Name: Chicken and Potato Soup (Satsuma-jiru )
Yield: Serves 4.
Cuisine: Japan
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon saké (rice wine); ½ cake konnyaku (gelatinous cake made from a tuber vegetable); 3½–4 cups water; 2–3 small sato imo (Japanese country potatoes)*; 2 small chicken breasts, with skin and bone; 1½ tablespoons Sendai miso (dark bean paste); 2–3 inches daikon (Japanese white radish), about 4 ounces, or 2 small white turnips; 1 small carrot; ½ teaspoon mirin (syrupy rice wine)

Preparation info

Serves
4
.

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

At Home with Japanese Cooking

By Elizabeth Andoh

Published 1986

About

A rich, hearty soup thickened with dark bean paste, Satsuma-jiru was born out of an acquaintanceship with European stews dating from sometime around the seventeenth century. Both chicken and pork versions appear on menus in Japan today, though the former is more common, and I think tastier.

Served piping hot with rice and pickles or dark bread and a green salad, it’s wonderful on a cold and blustery day.