Koushu Tori Motsuni - Traditional Foods in Japan | Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

YamanashiKoushu Tori Motsuni

Classification (Large)

Livestock products

Classification (Small)

Processed livestock products

Main ingredients used

chicken giblets (livers, gizzards, hearts, unborn eggs, and small intestine), soy sauce, sugar, sake

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Region of inheritance

Kofu City

Product overview (special characteristics and types)

Koshu tori motsuni is a boiled dish made by boiling and glazing chicken giblets, such as liver, gizzard, heart, kinkan (unborn eggs), and himo (small intestine), in a thick sweetened soy sauce. It is offered as a standard dish at soba restaurants, hoto restaurants (a kind of noodle soup), and izakaya bars. With its unique and rich taste, it goes well with drinks as well as with rice, and is popular in Kofu.
To ensure that anyone can easily replicate its tastiness, Koshu tori motsuni is sold in various forms, such as in a vacuum-packed product that contains ingredients soaked in a sauce which can be eaten just by emptying the pack into a pot and boiling and glazing the ingredients inside, and as a retort pouch product that can be eaten just by heating the whole pack in hot water. It can now also be eaten easily as a main dish, a snack with drinks, or as a tori motsuni-over-rice bowl. Each of these options allows you to enjoy the dish without having to buy all of the ingredients one by one.
Many people may think that motsuni is a dish cooked by stewing ingredients for hours, but Koshu tori motsuni is made with the unique method of quickly boiling ingredients in a small amount of sauce over a high flame to quickly cover them with the sauce. The taste produced by coating the surface with a sweetened soy sauce and condensing the savor and sweetness of chicken giblets into a single dish makes it a common, everyday favorite.

History and culture

Around 1950, shortly after the end of World War II, the owner of the Kokubo branch restaurant of Okuto Honten, a long-established soba restaurant in Kofu City, was asked for advice by a butcher who wanted to cook dishes using chicken giblets, which had been thrown away unused. This is said to be the beginning of Koshu tori motsuni. In those days, there was not enough food so he tried to make something filling, and after some trial and error, finally came up with tori motsuni (chicken giblets) boiled in a thick sauce made of soy sauce and sugar. It ended up also being offered at other soba restaurants, as well as hoto restaurants and izakaya bars, and gained popularity, before gradually becoming a home-cooked meal.
At the 2010 B1 Grand Prix, [Minasama no En wo Tori Motsu Tai], a voluntary town development group comprised of Kofu City workers, won the Gold Grand Prix. Following this, the visibility of Koshu tori motsuni as a B-grade cuisine of Yamanashi Prefecture increased rapidly, and easier-to-eat retort pouch Koshu tori motsuni and many other processed foods appeared on the market.

Production method

Chicken liver, gizzard, heart, kinkan, and himo are precooked individually and cut into bite-sized pieces. They are further washed with weak salty water to remove the smell, and drained. Soy sauce and sugar are boiled in a frying pan over a high flame until the sauce froths a bit, then the chicken giblets are put in the pan, which is stirred lightly and lidded. The pan is further stirred occasionally so as not to scorch the giblets, and once the thick syrup-like sauce sticks to the surface of the pan, tori motsuni is ready to serve. It is often accompanied with lettuce or cooked shishito peppers to add a refreshing taste.

Conservation and succession efforts

Koshu tori motsuni is offered as a standard dish at soba restaurants, hoto restaurants, izakaya bars, and set menu restaurants, and can also be bought at the deli corners at supermarkets and other places.
Since 2008, [Minasama no En wo Tori Motsu Tai], a voluntary town development group comprised of Kofu City workers, has been promoting Koshu tori motsuni nationwide as a B-grade cuisine of Kofu City. Since they won the Gold Grand Prix in the 2010 B1 Grand Prix, the dish has been increasingly covered by the media and retort pouch Koshu tori motsuni and other processed foods have started being manufactured and put on the market.

Main consumption method

The vacuum-packed seasoned variety containing ingredients soaked in a sauce can be eaten by emptying the pack into a pot and boiling and glazing the contents to complete the dish. The retort pouch variety can be eaten by heating the whole pack in hot water. Koshu tori motsuni is served as is as a main dish or as a snack with drinks, and is also often put on rice and eaten as a tori motsuni-over-rice bowl.

At-home recipes：Koshu tori motsuni on garlic toast

Ingredients

Koshu tori motsuni

1 pack

French bread

1/3 loaf

Butter (containing salt)

15 g

Olive oil

4 teaspoons

Grated garlic

1 teaspoon

Italian parsley

Small amount

How to make

Heat motsuni according to the recipe on the package. Slice French bread diagonally.

Put butter and olive oil in a heat-resistant container, microwave for a few seconds to melt the butter, add garlic, and mix well.

Spread the garlic butter over the bread with a spoon, toast it, and sprinkle parsley.

Place the motsuni and the toast on a plate and garnish with Italian parsley.