🥩 Chicken Motsuni

“Chicken Motsuni“ is a dish made from chicken innards such as liver, gizzard, heart, kinkan (unlaid eggs), and himo (fallopian tubes), simmered in a sweet soy-based sauce. Around 1950, shortly after the end of WWII, the second-generation owner of Okuto Honten Kunimoten, a soba noodle restaurant established in 1913 in Kofu City, was asked by a butcher if there was anything he could do with the chicken parts that were thrown away. At that time, there was still a shortage of food, and after much trial and error to make a cheap and tasty dish, he developed Chicken Motsuni, which was simmered in soy sauce and sugar, both of which were precious commodities at that time. The sweet-salty flavor goes well with alcohol and is the perfect topping for rice, making the dish a staple at izakaya, set menu restaurants, and soba noodle restaurants, and a favorite of Kofu residents. Although “Motsuni” usually refers to a soup dish that has been simmered for a long time, Chicken Motsuni is made in a unique way by quickly braising chicken liver and other ingredients in a small amount of sauce over a high flame to lock in the flavor and sweetness of the chicken innards. The origin of the name of the ingredient “kinkan” is also interesting.