Jack in the Bento (Fancy Jack in the Box)
by Erik of Fancy Fast Food, with support from Noelle R.
Ingredients:
- 1 Chipotle Chicken Ciabatta with Spicy Cripsy Chicken
- 1 Steak Teriyaki Bowl
- 1 side salad
- 1 large Coke
This Japanese adaptation of American fast food items calls for Coke reduction, so get that started first by pouring about half of the large Coke in a non-stick skillet and evaporating out the water. Then disassemble your items to get the separated ingredients you need: ciabatta bread, steak pieces, a chicken cutlet, rice, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes. You will not be using the bacon found in the sandwich, so you may go ahead and just pop that deliciousness in your mouth.
Rinse the rice in a colander and then dry it out with some paper towels. Let it sit out and get sticky for a bit while you prepare the “nori sheets”: thinly slice pieces of the ciabatta bread, and then dye it dark in the syrupy Coke reduction when it’s ready. Let them cool so that you can handle them, but don’t let them completely cool and dry out. When it’s okay to touch, place the darker side down, and top it with rice. Roll it as best you can, then cut off the ends to even it out. Slice some cucumber and insert a piece in the center of the maki roll piece, along with a strand of carrot. Do this at least two more times for more pieces of sushi.
Dice down the steak pieces until it almost becomes a paste. Then place it in the skillet with the remaining Coke and bring to a boil. You’ll want this concoction to be the thickness of a katsu curry sauce, so add torn pieces of bread as needed to dissolve and give the sauce some density. Stir it until everything become consistent.
Cut your spicy chicken cutlet into pieces about 3/4 inches wide. (Amazing that it looks like chicken katsu already, just by doing that.) Finally, the assembly: in a bento box, place the rice in one compartment, pat it down, and garnish with a cherry tomato in the center; place the makeshift maki rolls in another compartment; pour a layer of “curry” sauce in the main compartment, then top it off with the chicken katsu and a garnish of broccoli; and place the lettuce and the remaining carrots in the salad compartment. For an extra touch, take some squishy broccoli and mush it with your fingers into a ball so that it looks like a wad of wasabi paste. And there you have it: the answer to the age old Japanese question, “Can Jack in the Box become fancy by replacing the box for a bento?” Hai!
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