Chicken Steak is a delicious way to eat chicken. No bones. No fuss. And damn delicious! I learned this style when I was living in Tokyo, at a dining bar named ROA - you can see the bar in this vlog video.
Chef Toshi would debone a chicken thigh, butterfly the thicker parts and pan-fry it to a golden crisp with some butter. Then he would drizzle a house mustard sauce over the top. Sounds like a opening to a Netflix cooking show no?
Thus, I've been craving this dish lately. So last week, I visited the mart near my house but surprisingly, they did not carry any bone-in chicken thigh. They sold whole chicken, drumsticks and wings. But no thighs! I tried a different mart and they too didn't have it. After looking online, I learned that chicken thighs are not typically sold in grocery stores in Korea. Bummer.
But no worries. I improvised and found a work-around with drumsticks. It tastes just as great. However, if you do can find bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs - go with that. Much more meat!
Chicken Steak Dinner
Ingredients
- Chicken drumsticks - 4 or use 2 chicken thighs
- Salt - few shakes
- Black pepper - few shakes
- Butter - 1 tablespoon
Grilled Veggies
- Bok choy - 2
- Onion - 1
- Potato - ½ a whole
- Garlic - 4 cloves
Steak Sauce
- Butter - 1 Tablespoon
- Soy sauce - 1 Tablespoon
- Water - 3 Tablespoon
- Sugar - 1 Tablespoon
- Vinegar - ½ Tablespoon
- Minced garlic - ½ Tablespoon
Instructions
Prep Chicken
- Make sure chicken drumsticks (or thighs) are at room temperature. Then use kitchen scissors to cut around the 'ankles' of the drum sticks. Then cut up the middle of the drumstick. Find the bone, cut around it and remove it. Take your time as it may be tricky on your first try!
- Then salt and pepper both sides of the chicken filet.
Prep Veggies
- Cut onions into 3 thick sections. Cut potatoes into thin sections (not too thick - or they will not cook through). Cut garlic cloves into three pieces. And finally cut the bok choy in half.
Start Grilling
- Put frying pan on a medium-high heat. Make sure it gets hot. Then place the chicken pieces in - skin-side down. Then place the onion, potato and garlic pieces in as well. Give it a few minutes to cook until the chicken gets a nice crispy golden skin. Then flip over the chicken.
- Place in the butter and put a lid over the frying pan. Then swirl the frying pan around so the butter gets distributed evenly. After about 1 minute, lift the lid. Flip over the vegetables. Add-in the bok choy. Then turn off the heat. Take out each piece onto a serving plate.
Make Sauce
- Don't wash the frying pan - the leftover oils from the chicken adds to the sauce. Put the frying pan on a medium heat. Add in all of the listed ingredients under sauce. When the bubbles get big, the sauce is ready. Serve over the chicken and enjoy!
Notes
- When deboning the drumsticks, you may see some white tendons poke out. Don't worry about this - it's normal. That's what holds the meat together in place.
- To get a nice crispy skin, don't put any oil into the frying pan when you first put the chicken in
- Later, make sure to put some butter in the pan - gives more richness and glossy finish to the chicken.
- You can use any sauce recipe. In this video, we tried out Chef Baek Jong Won's steak sauce.
- For more details, watch the video below.
Traci says
This was a little eye opening for me. I've never thought of onion as a side veggie before, but charred with this sauce was delicious. I didn't have bok choy, so I used thick wedges of zucchini, and it was so good. Such a versatile, tasty dish! I will make this lots.