Rummaging through my parents’ fridge, I found some chicken and shiso leaves. I decided I’d concoct a marinade, soak the chicken in it, wrap up a shiso leaf in between and fry it up. My own appetizer take on katsu. My husband and I found it a good compliment to the subtle flavors of the torigayu. I marinated the chicken for quite a bit of time (over an hour) because I desired the flavors to be stronger to compliment the torigayu. I used thinly sliced chicken breast (then sliced in half from there again to make sure it was ultra thin for wrapping) so there is no need to marinate it for more than 15 – 30 minutes depending upon how strong you desire the flavors to be.



Ingredients:

• one packet of thinly sliced chicken breast

• ¼ cup of soy sauce

• 2 teaspoons of mirin

• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger

• 3 cloves of garlic

• ½ cup of panko

• ½ cup of flour

• 1 egg (beaten)

• 2 packages of shiso leaves

Directions:

1. Slice the thinly sliced chicken breast even thinner to make two out of one slice. Place the chicken in a flat container. Mix soysauce, mirin, ginger and garlic and pour over the chicken. With your hands, rub the ginger and garlic over the chicken and coat the chicken in the soysauce and mirin. Marinate one side for 15 – 20 minutes and the other side for 15 – 20 minutes. (Less time if you desire the flavors to be more subtle). The chicken should be the color in the photo and have soaked up the flavors.
   
   
   
   
2. Wash the shiso leaves gently and pat dry. Make an assembly line of flour, egg and panko. Take the marinated chicken and with the help of a spoon, take off the ginger and garlic off of the chicken.

3. Place the shiso leaf or two (dependent on your preference) on the chicken and wrap tightly. Place it in the flour and make sure it is coated all around. Pat the flour off, cover it in egg, coat it in panko. Press the panko onto the chicken shiso wrap. Repeat the process for the remainder of the chicken. If you need more flour or panko, add it onto your plate. If it seems that you’re running out of egg half way through, add 1 tablespoon of water.

4. Use a deep pan and fill it with oil about an inch from the bottom. Place it on high and heat up the oil. Take a bit of panko to test to see how hot the oil is. If it sizzles upon contact with the oil and browns quickly, lower the heat a bit and start frying each chicken shiso wrap. Several seconds per side until evenly browned.

5. Line a plate with papertowel. Place the chicken shiso wrap on it to drain oil after it is fried. Serve warm with torigayu. This is quite flavorful so no sauce needed!