Karaage
Craggy, ginger-soaked fried chicken with a potato starch shell that crunches like breaking ice. Fried twice, because once is for amateurs and cold karaage is a tragedy.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 3
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 3 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 9 in the basket.
How you make it
Mix the soy sauce, sake, ginger, garlic and sugar, add the chicken, and massage it in well; leave to marinate for 8 minutes while the oil heats.
Heat the oil to 160C in a deep heavy pan, filling it no more than a third full.
Drain the chicken briefly, then toss each piece in potato starch until thickly and evenly coated, shaking off any excess.
Fry in two batches for 4 minutes at 160C until pale and just set, then lift onto a wire rack and rest for 2 minutes.
Raise the oil to 190C and fry each batch again for 90 seconds until deep golden and audibly crisp.
Check a thick piece reaches 75C at the centre with clear juices and no pink, then drain on the rack, salt lightly and serve with lemon.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Karaage is sitting in the Japanese kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Japanese kitchen
Quiet, precise, and secretly the coziest food there is.