Recipe Index

Ingredients

• 2¼oz white cabbage, very thinly sliced
• 2¼oz cornflour
• 2 free-range eggs, beaten
• 5½oz panko breadcrumbs
• 2 x 100–3½–4½oz chicken thighs, skin removed, boneless and any blood veins removed
• 18fl oz vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• salt
• 1½fl oz rice vinegar
• 2fl oz soy sauce
• 1½oz sugar
• 3½oz mayonnaise
• 1 free-range egg, hard-boiled and diced
• 1½oz cornichon pickles, diced
• 0.4 oz diced red onion
• few parsley leaves, very finely chopped
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 2 quails' eggs (optional)
• 4 thick slices soft white bread
• ¾oz pickled cucumber
• 1oz tonkatsu sauce
• pickles, to serve

Method

1. Soak the thinly sliced cabbage in a bowl of cold water for 20 minutes, then drain it and set the shreds aside.
2. Put the cornflour with a pinch of salt in one shallow bowl, the beaten eggs in a second, and the panko breadcrumbs in a third.
3. Dust the chicken thighs through the cornflour, dip them in the egg, and coat them in the panko until covered on every side.
4. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan to 350°F and fry the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes per side until the crust is crisp and golden.
5. Drain the fried chicken on kitchen paper and season it with a pinch of salt; if the quails' eggs are being used, cut a small hole in the centre of each cutlet the width of an egg.
6. Simmer the rice vinegar, soy sauce and sugar together in a saucepan until the nanban sauce reduces by half, then let it cool.
7. Stir the mayonnaise, diced hard-boiled egg, diced cornichons, diced red onion, chopped parsley and wholegrain mustard together into a tartare sauce.
8. Simmer the quails' eggs, if using, for 2 minutes 30 seconds, chill them in iced water, and peel away the shells.
9. Spread tartare sauce over two slices of bread and nanban sauce over the other two slices.
10. Layer the cabbage and pickled cucumber onto the nanban slices with some of the tonkatsu sauce, and set the fried chicken on the tartare slices with a quails' egg in each hole, if using, plus the remaining tonkatsu sauce.
11. Sandwich the halves together and press them down gently to form two sandwiches.
12. Trim all four crusts from each sandwich with a sharp bread knife, halve the sandwiches through the egg, and present the cut sides facing up with pickles on the side.

Prep: 30 min · Cook: 10 min

Nutrition (per serving, where published)

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central ingredient data