Chicken nanban hails from Miyazaki in southern Japan, but you'll now find it on menus at Japanese diners everywhere - and once you taste it, it's easy to see why. Crumbed or lightly battered chicken thigh is fried until golden, then dunked while still hot into a punchy sweet-and-sour sauce made from soy, vinegar and sugar, so it soaks up all that tang without losing its crunch.
The finishing touch is a generous spoonful of homemade tartare sauce, studded with boiled egg, pickles and onion, draped over the top. It sounds like an unusual combination for a Japanese dish, but the cool, creamy tartare against the hot, sticky-sour chicken is what makes chicken nanban so addictive.
It looks like restaurant food, but it's genuinely simple weeknight cooking once you've got your components sorted - fry the chicken, whisk the sauce, mix the tartare. Serve it over rice with some shredded cabbage on the side and you've got a proper Japanese diner plate at home.
