Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)
Japanese karaage is simply deep-fried chicken seasoned with mostly soy sauce, sake, ginger and garlic. In Japan, karaage is loved by men and women of all ages, so much so that there are bento boxes that contain only karaage on a bed of white rice. It is also readily available at convenience stores, so it is common to see students and businessmen eating it for a quick pick-me-up. The key to its deliciousness is that it is crispy on the outside and juicy and juicy on the inside.
Ingredients (4 servings):
Karaage:
1 (250g) Chicken thigh
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp Sake
2 tsp Garlic *grated
1 tsp Ginger *grated
1 pinch Salt
3 Tbsp Potato starch
Canola oil, as needed
Sesame salad with broccoli:
100g Broccoli
1 Tbsp White sesame
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar
Onigiri:
200g Japanese rice *steamed
3 kinds Furikake
Nori seaweed, as needed
Directions:
Karaage:
1. Put soy sauce, sake, ginger paste and garlic paste in a bowl to make marinade sauce. Lightly stir.
2. Cut the chicken into 6 pieces. *Don’t separate meat and skin.
3. Put the marinade sauce over the chicken chunks. Then, marinade for 15 – 20 minutes.
4. Wipe off the excess liquid from each chicken chunks.
5. Put the potato starch over the chicken and dust off the excess powder. Then, wrap with skin side outside.
6. Pour the oil in a pot and heat the oil to between 170 to 180 degrees.
7. Put the chicken in a pot with skin side down and fry for 2 minutes with medium heat. *Don’t touch them.
8. Turn over and fry another 1 minute. Then, turn to high heat and fry extra 1 minute.
9. Take out the chickens and drip off the excess oil with skin side up.
Sesame salad with broccoli:
1. Cut the broccoli bite-size pieces. Steam them until a bit crunchy. *Microwave for 2 minutes.
2. Prepare the Japanese mortar and pestle. Then, grind the roasted white sesame until powder.
3. Put the soy sauce, sugar and salt. Then, add broccoli and gently mix all of them.
Onigiri:
1. Prepare the steamed Japanese rice.
2. Make onigiri rice balls.
3. Put Furikake all over the onigiri. Put nori seaweed over the onigiri.
Related Video:
YUCa’s Tips:
1. Buy the chicken thigh, boneless and skin on!
2. Cut the one chicken thigh into 4 to 5 chunks.
3. Wipe off the excess juice/liquid from the chicken.
4. 2 minutes medium heat + Flip + 1 min medium heat + 1 min high heat.
Note :
This recipe was first submitted in Mar 20th, 2021 and resubmitted in Sep 29th, 2023 to reflect recipe revisions and additional photos.