Here's how to make chicken karaage, a delicious Japanese fried chicken.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi everybody, I'm Tim Anderson. I have a restaurant in Brixen called Nanban and I
00:05got a cookbook called Nanban as well. We do what's called Japanese soul food, so
00:11quite hearty, filling, kind of Japanese junk food type stuff that I absolutely
00:15love. And I'm gonna do a dish that is an absolute classic of Japanese soul food
00:20today. It's called chicken karaage, Japanese fried chicken, which is in my
00:24mind probably the best fried chicken recipe you can make. And it's super easy
00:28actually. So first we're gonna start with our marinade. So usually chicken karaage
00:35is a very simple marinade of sake, ginger and garlic and things like that. My
00:39marinade or my recipe is significantly more complicated and actually what I'm
00:43showing you here today is not the same karaage that we make in the in the
00:46restaurant. That is a top-secret recipe but this is pretty close and it's very
00:50very good. So we're gonna start with some shallots. Banana shallots I'm using, the
00:57nice big long ones, two of them, but you can use the little shallots as well in
01:02which case you'd need four. So these just go into a blender or you can use a food
01:08processor or if you don't have these you can just very finely mince. Then I'm gonna
01:14add some garlic. This is 10 cloves just peeled in the blender as well. Then some
01:20fresh ginger about 15-20 grams. It's been peeled and I do want to slice this fairly
01:26thinly before we blend it because one of my biggest pet peeves in cooking are the
01:30little fibers in ginger that don't break down very well in blenders or food
01:34process if you chuck it in whole. So you want to slice this across the grain first
01:37to break those down so you don't have that weird hairy texture. Once you do, that
01:42goes in the blender as well. So then we got seasonings. Lots and lots of seasonings.
01:46We're gonna do half a teaspoon of salt. Quarter teaspoon-ish pepper. That's white pepper, which I
01:55really like in Japanese cooking but black pepper is fine. Then we got some hot
01:58chili sauce. Not too much. You don't want this to be spicy. Spicy. You just want it
02:03to have a little bit of heat. Then we've got some rice vinegar. Rice vinegar is one
02:08of my favorite seasonings. It's very very fresh and crisp. It's got a little bit of
02:12sweetness to it as well. It's a lovely vinegar. Then we've got some mirin. So
02:16mirin is a sweetened cooking sake. That's gonna add some lovely sweetness. Then
02:21we've got some actual sake as well which is of course Japanese rice wine. And
02:26that's got a lovely sort of savory quality to it like a fermented rice
02:30flavor. And we've got some sesame oil. Not too much because it's quite a strong
02:36flavor. That goes in as well. Then some soy sauce. Not too much because if you use
02:42a lot of soy sauce this marinade becomes very dark and then it tends to burn when
02:45you fry it. And finally we've got some fresh lime. So I'm gonna give them a little
02:49roll just to get the juices flowing. And I need about three tablespoons or so of
02:55this. I'm gonna save one half of these limes back for garnish and just squeeze
03:00the rest straight in there. If you can get yuzu juice by the way, that is
03:06excellent but it is very expensive. Limes are nearly as good but there's nothing
03:11quite like yuzu if you can get it. All right then we blend.
03:15That's done. So now we're gonna prep our chicken. So one of the best things about
03:22chicken karaage is the size and shape of it. So that you get a lot. It's a great
03:27crunch to juicy chicken ratio. Instead of big chunks like big joints of chicken like
03:32you get an American fried chicken, you get little sort of nugget sized pieces. So
03:37that's what we're gonna do. And that's not just for flavor or texture. That's also
03:41because it helps them cook evenly and quickly. So you want to cut chicken thighs.
03:46And by the way, these are boneless but skin-on chicken thighs. There's so much
03:50flavor in the skin. And thighs are great because they're very juicy. They're
03:56very, very flavorful. But they don't have a lot of weird sinews in them like a
03:59drumstick or a leg. So most chicken thighs you'll get about four pieces out of. If the
04:05thighs are bigger you get five. If they're smaller you'll just get three
04:09sometimes. Alright so that's our chicken prepped up. Back in the bowl. And then we
04:17add the marinade. Mmm. Lovely. Which has so much flavor in it. Make sure everything's
04:24really nice and evenly coated. And then this will marinate for at least an hour.
04:28Actually you could fry it just like this and it'd be pretty tasty. But the longer
04:31it marinades the more flavor you'll get. So this will go into the fridge. We'll come
04:35back later. So we've got the chicken in its lovely marinade. Just chilling out in the
04:39fridge. And most karaage at this point you would just flour and deep fry. Usually
04:45karaage uses what's called katakuriko which is kind of like a potato starch.
