Japanese soy chicken

I've been a bit sick this week. And this dish is, without fail, what I want to eat when I get sick. I don't know why this is, but I just crave a huge feed of this chicken with rice or noodles.

Might be the salt or the protein in the chicken. I don't what it is, but this is what I'm looking for when I'm sick. And again, I gobbled it up and felt much better afterwards.

This was a recipe inspired from the wonderful Donna Hay. I ordered two of Ms Hay's cookbooks online and they were delivered this week. Talk about cooking inspiration! Some beautiful recipes which I'll be borrowing much from soon.

The inspiration for this chicken recipe came from the book 'Fast, Fresh, Simple'. Ms Hay's recipe was for Chinese soy chicken, but I only had Japanese-style ingredients in my cupboard, so I changed it around a little. The result was beautiful, silky chicken with slippery udon noodles. Just what I felt like.

What you'll need

Serves two, or one hungry sick person

2 medium chicken breasts
2 tbls Mirin
1 tbls dark soy sauce
1 tbls fish sauce
1 small red chilli, chopped plus extra for serving
2 eschallots, roughly chopped
2 cups chicken stock (low salt variety if possible) or just use water
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

Noodles or steamed rice and vegetables to serve
Fresh chopped mint to serve

What to do

Place all ingredients, apart from the chicken, in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and cook for five minutes, reducing it slightly.

Add the whole chicken breasts and cook for approximately 5 minutes, then turn and cook for 5 minutes on the other side. Keep the lid on the pot during this time.

Remove once cooked and served immediately. You can drizzle some of the cooking broth onto your rice or vegetables for flavour. Serve sprinkled with some fresh chopped chilli and mint.

If you'd like, cook some noodles, or vegetables such as snow peas, beans or brocoli in the same broth. Simmer these gently until cooked, drain, then serve with the chicken. I cooked my udon noodles in the broth beside the chicken and they were beautifully flavoured.