Bao with Japanese fried chicken

I travelled through Asia for a year, and there’s a lot of food I still think about often. The filled bao buns in China, for example, which I ate during long bus journeys. Or Japanese fried chicken in a bustling izakaya with a glass of ice-cold beer alongside it.

This recipe is a mix of the two, and I can highly recommend that cold beer alongside it here too. I always have a bag of bao buns in the freezer; you can make them yourself, but I simply buy them ready-made at the Asian supermarket. They only need to be steamed for 5–10 minutes, and this is easiest in an AEG steam oven.

The soft bun calls for a crispy counterpart. That’s why I coat the chicken in a good layer of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs). You can make the Sriracha mayonnaise as spicy as you like; if necessary, put the bottle on the table as well for those who like it hot.

Method

Cut the chicken into pieces about the same size as the bun. Mix the chicken with the sake, pepper and salt and leave to marinate for at least half an hour.

In the meantime, make the Sriracha mayonnaise by adding Sriracha to the mayonnaise until it reaches the desired level of spiciness. I usually use one part Sriracha to three parts mayonnaise. Set aside and start on the coleslaw.

Slice the white and red cabbage into paper-thin strips. This is best done with a mandoline, but a sharp knife works perfectly well too. Grate the carrot and add it to the sliced cabbage, then mix with the remaining ingredients. Set aside.

Place three bowls in front of you with flour, eggs and panko from left to right. Season all three with pepper and salt; you’re going to coat the chicken that has just finished marinating in them. If you don’t season the coating, the dish as a whole will lack flavour, which would be a shame.

Take a piece of chicken and dip it into the flour, making sure it is completely covered, then shake it briefly so the excess flour falls off. Dip the chicken in the egg and then in the panko. Coating the chicken in flour first helps the egg and panko adhere better.

Now turn on the deep fryer and wait until the oil reaches 180 degrees. If you don’t have a deep fryer, you can easily fry the chicken in a deep pan with a sturdy base. Use a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature.

Meanwhile, preheat the steam oven to its highest setting. Place the bao buns on baking paper and steam them for 5–10 minutes until soft. You can put them straight into the oven from the freezer; they don’t need to be defrosted beforehand.

Fry the chicken, once the oil is hot enough, for about 6 minutes until the outside is golden brown. Depending on the size of your pan, do this in batches; you don’t want too much chicken in the pan at once. This causes the oil temperature to drop and makes the chicken greasy. Drain the chicken on a rack with kitchen paper underneath.

Spread the buns with the Sriracha mayonnaise, then top with the coleslaw and the chicken.

This article was created in collaboration with AEG.

Image: Sven Benjamins Photography