Nakatsu-style Chicken Karaage
Karaage chicken consists of fried chicken bites. Boneless chicken is cut into chunks, marinated, coated with starch and then fried. Now a specialty of the city of Nakatsu in Kyushu, it was originally served in Chinese restaurants in the 1930's. The dish became all the rage after WWII and now Nakatsu boasts at least 60 restaurants and take-out spots serving their own versions. It's known all over Japan and the world and you can have it at some Japanese restaurants in the US.
It's simple enough to make at home, if you don't mind deep-frying. I usually do, but I made an exception. As every restaurant and home cook seems to have their own recipe, it is also flexible, and I made it using ingredients I had at home. Indeed, while karagee pretty much requires the use of potato starch - it's supposed to give it a crunchier texture, I didn't want to buy it for just this dish and used tapioca and cornstarch instead. They both worked. The pieces with tapioca starch didn't cool the oil, however, so you can just cook it straight for 3-4 minutes without having to remove them and drop them in again.
The results were pretty good. I used light soy sauce, and that was a mistake as the chicken needed to be saltier, but it had a very pleasant, slightly sweet flavor. It was crunchy outside and very moist inside. It was a bit too heavy for me, but I'm not a fan of fried food lately. We also felt they needed a sauce. Japanese mayo worked, but I actually preferred them with honey mustard - but dip them on whatever you like.
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Nakatsu-style Chicken Karaage
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- 2" ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sake
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp mirin or 1/4 tsp sugar
- black or white pepper to taste
- potato, tapioca or corn starch
- cooking oil for deep frying
Directions
Place chicken, grated ginger and garlic, soy sauce, sake, sesame oil, mirin and pepper in a food safe ziplock bag and mix well. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.
Remove chicken from the marinade. Coat chicken pieces with starch.
Heat oil in a frying pan or wok over medium-high heat until it reaches 350°F. Add a few pieces of chicken, making sure to not overcrowd them. Fry for 3 minutes. Remove chicken from the oil. Bring oil back to 350°F and then return the chicken to the wok for 30 seconds. Drain on paper towels before serving.
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Adapted from chicando's recipe at instructables
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