Chicken & Daikon in Vinegar Soy Sauce Soup

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Tonight my wife made me corned beef with cabbage and potatoes, and of course, I had some Guinness as well. That was tasty.

During cold winter months, I made chicken and daikon boiled in soy sauce, mirin and sake numerous times. A couple of months ago when I held a potluck party, a friend of mine made chicken and egg boiled in soy sauce and vinegar (and mirin and sake), which tasted quite similar to my chicken and daikon (which I never had the chance to post here). My friend told me that using vinegar makes it healthier and it also makes the meat very tender. He also added that even though there are quite a bit of vinegar in it, you don't really taste the sourness. So, I had to give it a try myself.

IN JAPANESE: Tori to Daikon su nikomi
CATEGORY: Meat
COOKING METHOD: Boiling
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 1.25 hr

INGREDIENTS:
2.5 lb Chicken thighs, drumsticks or wings with bones in it
1 whole daikon (cut in about 1/2 inch thickness)
1 package of Tofu (optional)
2 boiled eggs (optional)
6 cups of water
1 TBsp of Dashi powder (about 6 shakes)
8 TBsp of Soy Sauce
6 TBsp of Vinegar
6 TBsp of Mirin
6 TBsp of Sake
1 clove of garlic chopped in half

HOW TO:
Place the chicken in a large pot and cover that with water and set the burner to medium high. I measured about 6 cups of water, but if you are using smaller chicken pieces or larger pieces, the water you put in should cover most of the chicken. Add the dashi powder (I would say about 1 shake per cup of water you use).

While that pot is starting to cook, wash the daikon, slice it about 1/2 inch thickness. Peel the skin from each of the slices, and cut those in half (so each pieces look like half a circle). This really depends on how big of a daikon you got, but for 4 servings, you should have total of 12-18 of half circle daikon pieces. When you are done cutting them, the water should be boiling, and add the daikon to the pot and lower the heat to low.

Also peel one clove of garlic, and chop that in half and throw that in the pot as well.

By this time there should be some foamy stuff on the top. Be sure to take those out with spoon and throw it out (but try not to take out the oily part as that gives the rich flavor!).

When most of the foamy stuff is taken out (as you continue to cook, more will appear, which you can take out) add the soy sauce, mirin, sake and vinegar. For every cup of water you used, use 1 TBsp of everything, except soy sauce use about 1.25 TBsp. And like I said before, you can hardly taste any vinegar when everything is cooked.

If you want to make this dinner more filling, you can put in some tofu and boiled egg, which I ended up doing.

Put on the lid, make sure the heat is still set to low, and let it simmer for about an hour. Some of the chicken or daikon or anything else you put in may be above the soup, so occasionally stir the pot around so everything can get even amount of flavor soaking.