Fried chicken, whether it’s Southern, Japanese, or Korean, is one of my favourite foods of all time. Put simply, it would be on the menu for my last meal. It’s one of those dishes that strikes the perfect balance between flavor, texture and richness. The only downside about a really great fried chicken (calories aside), is that it takes about a day to make.
Karaage (唐揚げ), pronounced kah-rah-ah-geh, literally means “Tang fried” (Tang as in the Chinese dynasty), and is an umbrella term for any chicken that’s coated in either potato starch or flour and fried. Like Gyoza and Ramen, Karaage is an example of Wafu-Chuka (Chinese-style Japanese) cuisine, whereby dumplings, noodles, or in this case fried chicken, was adapted from the Chinese culinary repertoire and turned into something uniquely Japanese.
The most common type of Karaage, is known as Tatsutaage (竜田揚げ), which is usually defined by the chicken first being marinated in soy sauce and then coated with potato starch. The name is in reference to the reddish brown color imparted by the soy sauce, which was thought to resemble the color of the Tatsuta River in autumn, when the surrounding Japanese maple trees turn the river a similar hue. After being marinated in soy sauce, ginger and garlic, the two-bite nuggets of chicken are dredged in potato starch and deep fried until crisp. The potato starch creates a golden shell around the karaage with a lasting crispness which makes it perfect for packing into a bento lunch. Karaage also makes for a great summer picnic with some onigiri (rice balls)
I know someone is going to ask so I’ll address a few substitutions up-front. You can make Karaage with breast meat, but it will be dryer and less flavorful for the same reason why breast meat is healthier: it has less fat. Cornstarch can be substituted for the potato starch, however the texture won’t be the same. Karaage made with cornstarch has a dense crunchy texture like tortilla chips, while karaage made with potato starch fries up with a light crispy crust like a potato chip.
Personally, I also prefer potato starch to cornstarch as a thickening agent, so I’ve done away with cornstarch in my kitchen. In the US, you can get potato starch at Whole Foods under the Bob’s Red Mill brand.
Ingredients
-
450
grams
boneless skin-on chicken thighs (cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces)
-
1
tablespoon
fresh ginger (grated)
-
1
clove
garlic (grated)
-
2
tablespoons
soy sauce
-
1
tablespoon
sake
-
2
teaspoons
granulated sugar granulated
-
1/3
cup
potato starch
-
vegetable oil (for frying)
-
lemon (for serving)
Steps
-
Add the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sake and sugar to a bowl and whisk to combine. Add the chicken, then stir to coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
-
Add 1 inch of vegetable oil to a heavy bottomed pot and heat until the oil reaches 360 degrees F. Line a wire rack with 2 sheets of paper towels and get your tongs out. Put the potato starch in a bowl
-
Add a handful of chicken to the potato starch and toss to coat each piece evenly.
-
Fry the karaage in batches until the exterior is a medium brown and the chicken is cooked through. Transfer the fried chicken to the paper towel lined rack. If you want the karaage to stay crispy longer, you can fry the chicken a second time, until it's a darker color after it's cooled off once. Serve with lemon wedges.
I would happily join you for your last meal on Earth if this is going to be a part of it:)
as usual something i really really want to eat NOW
Can’t wait to try this. Must it absolutely have to be skinless chix?
Nope, it can be made with skin on chicken as well. In fact, you could probably just use a whole thigh, but that would take longer to fry.
You were right when you said meat porn. This is looking good. Yours looks better than what we’ve both had at restaurants before.
this is one our favorites…we’ll have to try this! like the idea of skinless…though the crispy skin on is too tempting!
How funny…once I left my parents house (Texas) I thought I would never want to see another piece of fried chicken again (mom’s favorite, and had it every week), but of course my room-mate in college loved going out late and night and it was her choice, as she was from Indiana and had not ever had it before.
Now I too have come to like it again, and would squeeze that lemon all over it! Citrus seems to be a favorite of mine…
I love the marinade here, these fried chicken must be so flavorful! I would love to try this recipe soon!
Karaage chicken is a favorite in Hawaii, often served on Hawaiian plate lunches. I also like Korean fried chicken.
A must order at Jap restaurants! Love this!
My Japanese-American hubby will scream when he sees this. Karaage chicken is one of his fave foods. We always order it at a Japanese restaurant. Yours looks like deep-fried perfection!
asian people love the cornstarch! love fried chicken…
my Thomas Keller ones or this lovely karraage. isn’t frying so much easier in cubes? quick n easy and perfect. no bones to through off your whole frying qi.
isn’t it pronounced ka ra (held for 2 beats) ge? because if its two vowels like aa or ee, you just say the a or e for a longer period than teh rest???????
isn’t it pronounced ka ra (held for 2 beats) ge? because if its two vowels like aa or ee, you just say the a or e for a longer period than teh rest???????’, ‘0
Hah, well if you want to get all technical, it should be written “kara-age”(it’s two separate words), unfortunately it seems that most people searching on Google type in “karaage” which is why I chose to spell it like that.
One of favs by far, I didn’t know the marinade was so simple ? I’ve gone through the hassles and complexity of making a Thomas Keller fried chicken before, but I might as well just make the karaage.
One of favs by far, I didn’t know the marinade was so simple ? I’ve gone through the hassles and complexity of making a Thomas Keller fried chicken before, but I might as well just make the karaage.’, ‘0
This takes me back to college days!!
