By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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Nori furikake gives flavor
to deep-fried chicken dish

May Nishikawa has chicken on the brain. Specifically, a furikake-crusted fried chicken dish.

"I had this at a potluck and cannot get it out of my mind," she said.

Nishikawa describes the dish as boneless chicken thighs with a light coating, not a heavy batter.

This recipe turned up out of the not-so-distant past, the Tropics Dream-a-Dish recipe contest held in 1998. Tropics Products came up with the contest as a way to showcase various uses for its salad dressings and sauces.

Tapestry Chicken was the third-place winner in the pupu category, entered by Ardis Tanaka of Honolulu. It calls for marinating the chicken in Tropics Oriental Dressing, then coating with a panko-furikake mix.

If you are not furikake-literate, you'll need to know that this dried seaweed mix comes in many varieties. You want nori furikake, which is purely the little strips of seaweed, none of those sesame-seed or fish-flake additives. Nori furikake is the priciest, but that's the one called for.

Find it, along with panko, in the Asian section of supermarkets. Tropics dressings also are found in most supermarkets.

For those averse to deep-frying, either because of the mess or the extra calories, I tried baking this as an alternative. It's not as all-around crisp, but the result is pleasingly crunchy. A tip: Baking chicken this way leaves you with pieces that are crunchy on top, but soft on the bottom. In fact, the coating tends to melt into the baking pan. Avoid the mess and the mushiness by coating only one side of each piece.

If you're interested in other recipes from the Tropics '98 contest, they're posted on the Web site tropicshawaii.com.

Tapestry Chicken

1 12-ounce bottle Tropics Oriental Dressing
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 pounds boneless, skinless thighs
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
8 ounces panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
3 tablespoons nori furikake
2 cups flour
Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Combine dressing and soy sauce; pour over chicken and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Beat eggs and milk together to make egg wash. Combine panko and furikake to make coating. Dredge chicken in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg wash and then coat with panko mixture.

Heat oil to 325 to 350 degrees and deep-fry chicken until deep, golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve whole pieces as an entrée or cut into pieces and serve as an appetizer. Serves 8 to 10 as an entrée.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 570 calories, 23 g total fat, 5 g saturated fat, 200 mg cholesterol, greater than 1,000 mg sodium, 45 g carbohydrate, 44 g protein.*

Baked alternative: Spread out thighs and coat with flour, egg and panko on one side only. Bake, coating side up, 45 minutes at 375 degrees, until golden brown.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 660 calories, 32 g total fat, 6 g saturated fat, 200 mg cholesterol, greater than 1,000 mg sodium, 45 g carbohydrate, 44 g protein.*

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.