Chicken Karaage with Japanese Potato Salad and Green Beans

Boil a kettle. Peel and chop the potatoes and carrots into large bite-sized pieces. Add both the potatoes and carrots to a pot of boiled water with a pinch of salt, bring to the boil over a high heat and cook for 15-20 min or until fork-tender. Once tender, drain and leave to steam dry (reserve the pan).

Chop the green beans into bite-sized pieces. Cut the red chillies in half lengthways, deseed (scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon) and chop finely. Peel and chop (or grate) the garlic finely, then peel and slice the shallot finely. Peel and finely chop the ginger.

Cut the chicken thigh fillets into thick strips.

Add the chicken strips, chopped garlic, ginger, 2 soy sauce sachets and 1 tsp sugar to a medium bowl and give everything a good mix up. Add the cornflour and a pinch of salt to a second bowl. Transfer the chicken strips from the soy sauce to the cornflour. Give everything a good mix up so the chicken strips are fully coated in cornflour.

Heat a large, wide-based pan with 4tbsp vegetable oil over a high heat. Once hot, add floured chicken and cook for 4 min on each side, or until nicely golden and crisp - this is your chicken karaage.

Meanwhile, heat another pan with a matching lid over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the chopped green beans with a splash of water and cook, covered, for 3 mins or until they're tender. Once tender, remove the lid and add the sesame oil, chopped chilli and remaining soy sauce and cook for 1-2 min further.

Combine the mayonnaise and rice vinegar with a generous pinch of salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the drained potatoes, carrots and shallot and give everything a good mixup, crushing the potatoes as you go - this is your Japanese potato salad.

Serve the chicken karaage alongside the Japanese potato salad and green beens. Sprinkle the Japanese potato salad with the black sesame seeds. Enjoy!