Karaage is a type of cooking technique for deep-fried ingredients such as meat, fish, or vegetables covered with potato starch or a combination of flour and potato starch in oil. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a chicken but generally speaking, when people say “Karaage” in Japan, it is imagined as fried chicken. Japanese fried chicken (Karaage) is usually round in shape and seasoned mostly with soy sauce mainly.

It is one of the most popular classic Japanese dishes, especially among younger ages, but people love it on any day and age. You often see this in a lunch box in Japan. There are different varieties of Japanese fried chicken nowadays, each family might have a unique recipe for Karaage. You can enjoy arranging and seasoning it with your taste.

Print Recipe

Japanese Fried Chicken (Karaage)

Karaage is Japanese fried chicken, usually round bite-size pieces seasoned mostly with soy sauce. It is one of the most popular classic Japanese dishes for everyone. You often see this in a lunch box in Japan. There are different varieties of Japanese fried chicken nowadays, each family might have a unique recipe for Karaage. You can enjoy arranging and seasoning it with your taste.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Resting time15

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: crispy, Japanese fried chicken, juicy, Karaage

Servings: 2 people

Author: Rinchan

Ingredients

250 g boneless chicken thigh
Salt as needed
Black pepper as needed
1 Tbsp sake
1 Tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
½ tsp grated garlic
3 Tbsp potato starch
Cooking oil as needed

Optional garnish

Lemon wedges
Grated Japanese radish daikon oroshi
Japanese mayonnaise
Seven flavor chili pepper (shichimim/nanami)
Yuzu citrus chili paste (Yuzu kosho)

Instructions

Get all the ingredients and condiments.
Cut the chicken thigh into a bite.
Cut the boneless chicken thigh into a bit bigger bite-size. You may get rid of unwanted fat from chicken thighs as needed.
Season the chicken thigh and rest it.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper first, and put the chicken into a bowl. Add sake, mayonnaise, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic, and mix them well. Package it with plastic wrap and rest it for 15 minutes. Plastic wrap helps soak up and prevents unwanted drying.
Coat the chicken.
Add potato starch mix well, and coat the chicken.
Deep fry.
Pour the vegetable oil into a pan until about 3 cm/ 1-2 inches from the bottom and heat to 170℃/ 340℉ over medium heat. When you don't know if the oil is hot enough, check with chopsticks. Put a chopstick into the oil, if you see small bubbles around its surface, that means it is ready to go. Fry 3 or 4 pieces at a time. In 1 and a half minutes to 2 minutes, they color golden brown then it is time to flip them off, and another 1 and a half minutes to 2 minutes more. When they look nicely colored, take them out from the pan.