Making Spicy Fermented Chili Sauce at Home

You don't need to buy spicy fermented chili sauce from stores, you can make it at home using just a few ingredients. All you do is cut up some chili peppers into one-inch chunks and cover them in a fair amount of salt. Just toss that together and leave it in an air-tight container. To speed up the process, I like to keep it near my oven where it breaks down and gets really juicy. You just need to check on it every day and give it a good shake to ensure the salt is incorporated into all the pieces of the pepper.

As soon as it looks like it's been blanched or boiled, the color will change to a lighter green, which means it's ready to use. I also make preserved lemons at home, which requires a similar process of covering them in salt and letting them sit for about three weeks. The resulting fermented lemon juice is perfect for adding a tangy flavor to dishes.

To make the fermented chili sauce, you simply blend together the fermented chili peppers with some olive oil and a squeeze of preserved lemon juice. This creates a spicy and tangy condiment that's perfect for adding heat to your favorite dishes. I like to serve it with just a slice of lemon wedge, which helps to balance out the spiciness.

When cooking at home, I often find myself craving something crispy and savory, so I love making Koji Chicken at home. The process involves fermenting chicken with koji (a type of fungus) for several days, which breaks down the proteins and creates a tender and juicy final product. It's definitely worth the effort, as it's much healthier than buying pre-cooked chicken from stores.

One of my favorite parts about cooking at home is making my own takeout-style rice. I just boil some water and add a little salt to the bottom of the pot to collect all the juices that release during cooking. Then, I simply place my Koji Chicken on top of the rice and enjoy it with a side salad made from thinly sliced cucumbers, daikon radish, and scallions.

For added flavor, I like to make a simple chicken broth by simmering the bones from butchering chickens in water for several hours. This reduces the liquid into a rich and savory sauce that's perfect for serving with my Koji Chicken. I also like to add some ginger and cilantro to the broth for extra depth of flavor.

