Oita Soul Food · Battered Fried Chicken
Toriten
Photo: Toritencat / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Unlike the deep-fried karaage found everywhere else in Japan, toriten is coated in a loose tempura batter, not breadcrumbs or potato starch, and dipped in a soy-vinegar ponzu with hot mustard rather than any mayo-based sauce.
Boneless chicken pieces are marinated in soy sauce, sake and garlic, dipped in a thin tempura batter and deep-fried, then served with a ponzu dipping sauce spiked with hot mustard rather than the usual squeeze of lemon.
Why it's made this way: The technique is traced to Toyoken, a Beppu restaurant whose chef developed a boneless, tempura-battered fried chicken in the early Showa era so women could eat it more easily than bone-in karaage, and it stuck hard enough that Oita locals now call it their prefecture's soul food.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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