Fried ── Fried dishes
Senzanki
Senzanki — bone-in chicken deep-fried whole, Imabari's version of karaage
Bone-in young chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces, marinated, and dusted in potato starch before frying — Imabari's take on fried chicken. The bone is said to deepen the flavor, and it turns up everywhere from celebrations to packed lunches.
- Origin: Ehime Imabari
- About 640 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Fried whole with the bone in, coated in potato starch, the skin turns crisp and fragrant while savor concentrates around the bone. It is chicken on the bone, marinated in soy sauce, sake, and ginger juice before frying, and it is said to have long been favored in the Toyo area, especially around Imabari City. The name is said to come either from a phrase for slicing a bird into a thousand pieces, bones and all, or from a Chinese term for deep-fried chicken, though the origin remains unsettled.
How it's made
Bone-in chicken pieces are cut into bite-size chunks and steeped in a marinade of light soy sauce, sake, ginger juice, and pepper until the flavor takes. The oil is heated to medium temperature, the pieces are coated in potato starch, and then fried. Leaving the bone in while frying is said to be what sets it apart from ordinary karaage, letting savor from the bone and the marinade soak in further as it cooks.
Why it took this shape
One account traces the dish to the Edo period, when pheasant caught on Mt. Chikami is said to have been deep-fried, roughly three hundred years ago, though no detailed record has been found to confirm it. It is also said to have spread after a shop that drew a following in the Imabari area shortly after the war, and from there it is said to have become a dish served year-round, from festive occasions to children's sports days and everyday lunchboxes.
Before you go
Dishes in the same style
- Agemaki Yuba no NimonoFresh yuba sheets are layered, rolled into a log, sliced into rounds, and deep-fried before a slow simmer in a light broth — a Nikko dish built on the region's rippled yuba-making craft, served at New Year's and celebrations.
- Aji FryFilleted horse mackerel breaded in panko and fried. Chiba prefecture holds some of the richest mackerel fishing grounds in Japan, and frying is thought to have taken root as a quick way to eat regional brands like the oily 'golden aji' fresh.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
Also from Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.