Chicken Wings With Chestnuts

This post is for Joelen's Culinary Adventures Wine & Dine Event: Japanese

I seldom make Japanese food because I prefer to eat it at restaurants. Sometimes, maybe once a year I make pressed sushi, onigiri, or beef robatayaki. For this event I wanted to cook something different other than sushi or teriyaki and found a chicken stew recipe in my Japanese cookbook. I had all the ingredients except for dried shiitake which I replaced with dried wild mushrooms. The stew is delicious, a little bit sweet and has a variety of flavors and textures.

Chicken Wings With Chestnuts
1½ pounds chicken wings, jointed (or 1 pound cubed boneless chicken)
1 tablespoon light olive oil
1 cup tiny baby carrots or sliced carrots
6 dried shiitake or ½ cup mixed wild mushrooms
20 chestnuts, peeled, skinned, and parboiled
2 pieces small taro, peeled, cubed, and parboiled
1 cup dashi stock, any flavor
¼ cup sake
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup edamame in pods
water
salt

• Rinse the mushrooms and soak in 1 cup boiling water for 20 minutes, remove mushrooms. Let cool slightly then cut into bite size pieces. Pour the mushroom liquid through a small coffee filter, set aside.
  
• In a large skillet, heat the oil and stir fry the chicken wings until light brown. Add the carrots and mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the dashi stock, mushroom liquid, taro, and chestnuts and let come to a boil. Cover pan, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sake, sugar, and soy sauce and let simmer uncovered until sauce has reduced and is slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  
• While stew is cooking, boil the edamame in salted water for 5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then shell.
  
• Transfer the stew into a large serving bowl. Sprinkle top with edamame. Best eaten while hot with steamed Japanese rice.

frozen peeled chestnuts, 2-inch taro roots

the different textures make this stew very appealing and delicious