Mochiko chicken or corn flake drummettes have to be my all time favorite, though!
Wow you’re posting like crazy lately. You make me feel so lazy 🙂 I’ll also *shamefully* confess that I have never fried chicken nor eaten fried chicken, as far as I can remember. I’ve done lots of things to chicken (no, not that kind of meat porn, thanks a lot), but I never fried it. And Zenchef never let me go to a Popeye’s. It must be a French thing.
we used to order this all the time in Japanese restaurants until mum stopped us for health reasons! she pretty much banned fried foods at the dinner table. But now i’ve got your recipe. woohoo!
we used to order this all the time in Japanese restaurants until mum stopped us for health reasons! she pretty much banned fried foods at the dinner table. But now i’ve got your recipe. woohoo!’, ‘0
another one of my fave Japanese food. Your plate looks delicious!
Yum! I like kara-age. I’ll be having this in Japan in a few months…
Marc, my favorite fried chicken is my grandmother’s fried chicken (she’s from India, so she gives it a bit of Indian flare), but I think this will be my new favorite! Don’t tell my grandma that, though! 😛
Marc, my favorite fried chicken is my grandmother’s fried chicken (she’s from India, so she gives it a bit of Indian flare), but I think this will be my new favorite! Don’t tell my grandma that, though! :P’, ‘0
Japanese beinng masters of the tempura style, I find all this very interesting and am keeping the recipe in my “to make” folder!
I’m very anxious to try that… thanks for sharing.
Filipino fried chicken can be quite awesome 😉 In fact, I don’t think there’s a fried chicken I don’t like! (it’s a miracle I’m not obese.) Hmm, I think I may be overdue for a karaage-don…
I loooooove this Mark. I have a recipe of this on RM too. I love it that this is so simple to make yet so flavorful that you think there are more secret ingredients in the recipe, but no in reality. Do you like Taiwanese salt and pepper chicken. It’s similar but more peppery and 5-spice taste, and served with fried basil leaves. Going to make it soon.
Sorry, spelled your name wrong, Marc. 😉
In Korea this is called “Tang Soo Yook” and it’s accompanied with a sweet/sour sauce and veggies!
In Korea this is called “Tang Soo Yook” and it’s accompanied with a sweet/sour sauce and veggies!’, ‘0
Apart from teriyaki chicken, this is also my other favourite chicken-dish Japanese style. I am just dumbfounded that there is no special ingredients to make the fried parts crispy – just plain cornstarch. Now I got to go back to my cooking book.
I just finished making karaage for my family tonight, and it was amazing. We used spicy korean bbq sauce, teriyaki, and a homemade honey smoke sauce I made for dipping sauces. I covered the leftovers with the different sauces and baked for 5 minutes. I’m sure they’ll taste great tomorrow!
Thanks for the great recipe!
Just my 2 cents. I’ve tried ALL batters for this dish. Potato starch is the key!! The chicken comes of the fryer not too stiff and not overwhelmed with batter ( that cornstarch tends to do).
Just my 2 cents. I’ve tried ALL batters for this dish. Potato starch is the key!! The chicken comes of the fryer not too stiff and not overwhelmed with batter ( that cornstarch tends to do).’, ‘0
use some kewpie mayonaise with it…..OMG people
Marc. What mixture is better? Ginger OR Garlic, OR both? Besides, what was it you squeezed out of a tube on your kara age before you ate it? Thank you. I have always been a very bad cook, and hope this time my family memebers will eat what i cook.
Marc. Could you recommend one more JAPANESE MEAT dish, like Kara age? Simple. easy, using any meat with any vegetable? Thank you?
Is there a sub for cornstarch? because I have cornflour and the taste isnt the same.
You could use regular all-purpose flour, but the texture of the crust will
be more like American fried chicken.
Thank u thank u very much for this oh so easy delicious recipe! It beats the one in my japanese methodist church cookbook. Its hard to believe how tasty it is with such simple ingredients. My family ate it all. I used both tenders and thighs with great results. Crunchy on the outside, tender and moist inside. I only had 10-15 min to marinade. I also added a bit of lemon juice. The kids used ranch (I know sacrilege!) and tonkatsu sauce for dipping. Soo grateful for this quick oishi dish! Keep up the good work!
What kind of vegetable sides do u serve with this? Thanks
It’s not really like American fried chicken in that it’s not really a “meal”. It’s often had as-is with beer, or is packed in a lunch box with rice. You could turn it into a meal I guess by serving it with a salad or some other vegetable you like.
Love your blog but I have to disagree with the use of cornstarch for karage. Use potato starch, katakuriko, instead. It available in most grocery stores in NY; it works much better and is far more commonly used for karage in Japan. The main difference is that it locks in the marinade without getting sticky or too clumpy as corn starch can do once it is fried. It also has a sharper more angular crunch (cornstarch rounds off the fried edges and congeals into little globules, which you can see in your picture). Potato starch also leaves an interesting white… Read more »
Absolutely correct…katakuriko is what is traditionally used in Japan. thanks for posting!
where do i get corn starch??? from???
Keri, if you are in the USA, ytou can get it from any grocery.
If you can’t get corn starch where you live, you can also use katakuriko, or
potato starch.
theres specific sauce for chicken karaage??????
No sauce. The Japanese use lemon juice . I don’t use any, it tastes fine without a sauce/dip. 🙂