.

-Okay.

-Again, we're not looking for browning.

We're really just going to cook this until it's no longer pink.

Okay, so now nothing is pink in there, which is great, and we've rendered out a little bit of fat.

-Mm-hmm.

-So to that, we're going to add our potatoes.

And then we're just going to give it a stir, just to coat them in a little bit of that fat.

-Okay.

-The potatoes pick up a ton of flavor in this.

They're really, really nice.

Okay, so now we're going to add pretty much everything else.

So we've got our dashi that we made before.

And add our beautiful carrots.

-Lovely.

-Our shirataki noodles.

And now the seasonings that will really boost the broth flavor.

We've got a 1/4 cup of soy sauce.

1/4 of a cup of mirin.

3 tablespoons of sake and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar.

Alright, so we're going to bring this up to a simmer over high heat.

Now that it's come up to a simmer, you can see that we've got some of that scum, some of the, you know, impurities that come up to the top of any stock.

-Sure.

-We want to get those out of there.

Again, we're looking for a really nice, clear broth.

And that stuff, once it settles down, it'll kind of muddy it up.

So I'm going to go in with my really convenient skimmer here.

-Those are great.

-Yeah.

Little -- Little wire mesh.

And it allows you to get into all these little cracks.

You can see how much I'm getting off.

So, this is a really, really cool piece of equipment.

This is a drop lid.

This one is called an otoshibuta.

-Oh.

-And it's really awesome 'cause it drops directly down on top of the food.

And it allows a couple of things.

So as you can see, some of the liquid comes through the top.

That means that all the ingredients below it are submerged.

So we can actually use less liquid, meaning we don't have to cover it with so much broth.

So that final cooking liquid will be really savory and nice.

-Gorgeous.

-It also limits evaporation.

It just handles a lot of different things.

And as we see any kind of scum or anything coming up, we can easily get it out with this.

-Great.

-Okay, so we're going to let this cook at a really gentle simmer here, 20, 25 minutes, until the potatoes are nice and tender.

-Okay.

-So, it might seem like we're about to eat, but we're not.

We're actually going to let this cool for 30 to 60 minutes.

You know how leftover food, like leftover stews especially, taste better the next day?

-Mm-hmm?

Sure.

-So what's genius about this recipe is that it actually has it built into the process.

So these simmered dishes, you want to cool them, you know, 30 to 60 minutes.

And then when you reheat them, that's when you serve them, and that's when we'll get those snow peas on there.

Okay, so this has rested and cooled for 30 minutes.

Now we're going to pop on our beautiful blanched snow peas.

-Oh, lovely.

-And I'm going to bring this back up to a simmer over medium heat.

So the snow peas, they're not going to cook any more.

They're just going to warm through.

It's gonna be really, really nice.

And then it's time to serve.

-Okay.

-Okay.

It is ready.

It is finally, finally ready.

-Excellent.

-Alright.

So, some beautiful shirataki noodles give you some nice, green snow peas, a few of our beautiful carrots, and our beautiful potatoes.

Now, you can see that they're tender, but nothing is sloughed off, 'cause we did that ahead of time.

And then of course we need our beef, beef and potatoes.

-Oh, look at that broth.

-And we'll just do a little bit.

It's really just to kind of nap everything and bring that flavor through.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Mmm.

Did you start with a carrot, too?

-Carrot's beautifully cooked.

-Really nice.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

-I just got a bite of the rib eye and the onions together.

Gorgeous.

-Beef and onions.

Perfect.

-Beef and onions.

I'm going to grab some of these noodles.

This should be fun.

Mmm.

-Those potatoes are so good.

-Mmm.

-They're really creamy.

And they -- again, they pick up that soy, mirin, that nice sweet-savory blend.

-Well, what I love especially, and you mentioned it, is that all the ingredients are still distinct, but they still belong together.

-Nice and blended.

-Yeah.

Thanks, Dan.

-You're welcome.

-Really appreciate it.

Now, if you'd love to make this lovely, elegant stew, it starts with making a dashi using kombu and katsuobushi.

Thinly slice par-frozen rib eye steak.

And after simmering the stew, allow the flavors to meld for at least 30 minutes.

So from "America's Test Kitchen," a beautiful Japanese stew, nikujaga.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes.

And those are all on our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.

You know what I'm loving is the challenge of the noodles.

[ Both laugh ] -But the reward is there, too.

-Oh, the reward is all there.

-Visit our website where you can sign up for our free e-mail newsletter for even more of the recipes and stories you love from all of our cast and cooks -- americastestkitchen.com/tv.

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