Porched chicken tenderloin is surprisingly tender and moist. The amazing flavour developed by combining mustard and miso also surprises you. It’s a really delicious dish.
Prep Time includes the time to rehydrate wakame seaweed.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 4 chicken tenderloins (note 1)
- 100g / 3.5oz cucumber , thinly sliced
- A pinch of salt
- 20g / 0.7oz wakame seaweed (rehydrated weight, note 2)
- 1 tbsp cooking sake
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 tbsp sweet shiro miso (60g / 2.1oz, note 3)
- ¾ tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp Japanese mustard (karashi) paste (or English mustard in a jar)
- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- A pinch of salt
-
Chicken: If the chicken tenderloin came with thin transparent membranes around the flesh, gently remove them. Remove the tendon as per the section, HOW TO REMOVE THE TENDON FROM A CHICKEN TENDERLOIN in my post Marinated Chicken Tenderloin.
-
Cucumber: Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the sliced cucumbers and let them wilt for 10 minutes. Squeeze the water out of the cucumbers.
-
Wakame Seaweed: If you are using dehydrated wakame seaweed, soak it in water for 5 minutes, then squeeze the water out. If you are using salted fresh wakame, rinse it to remove salt, then soak in water for a few minutes and squeeze the water out. If your wakame seaweed is not pre-cut, cut it into 2-3cm / 2” square pieces.
-
Place the chicken tenderloins in a small saucepan that can snuggly fit the chicken pieces in.
-
Sprinkle the Poaching Chicken ingredients over the chicken and leave it for 5-10 minutes.
-
Add water to just cover the surface of the chicken. Bring it to a boil.
-
When the colour of the bottom and sides of the chicken pieces change to whitish colour, turn them over and cook for 15 seconds or so. Remove the scum as it rises.
-
Turn the heat off, put a lid on and leave it on the cooktop until it cools down to lukewarm.
-
Transfer the chicken pieces to a cutting board and let them cool.
-
Put miso, sugar, and mustard in a small bowl and mix well until there are no lumps in the mixture.
-
Add vinegar in a few batches and mix the paste well to incorporate the liquid into the paste before adding the next batch of vinegar. The dressing should not be runny but should not be thick either (note 5).
-
Using a sogi-giri cutting method (slanting cut), slice each tenderloin into 1cm thick pieces (note 6).
-
Divide the cucumber slices, wakame seaweed and chicken slices into 4 portions.
-
Place 1 portion each of cucumber slices and wakame seaweed in individual clusters on a serving bowl/plate.
-
Place 1 portion of chicken slices next to them, positioning them to have a good balance of three ingredients, but showing the chicken pieces as the key ingredient.
-
Dribble the sauce over the ingredients, mainly on the chicken.
-
Repeat for the 3 remining portions.
1. My chicken tenderloins were 150g / 5.3oz in total. Depending on the size of your tenderloin, you may reduce/increase the number of tenderloins because the amount of dressing is just right for the total volume of ingredients.
2. 20g / 0.7oz equates to about 2g / 0.07 oz of dehydrated (dried) wakame seaweed
3. I used Saikyo miso which is the best sweet shiro miso in my view. If you don’t have sweet shiro miso (don't get confused with the brownish miso labelled 'shiro miso' as it is not sweet shiro miso), you can use brown miso. But increase the amount of sugar to 1 tbsp as shiro miso is sweeter than brown miso. It is better to use smooth miso paste so that you can maintain a smooth texture of the dressing.
4. I prepare the cucumbers and seaweed while letting the chicken cool down after poaching.
5. When you scoop the dressing with a spoon and tilt the spoon, the dressing should dribble easily.
If your paste is lumpy, put it through a fine mesh sieve or muslin to smooth it.
6. If you like, you can simply cut the tenderloin into small bite-size pieces.
7. Mustard-miso dressing can keep for a month in the fridge.
8. Nutrition per serving.
calories: 101kcal fat: 1.6g (3%) saturated fat: 0.3g (1%) trans fat: 0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.5g monounsaturated fat: 0.4g cholesterol: 27mg (9%) sodium: 792mg (32%) potassium: 219mg (6%) carbohydrates: 9.7g (3%) dietary fibre: 1g (4%) sugar: 7.9g protein: 10.3g vitamin a: 0% vitamin c: 1.4% calcium: 1.7% iron: 6.4%