In the end, making spicy fermented chili sauce and Koji Chicken at home is all about experimenting with different ingredients and techniques until you find the combinations that work best for you. With a little patience and creativity, you can create delicious and healthy meals that are tailored to your tastes and dietary needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWe've all had versionsof products using Koji,like soy sauce,miso, sake.All of those goodsare started with Koji.For example,if I mixed Koji withcooked soybeans and likeleft that in a clay potin my house somewhere,in a year, that wouldjust turn into miso.How-To Make Koji FriedChicken With AngelaDimayuga, AngelaDimayuga Exec.Chef, Mission Chinese.My name'sAngela Dimayuga.I'm the Executive Chef atMission Chinese Food inNew York City.I'm gonna makeKoji Fried Chicken today.Koji Fried Chicken isa dish that we serveat Mission Chinese Food.The chicken is, justmarinated with, ginger,scallion and garlic,and then some Koji.And then Koji is thiswhite culture that,Japanese people use fortraditional fermentationprojects.This is kind of likea quick use of Koji.I, I just pick it up atlike any Japanese market.It just looks likedry rice grains.And the culture is justin the, the rice grains.And you just inoculateit by cooking the Koji,adding it to likewhite rice andwater, and you justmake like a slurry.It looks like porridge.And then you just leavethat out for a week.And just agitateit every few days.What you get is just likethis sweet-smelling likerace, that smellssort of like sake.That's what we use tostart the base marinades.It also caramelizes theoutside of the chickenreally well whenyou deep fry it, sothat we don't need to useany starches or batters.The Koji itself willturn the proteinmolecules intomore of sugars.So, that's why it alsoaids in like the colorand caramelization andthe flavor.So, the first partof this dish is justmarinating the chickenwith the Koji rub.I just take some ginger,like an,a one inch piece.Just about like twocloves of garlic.One scallion, andthen just cut itreally nice and thin.I like to usea microplane with gingerjust because it also justleaves the tough fibersthat you don'treally need in this.And then, this ginger orgarlic now,so, these are just thethree like aromatics thatyou're gonna use toseason your chicken.Then, you're gonnaadd your Koji to it,which I have here.It's totally likethis active culture.It's really bubbly.This one is likeabout a month old,so, the rice grainshave broken down.Add like fourtablespoons there to it.Tablespoon of salt.And then, just mixthis all together.So, I havea whole chickenthat I just broke downinto two pieces here.I just butcher thechicken off of the ribcage cuz that's alsohow you, you typicallyget your chicken servedwith style over rice.So, at this point youwant to cover yourchicken in this mixture,and you really just wannaget into like all thegroves here, so that it,it totally, it justlike penetrates allthe parts of the chicken.It ages it sort of ina way that like youage like dry aged beef,like ribeye, andwith, the chicken I feellike it's a little bituncommon to see likean aged, chicken.Just age it inyour refrigerator.I'm just gonna put iton just a sheet pan butwith a rack on it so theair can get right underthe chicken as well.And you always want toleave it skin side up sothat the skingets really dry.So, it just friesreally nicely andgets really crisp.So, at this point yeah,you could just leaveit in your fridge.You don't evenhave to likedeal with it forthree days.And this chicken hasbeen air dried forthree days now, you'lljust notice that the skinjust looks a lot moretranslucent, which is,that means that Kojiis really working andaging the chicken.At this point,it's just ready to fry.If you're frying this athome, you just wanna havea pot that's justhalfway filled with oil.That's just to be safefrom like splattering,you just want to makesure the temperature isat anywhere betweenlike 360 to 375.I'm using a candythermometer to check outthe temperature, or,for me at, at home,I just usea chopstick andsee if it has likea nice, mellow bubblethat's coming outof the chopstick.It just needs about4 to 6 minutes andyou can flip it overto make sure allthe sides are immersedin the oil.And then, I usually,I just use a,neutral oil like soybeanoil or anyone could justuse like canola oil orgrape seed oil.I'm just looking tomake sure that it's notsticking tothe bottom and then,just also making sureit's totally immersed.It's just gonna turninto an even brown.Like I said the Kojijust like allows that tohappen a lot faster thanif this was just salt,like salted chicken.So, you could seethat caramelizationalready happening there.I'm taking a cake tester.And I always like tokeep this in my kitchenat home too, because ifyou're cooking protein,you can feel whattemperature the internaltemperature is,by body heat.So, I usually just pokeit in the thickest partof the meat, andthen just press itagainst my lip.What you're looking foris a little bit abovebody temperature, andthen you can pull it andrest it.It's about readyto come out.Season it while it's hot,sothe salt just sticksright to the chicken.It looks good, whilethat's resting, I'm justgonna get a couple otheringredients ready.I'm serving today, myKoji chicken with a hotsauce that we make inhouse using preservedchilis andpreserved lemons.If you're making it athome, like, feel freeto just use anythinglike Frank's Red Hot orSriracha or whatever youhave in your cupboard.All I do is just cut upsome chili just like inone-inch chunks,and then,cover it in a fair amountof, salt just to cover.You just, you justtoss that together andthen you just leave thisin a air tight container.But I would just keepthis somewhere warm likemaybe near my oven andthen what happens is itbreaks down andgets really juicy.You wanna just check itevery day and just like,give it a good shake sothat you make sure thatthe salt's incorporated,in all the piecesof the pepper.And as soon asit looks like,it's maybe been likeblanched or boiled,where they look,it looks really like.It's flattened out.The, the color willchange to likea lighter green.It's pretty muchready to use andI would just put itin my refrigerator.If you see like blackmold or green mold, it's,you just have tothrow it away.So, there should neverbe any mold on it.I also makepreserved lemons,and it's pretty much thesame process to preservelemons except you have tocover it, in some juice,so, these are somelemons that I preserved.You just cover it ina lot of salt as well,it takes about atminimum, like 3 weeks toget to this stage whereit's nice and it's,it's like kind of itturns like clear.It's, it also feels likeit had been blanched.So, at this point,you could usethe entire lemon.But, I,I prefer to just use the,the flesh itself.Like it's nice andbitter butI don't want it tobe too bitter, so,you would just throwthat, the pith away,the white pith.I have my, just my lemonsthat are just cleaned up.And then, this is justsome of, the fermentedchili product afterit's been fermented forabout a week.What we do isjust blend itin your food processor.You just get thesenice chunks.So, now, I'm gonna just,I'm just gonnablend this up,I'm also gonnause some of the,preserved lemon juiceto get this started.And then at this point,I just add a littleolive oil tojust balanceout that heat.And then this isjust the end result.The oil makes itlike nice andbright, gives it a niceyellow hue to it.So, yeah, so,there's the hot sauce.And then,like to serve it withjust like a lemon wedge.You know, it's like soup,kind of fatty cuzit's just deep fried.And then,I always like to justmake a little salad.Just like thinly slicedcucumbers, and daikon.I have a,a green daikon here.You don't haveto have daikon.I think cucumberwould be fine too butI just like the spicinessof radishes andthe crunch.Season these witha little bit of salt.And then your chickenshould just be nice andrested at this point,ready to slice.I also like to just pokeat it to see like howfirm the meat is.It should havea little bit of give.If it's, if it feelsreally hard when youpress it, that meansyou over cooked it, so,it should bounceback a little bit.So, I just splitit at the breast.Pick up my drumstick.The wing,which is my favorite partcuz it's super crispy.I just sliced my chickenbreast into about four orfive pieces.And then, usually whenI'm cooking at home,even though, you know,say I made this KojiChicken at home and likeall these fermentationprojects take super long.I get really im,impatient aboutmaking rice at home,so, I'm really lazy and Iwould just go downstairsand get like a dollarbox from the takeout.But, so,here's my take out rice.Just put a little onthe bottom basically justto collect a lotof juices.At this point,I'm gonna put my chickenright over my rice.And then a little salad.I always take all the,the bones from the,from butchering chickensand then just make itinto a really likesimple like, broth.I always like to justhave some, like chickenbroth in my freezer if Ihave anything leftoverfrom, makinga chicken dish.So, I have some of that,reduced.Then I just use thatas a sauce too.So, has ginger andscallion in it.And then a littlecilantro ontop, that's it.I'm gonna go for my wing,cuz that's the bestpart to me.\n"