Dashi Marinated Salt Crusted Chicken

Chicken, kombu, and katsubushi. What are we making? Well, we're not making chicken dashi, but we're going to make dashi chicken. The difference being there'll be no liquid and we'll bake the whole thing in a salt crust in a few days. The inspiration of the dish came initially from the Japanese sashimi method, kombu jime, where they would put mostly sea bream between layers of kelp, which is full of monosodium glutamate. Nature's MSG. It will draw out the moisture from the flesh, emulsify with the flavors, and some gets absorbed through reverse osmosis. Now, I've done this with chicken breast once already, and the result is incredible. And if that worked, this could only be a success. So, first things first, before we deal with the katsubushi in a couple of days, we want to wrap the whole chicken with kombu. Now, because we want to minimize dilution, I find the easiest way to do so is simply by placing all the kombu underneath your chicken. The crystallized salt of the kombu would start to draw out moisture from the chicken itself, and that moisture will be sufficient to soften the kombu. After half a day, you'll have soft enough kombu for you to handle. And that's when we wrap the whole chicken with the kombu and we leave the whole thing uncovered in the fridge for three days. Then, we'll come back and make salt-crusted chicken. I'll see you then. So, the chicken has been in the fridge marinating in the kombu for three days. Now, I just want to be really clear. Not all chicken are created equal, meaning they're not plugged the same way. Some are dry-plugged, some are wet-plugged, some are hung before they're sold. So, if your chicken is not releasing enough moisture to soften the kombu, don't be scared to add a dash of water. So, now, the fun bit. We're gonna make our salt crust to bake the whole chicken. First things first, we have a mountain of katsuobushi, and we are going to open up our bird and stuff the inside of the chicken with katsuobushi. The reason why we're doing this is to not make the chicken taste fishy, but to A, give smokiness to the chicken when it's trapped in the salt crust, because katsuobushi is, by definition, dried, smoked tuna, and B, to impart even more umami to the bird, making the bird more savory. And no, this will not make the chicken taste fishy. How many times have you had dashi? If you've ever been to a Japanese ramen shop, chances are the broth is made from katsuobushi, and yet no one has ever left the shop thinking, oh my God, my ramen was too fishy. Now, once the bird is stuffed with umami goodness, try to close it again, set this aside for now. Here we have a mountain of salt. Don't go stingy on the salt. If you're ever committed to making a salt crust, buy more salt than you think you need. You're gonna end up using them anyway. The worst thing that could happen is at the very end, when you have that tiny, tiny hole and you're completely out of salt. So be generous with the salt. We're gonna add the rest of the katsuobushi to the salt mixture just to reinforce that smokiness. And smoke molecules, they're tiny. They'll permeate through, even something as thick as the kombu. Now, while it's still dry, you break them apart before we introduce the wet elements. Now, at this point, your kitchen should smell like a Japanese udon shop. If not, you're not using enough katsuobushi. I mean, this is not the five pound dinner challenge, yeah? The only thing is though, even when we're splashing on certain ingredients, when making a salt crust, please, please, please just use cheap salt. Because you can't reuse the salt. Then the quality of salt, besides density, really does not make a difference to the dish. And yes, that's where I draw the line. So once this is thoroughly mixed, here we have even more kombu, which I've soaked in cold water overnight just to make sure we have enough layers to protect the chicken from being too salty during cooking. Now, the soaking liquid, which is a very rich kombu dashi, of course, will not go to waste. It's just gonna moisten the salt with the kombu dashi, turning this into a paste. You can also use egg white, but the only difference with egg white and water is the color of your crust. And because the katsuobushi is gonna turn it golden brown anyway, there's really no need. Dash more dashi. As you can see, we're really putting the dashi in the chicken. Now, we grab our oven tray, which I've lined with parchment paper. First up, we form the base. Now, once this looks about right, add one extra sheet of kombu at the bottom, just to be sure. Grab this beautiful, beautiful bird. Put this on top. Now, we simply grab more kombu to make sure the whole bird is covered. And now, more salt. All right, once your lips start tasting salt, that's a good time to stop. I think between the layers of kombu and enough salt to feed a village for a month, I can safely declare the chicken is almost tightly wrapped. And if not, I will gladly take responsibility. All right, now, first you wash your hands before you touch anything. Now, this whole thing goes into a preheated oven at 170 for 90 minutes, and then we'll rest it for half an hour. This will come out with a texture more braised-like than a roasted chicken. So, it's not something you carve, but something you tear and shred and serve. So, I'll see you in two hours. All right, after 90 minutes in the oven and a 30-minute rest, the whole room smells like the sea and we have this beauty ready for shredding. Shall we? So, we crack the top open. At this point, it's quite easy because everything has solidified. The hammer would be very handy at this point. Whole thing comes out like that. Now, peel this away carefully just so that we don't get excess salt on the chicken. And we have this beautiful, beautiful thing. Oh, my God. Wow. Look at that. The smell is insane. Shall we shred some chicken? This is so beautiful. My God. Now, very carefully move the bird because now this is fork tender bird. Perfect. Oof. I mean, you don't want to take the juices from the bottom because that's practically salt. But whatever you're taking with you inside, that's slow-cooked chicken dashi at its best. Now, let's shred some chicken. Look at how moist this is. Wow. It's incredible. And to finish, just for a bit of nuttiness and contrasting textures, a bit of toasted white sesame. This really balances the chicken fat really well. And what better way to reinforce the sea with some toasted snack nori. There you have it. This is kombu katsubushi and salt-crusted chicken. Umami on a plate. I really, really hope you enjoy.