04:48It's very, very light and very crispy. But I actually use corn flour for my karaage
04:53which is even more crispy. It's sort of halfway between a flour and a potato
04:57starch texture. So we're gonna start with that. The other thing I'm doing that's
05:00slightly non-traditional for my karaage is making a seasoned flour like you'd get
05:04from American fried chicken. Because I really like to pack as much flavor into this
05:08dish as possible. So we'll start with corn flour. We're gonna add to that a little
05:12bit of salt. A little bit of white pepper. Black pepper is fine as well. White and
05:22black sesame seeds. Or just white or just black. It's all good. We've got some chili
05:28powder. Just a tiny bit. Some dried ginger. And then finally this is dashi powder. So
05:38dashi is of course a Japanese stock made from smoked fish and kombu, seaweed. It's a
05:45really, really lovely flavor. Really, really satisfying and smoky and fishy and
05:48fragrant. And this is essentially the stock cubed version which makes a decent
05:52dashi actually. But what I like to use it for is seasoning other things. You put some
05:55of this in your stir fries, your fried rice or like I'm doing now, your seasoned
05:59karaage flour. And it just sort of lifts the whole thing. It's got a great sort of
06:03satisfying mouth-filling flavor. So we'll stir that all together. Nice and well
06:08mixed. There we go. And now we're ready to deep fry. Okay so we've got our seasoned
06:15flour ready to go. And our oil is up to temperature. So it's time for me to fry.
06:20Temperature is important with this dish because you really don't want this to
06:23burn. It'll taste really nasty and obviously you don't want undercooked
06:26chicken. Nobody likes that. Not safe, not delicious. So 160. That's the temperature we're
06:31going for for this size of chicken pieces. That'll get a great golden brown crust at
06:37the same time that it cooks through and stays really juicy. So 160. And by the way
06:42every time you deep fry you want to use a nice big pan where the sides come up
06:46very high above the level of the oil. So that if this does bubble up, it doesn't
06:51bubble up too much and overflow. Alright so we're gonna take our marinated chicken.
06:55Just let that marinade drip off a bit. Throw a few pieces at a time into that seasoned
07:01flour. And you're gonna want to fry this in batches by the way. Don't try to do all
07:04of it at once because you will crowd the pan. That'll do two things. One the chicken
07:10will stick together and it won't cook nicely. And also the steam that generates
07:15from the chicken as the moisture inside evaporates away into the oil will
07:20actually start to steam the outside of the chicken as well. So you'll end up with
07:23sort of soft, sad chicken pieces instead of nice crispy bits. Alright so make sure that
07:29these are really well coated as well. The more coating you have the crispier
07:32crunchier they'll be. And also you want to protect that marinade from the hot oil
07:37because it does have sugar in it. It does have soy sauce and it'll burn if it
07:42touches the hot oil too much or is in contact for too long. Alright so we're
07:46gonna layer that into the oil. Lovely sizzle. Shake off as much flour as you can as well.
07:55And you're gonna want to fry these for about six minutes or so. If you have a
08:01probe thermometer, a meat thermometer at home, it's a good idea to use this because
08:06you don't really know what's going on inside the chicken until you check it.
08:10And you can either do that by cutting into it or by probing it. It's the easiest way.
08:14There it is. Beautiful golden juicy crunchy chicken karaage. And this will stay crispy for ages as well.
08:25So don't worry about doing it in batches. You can take your time with it. The main
08:29thing is just don't overcrowd that pan. You can just serve it as is but you know
08:35when you bring it to the table it's pub food again so you don't have to be
08:41fancy with it. Sometimes people serve this with a dip like a mayonnaise or ponzu
08:47sauce, something like that. But to me this chicken is just so crunchy and flavorful and
08:52juicy as it is. I don't really think it needs anything except for maybe some fresh
08:57lime. And that's it. That's chicken karaage. That is Japanese fried chicken. Maybe the
09:02best fried chicken.
09:03water, I think it has a little bit different to get out of it if I can.
09:08Here you can see.
09:09And that's the end of the table.
09:11That's it.
09:12We'll see you next time on Friday.
09:14.
09:14Yeah.
09:15Good.
09:16Good.
09:16Good.
09:17Good.
09:17Good.
09:18Good.
09:19Good.
09:20Good.
09:20Good.
09:21Good.
09:21Good.
09:22Good.
09:22Good.
09:23Good.
09:24Good.
09:24Good.
09:25Good.
09:28Good.
09:28Good.
09:29Good.
09:29Good.
09:29Good.
09:30Good.
09:31Good.
09:31Good.
09:32Good.