• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Course
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Subscribe
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Subscribe
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Chicken, duck & turkey Lunch / Dinner Main Courses

Chicken nanban with tartar sauce

Published: 09.23.2013 » Last updated: 08.23.2022

Unlike most fried chicken recipes that start with marinating, chicken nanban fillets are marinated after frying. Strange? Maybe, but the result is delicious.

Japanese chicken nanban with tartar sauce

A dish born after Japan ended its isolationist policy and welcomed Western influence, the earliest version of chicken nanban was originally part of the “staff” menu in a restaurant called London in Nobeoka City. But “chicken nanban with tartar sauce” as we know it today came later — an invention of a former apprentice at London.

To make this dish, start by making the tartar sauce. You want to do this ahead to allow the flavors to blend while you prep the two other components of the dish.

Sweet shour dressing for chicken nanban

Make the sauce by boiling together mirin, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and salt until both the sugar and salt are fully dissolved. Pour the sauce in a shallow bowl and cool.

A tip: choose a bowl that is wide enough to hold the fried chicken fillets in a single layer. That way, every piece of chicken will touch the sauce.

Frying chicken fillets

While the sauce cools, season your chicken fillets, dredge in starch then deep fry until golden and crisp. Depending on the size of your wok or frying pan, do this in batches so that the chicken pieces and swim freely in the hot all.

Soaking fried chicken fillets in sweet sour sauce to make chicken nanban

When all of the chicken pieces have been fried, lower them into the cooled sauce. Soak then flip each piece and continue soaking. Soak for how long? Well, that depends on how strong you want the chicken flavored. It can be as short as 30 seconds or as long as three minutes per side.

Chicken Nanban With Tartar Sauce

Connie Veneracion
Japanese fried chicken fillets marinated in sweet-sour sauce and served with tartar sauce made with crushed hard-boiled eggs.
Japanese chicken nanban with tartar sauce
Print it!
Save it!Saved!
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 12 minutes mins
Marinating time 6 minutes mins
Total Time 33 minutes mins
Course Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 3 people

Ingredients
  

For the tartar sauce

  • 2 hard-boiled eggs
  • 2 tablespoons pickle relish drained
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onion squeezed
  • ¼ cup Japanese mayonnaise
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lime lemon or lime juice, or to taste

For the marinade

  • 2 tablespoons mirin
  • ¼ cup rice vinegar
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce (I used Kikkoman)
  • salt to taste

To complete the dish

  • 1 whole chicken breast deboned (or two chicken breast fillets) and cut into bite-size pieces
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons potato starch
  • 1 ½ cooking oil
  • toasted sesame seeds to garnish
  • thinly sliced scallions to garnish

Instructions
 

Make the tartar sauce

  • Shell the eggs and crush using the back of a fork.
  • Mix the eggs with the rest of the ingredients for the tartar sauce.
  • Set aside.

Cook the marinade

  • Boil together the ingredients for the marinade until the sugar dissolves.
  • Pour into a shallow bowl and cool.

Cook the chicken

  • Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Toss with the potato starch.
  • Heat the cooking oil and fry the chicken, in batches, until golden brown and cooked through, about two to three minutes per side depending on the thickness.

Marinate the chicken

  • Place the cooked chicken in the marinade in a single layer. Allow to soak for half a minute to three minutes per side.

Assemble the chicken nanban

  • Arrange the chicken pieces on a plate (leave the excess marinade behind) and spoon the tartar sauce beside them.
  • Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and scallions before serving.

Connie Veneracion

Lawyer by education. Journalist by accident. Writer by passion. Photographer by necessity. Good food, coffee and wine lover forever. Read more about me and Umami Days. Find me on Flipboard, Substack and Pinterest.

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #40 A toast to the awesomeness of Filipino adobo
    09.18.2023
    No, Filipino adobo is an not adaptation of Mexican adobo. I’ll explain why. Plus, there’s a recipe for a not-your-usual Filipino pork or chicken adobo.
More Chicken, duck & turkey
Sweet chili chicken karaage rice bowl

Sweet chili fried chicken rice bowl

Japanese-style gingered chicken, shiitake and bok choy soup

Gingered chicken, shiitake and bok choy soup

Lime and dill chicken on green stoneware platter

One-pan lime and dill chicken

No claypot chicken rice

No claypot chicken rice

Grilled chicken salad with fruits and nuts

Grilled chicken salad with fruits and nuts

Poached chicken Hainanese-style

Poached chicken Hainanese-style

Baked Buffalo chicken wings with dipping sauce on serving plate

Baked Buffalo chicken wings

Chicken, vegetables and bee hoon stir fry

Chicken, vegetables and bee hoon stir fry

Chicken katsu with rice, lettuce and tomato

Chicken katsu

Chili Honey Balsamic Chicken Wings

Chili honey Balsamic chicken wings

Thai chicken coconut soup (tom kha gai)

Tom kha gai

Moo goo gai pan (chicken and mushroom stir fry) in white shallow bowl

Moo goo gai pan (chicken and mushroom stir fry)

Sidebar

Green beans tempura
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

No AI is used in the creation of Umami Days content · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved