Chicken Kijiyaki Bento

Wow. It has been awhile, hasn't it? I do apologise for any who are still reading. Life has been much too busy to be cooking anything fun or fancy. These days, it is all I can do to even have proper meals. To make sure that I get through the day, I often pack myself a nice lunch. Don't you find that if you have a nice lunch to look forward to, the whole morning goes so much faster? And sine you feel happier after eating good food, then your afternoon is also sorted!

Anyway, lately, this recipe has been a firm favourite of mine. It's from this book called Just Bento, which is actually a book by a food blogger! Of course, the Japanese are famous for their fancy lunchbox arts but this book concentrates on easy and healthy food, rather than bentos with anime characters in them. Which is always good, because really... who has the time to make all that? D: This particular recipe is super duper easy peasy, perfect for a quick cook before going off for the day. Anyways, here we go!

What you need:
1 piece boneless chicken thigh, with skin on
1 tablespoon soy sauce + 1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sugar
Shichimi pepper (Japanese chilli powder, LOVE this stuff!), to taste

What you do:

1. Pierce the chicken all over with a fork to help it lay flat.
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat and put in the chicken flat, skin side down. Fry until the skin is brown and crispy, pressing down the chicken occasionally with a spatula. Turn the chicken over and cook until done (i.e. no more redness in the middle). Remove the chicken from the pan and wipe the pan clean with a paper towel.
3. Put the soy sauce and sugar in the pan over medium-high heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. When the sauce is bubbling, add the chicken to the pan and coat it with the sauce on both sides. it should stick well to the chicken, yum!
4. Remove from the pan and allow to cool. Pack into your lunchbox and slice, before sprinkling with the shichimi pepper.

Easy right? :) I've even made this for 6-10 people, with no problems. Of course, it took much longer, but at least it's easy. Actually, this seems like a much easier version of my old tori teriyaki recipe. And I gotta say, I like it much much better! And my friends definitely like this too. Tried and tested and approved by quite a few people!

Since of course, it wouldn't be enough to just have chicken and rice for lunch, I add in some stir fried veggies to this. A mix of broccoli, red pepper and fish balls, usually. The results are yum, and look really good too! Just what I need to look forward to in the day! :)

Quote of the day: We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.