Chicken Karaage Recipe Japanese Fried Chicken

What is Karaage

Karaage is a Japanese dish which is thought to have been introduced from China in which a protein or vegetable is dusted in flour or potato starch and deep-fried until crisp and golden brown. Chicken is the most common protein, but it’s also made with seafood, such as fugu (blowfish). The name “karaage” literally means “empty fried” so historically the food was not seasoned prior to dusting.

Karaage (から揚げ) vs. Tatsutaage (竜田揚げ)

To the east of Osaka, there is a river called Tatsuta-gawa, famous for its beautiful autumn foliage. When the chicken pieces are marinated in soy sauce before being coated in starch and fried, it turns the color of autumn leaves, which is how Tatsutaage is said to have gotten its name. By this definition, what most of us know as Karaage is technically Tatsutaage. That being said, in modern parlance, the two names are used interchangeably, and while there may be some regional preferences, “Karaage” is the more commonly used of the two.

Ingredients for Karaage

Chicken

Although Karaage can be made with almost any kind of meat or fish, it’s most commonly made with various cuts of chicken. The standard is skin-on boneless chicken thighs. There are two reasons why thigh meat tastes better than chicken breast meat. The first is that the type of muscle tissue in the legs is fundamentally different from that of breast meat. They are built for endurance and contain a higher concentration of myoglobin, which gives leg meat its characteristic dark color and umami-rich taste. The second is that leg meat is fueled by fat (vs. glycogen for breast meat), which is why thigh meat typically has a higher fat content than breast meat. We’ve all heard the saying “fat=flavor,” but it’s not just flavor that the fat imparts. As meat cooks, the muscle fibers contract and expel water, but since fat takes longer to render out, the leg meat ends up juicier and harder to dry out. Skinless chicken thighs will also work here if you can’t get skin-on thighs. I also like to use skin-on thighs for Karaage because the skin helps insulate the meat (at least on one side) from the high temperature of the oil, ensuring juicy chicken. When it’s done frying, most of the oil should be rendered out of the skin, making it nice and crisp, while the underlying meat is tender and juicy. Finding boneless skin-on chicken thighs in the US can be challenging if you don’t have an Asian market nearby, so I’ve made a tutorial on How to Debone Chicken Thighs, which also shows you how to debone whole legs. The last thing to consider with chicken for Karaage is to use the best quality you can find. This means using fresh chicken that has not been previously frozen and, ideally, a heritage breed raised cage-free. Ice crystals that form during freezing rupture cell walls, which make meat spongy and also allow the liquids to drain out faster as the meat cooks. Most supermarket chickens are “broilers” bred for commercially favorable reasons (like reaching maturity more quickly), none of which include things like better texture or flavor. This is why traditional heritage breeds tend to taste better (but also cost more). Free-range birds also tend to taste better because they get more exercise. They also eat a more varied diet, snacking on natural foods in their environment.

Seasonings

There are so many ways to season Karaage, but to this day, the best Karaage I’ve ever had was simply seasoned with soy sauce, sake, and ginger. This is why my marinade ingredients are so basic. The soy sauce brings salt and umami, while the sake imparts a mild sweetness and amino acids, resulting in a synergistic boost of umami. The ginger smooths over any gaminess in the boneless thigh meat, adding a spicy note, while enzymes like zingibain help tenderize the meat. Some people like to add garlic to their marinade, but I don’t because it overpowers the chicken’s delicate flavor. I also don’t recommend adding anything sweet, such as fruit juice, mirin, or sugar, to the marinade, as it will burn and make your karaage dark and bitter. For variations, you can marinate the protein for Karaage using a salt brine, curry powder, Chinese five-spice powder, white pepper, or chili powder. I’ve even swapped out the soy sauce for fish sauce from time to time. My Shio Karaage Recipe features grated garlic cloves, black pepper, and sake for a lighter flavor.

Coating

Karaage can be coated with almost any flour or starch, but my personal favorite is potato starch. It results in a shell with a light extra crispiness similar to potato chips in texture, and I prefer this light crust. Potato starch is not the same as potato flour (made by dehydrating potato pulp). Cornstarch and wheat flour both result in a denser crust, with the former producing a texture similar to tortilla chips and the latter producing a shell more like buttermilk fried chicken. In the US, potato starch is produced by Bob’s Red Mill and should be available in most upscale supermarkets and online. As a side note, I prefer using potato starch (over cornstarch) in almost every application, whether thickening a sauce, coating a food, or binding ingredients together. If you don’t have it in your pantry, I highly recommend ditching the cornstarch and picking up some potato starch instead.

To Double Fry or Not to Double Fry

Double frying is a process in which you fry a food once, remove it from the oil, and then fry it again. This creates a crust with a crunch/crispness that tends to keep the karaage crispy for a bit longer. I recommend double-frying most types of fried chicken, including my Korean Fried Chicken, and Tebasaki. The problem is that the longer cooking time tends to overcook the meat. This is fine for wings, where it’s really about enjoying the crispy chicken skin, but for Karaage, it’s about the juicy, flavorful leg meat, so I don’t double fry my karaage.

How to make Karaage

Making Karaage is a simple three-step process.

Marinate

First, you need to marinate the meat. How long you marinate it will affect how salty it is, so you can adjust the marination time to suit your preferences. Generally, I tend to marinate it longer if I’m going to serve it with rice (such as in an onigiri), or I’m planning to pack it into a bento box, and I’ll marinate it for less time if it’s going to be a stand-alone dish.

Dredge

Next, the chicken pieces are dredged in potato starch; this is also a matter of preference. You can choose a very light coating for a thin, crisp shell or a thicker layer for a more robust texture.

Fry

The final step is deep frying the chicken Karaage, and this is a step that requires a bit of finesse. For me, the perfect Karaage is potato chip crisp on the outside and juicy enough on the inside to flood your mouth with a savory flood of juices. Since chicken pieces need to be cooked to 165 degrees F to be safe to eat, I like to cook it to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F and let carryover cooking bring the temperature up to 165 F as it rests. A few degrees off, it will either be unsafe to eat, orit will be less juicy than it could be. To add to the challenge, deboned leg meat varies in thickness, so although you want to do your best to cut the pieces roughly the same size, the reality is that some pieces will cook faster than others. Experienced fryers in Japan can consistently judge the chicken’s internal temperature by the size of the bubbles forming in the oil around the meat, but this is a skill that takes time and practice to learn. In the meantime, I recommend keeping an instant-read thermometer handy and checking each piece of karaage until you feel more comfortable judging when it’s cooked. In my kitchen, I use a Thermoworks Thermapen, which is fast, accurate, and easy to use.

What to Serve with Chicken Karaage

My favorite way to serve Japanese Fried Chicken is to just eat it with a splash of fresh lemon juice. I also like to flash-fry green vegetables, like green beans, to add color and texture to the plate. Just be sure to dry the vegetables well before adding them to the oil. In Japan fried foods are often served with Shredded Cabbage Salad. A green salad with my Creamy Sesame Dressing would make a light, fresh contrast to the rich chicken. Karaage Donburi is a trendy rice bowl in Japan, featuring karaage over rice garnished with mayo and sometimes a hot spring egg.