Air fryer chicken nanban
A Japanese diner favorite: crisp chicken dunked in a sweet-sour soy vinegar sauce and topped with a chunky homemade egg tartar.
- 50 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 2
- About $2.94 a serving
- 1040 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 2 large eggs, divided
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 lb boneless chicken thighs, about 4 thighs
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 dill pickle, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp red onions, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 1½ cups water
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 1040 calories, 61 g protein, 98 g carbs and 43 g fat, and costs about $2.94 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No boneless chicken thighs? Chicken breasts or chicken tenderloins work.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Put 1 egg in a small , cover it with cold water, and bring it . Cover, take it off the heat for 10 minutes, then move the egg to cold water.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
the rice and bring it with the water in a small over high heat.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
High heat
once, cover, turn the heat to low and cook 18 minutes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar in a small over medium for 1 to 2 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. This is the nanban sauce.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
the air fryer to 400°F for 5 minutes.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Timer: 5 min
the chicken dry and it with the salt and pepper. Dust it with flour, then dip it in the second egg, beaten, and let the extra drip off.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Brush the basket and the tops of the chicken with the oil and cook 8 minutes.
Timer: 8 min
Flip and cook 6 to 8 minutes more, until and the thickest piece reads 165°F.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 7 min
Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
and the egg and it with the mayonnaise, pickle, onion and parsley for the tartar sauce.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Dolly’s tip: Chunky is right. This isn’t meant to be smooth.Dip the hot chicken in the nanban sauce on both sides, it, and serve over the rice with the tartar spooned on top.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dolly’s tip: Dip it quickly. A few seconds per side flavors it without making the coating soggy.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Air fryer chicken karaage
55 min
Air fryer chicken katsu
45 min
Oyakodon (Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl)
35 min
Microwave soboro don (chicken and egg rice bowl)
15 min
High-protein dinners ›Cozy comfort food ›What to make with chicken and rice ›What to make with eggs and rice ›What to make with chicken and eggs ›