Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken) (2024)

Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken). Tender bite-size pieces of chicken thigh deliciously marinated, coated in starch and deep fried. Ready in 30 minutes!

What is Japanese Karaage?

In Japanese cuisine, Karage is a popular deep-fried chicken dish. Karaage is actually a Japanese cooking style where meat like chicken or fish is deep fried. Furthermore, chicken karaage is tender chicken thigh meat marinated in a blend of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, garlic, ginger, and black pepper. Then coated in potato starch or potato flour and deep fried in hot oil until golden brown and crispy! Karaage is served in many Japanese restaurants or Japanese convenience stores as a main dish, side dish or appetizer.

This is one of my favourite ways to enjoy chicken because the exterior is so crispy and the interior is packed with flavor! I love enjoying this with some white rice and veggies or on its own as a snack. The best dips that goes with karaage can be a simple kewpie mayo or if you add some sriracha sauce to make it spicy.

Ingredients

Please scroll down to the below recipe card for exact measurements.

• Boneless chicken thighs: or sub with skin-on chicken thighs with the bone removed. You may use chicken breast but be careful not to over fry it as breast meat dries out quickly.
• Neutral oil:like avocado oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil. Avoid olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil or any heavy scented oils that have a low smoke point because they can burn easily.
• Potato Starch:or sub with corn starch, or rice flour or tapioca starch. Potato starch offers the best flavor and results for Japanese karaage because it carries a slight potato flavor. Avoid using all purpose flour as it won't give you a crispy crust.
• Lemon wedges(highly recommended), spritzed over fried chicken to enjoy! The acid in the lemon juice takes this fried chicken dish to the next level. You'll find lemon wedges served with karaage at many Japanese restaurants.

Chicken Marinade:

• Sake: this is a key ingredient to the best karaage! Sake helps to remove that gamey taste in meat and helps to tenderize the chicken. If you can't have alcohol, sub with rice vinegar.
• Sugar:sugar helps to balance out the saltiness from the soy sauce.
• Mirin:this is a sweet Japanese style wine essential to an amazing karaage, in my humble opinion. However, if you cannot have alcohol, omit the ingredient completely and add ½ teaspoon more of sugar.
• Regular Soy sauce:aka all purpose soy sauce. You can also sub with light soy sauce. Do not sub with dark soy sauce, which is darker, thicker, and sometimes saltier.
• Garlic:this is another key ingredient for a great karaage! The garlicky flavors help to mask any gamey flavors in chicken and offers great taste and aroma.
• Ginger:freshly grated ginger offers a zing to this chicken dish. Ginger also helps to tenderize the meat.
• Black pepper or white pepper

Note: The Asian market is likely to carry these ingredients. You may find some at your select local grocery store or online, like on Amazon.

How to Make Karaage

1. Dice chicken thighs into bite size pieces, about 1.5-inch pieces. If you have skin on thighs, leave the skin on. Transfer cubed chicken to a large bowl.
2. To your large bowl of diced chicken, add Marinade ingredients as listed. Massage marinade into meat until well combined. Tip: For best results, you may let this marinate for 15 minutes.
3. Into another large mixing bowl, add potato starch. Dredge a few pieces of marinated chicken into the starch until well coated. Repeat this process until all pieces are coated. Transfer the coated chicken to a large plate or baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. In a heavy bottomed pot or deep frying pan (or wok) on medium high heat, add vegetable oil or any neutral frying oil. Oil temperature should be around 350 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
5. To check if oil is hot enough using digital instant read thermometer or place a wooden chopstick into the oil and look for bubbles.
6. Fry your chicken in small batches (about one-third portion). Spreading the pieces apart. Fry on chicken each side until golden crispy brown, about 3-4 minutes total cooking time.
7. Transfer fried chicken to a wire rack or a large plate with paper towels so excess oil can drip off or absorb. Repeat step for remaining batches.
8. Transfer cooked chicken to a serving plate. Enjoy with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice over top for best taste!

Storage & Reheating

For best enjoyment, consume within 12 hours. However, it can last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, air fry or bake at 350 degrees for 5-6 minutes until warm.

Expert Tips

• Use Chicken Thighs. Chicken thighs will yield the best and tastiest results for this recipe thanks to the fat. It is highly recommended and authentically used. If you have skin-on chicken thighs, even better! You may use breast meat but it may not be as juicy.
• Cut chicken thighs into equal bite size pieces. This ensures an even cooking process per bite. I usually like to dice each thigh into six cube like pieces.
• Do not overcrowd your pan. If you overcrowd your pan as you deep fry, guess what? The chicken won’t be as crispy. My recommendation is to fry in small batches.
• Temperature of the oil is important. If it's too low, it won't fry or become crispy. If it's too high, it'll burn easily, and the chicken won't cook inside. The ideal oil temperature is around 350 degrees F.

FAQ

Why does my crispy chicken have a white coating?

Once the chicken lowers to room temperature, a white coating may appear on the chicken and don't worry, this is just deep fried starch. It's totally edible.

What does karaage mean in Japanese?

"Karaage" is a Japanese cooking process where meat, seafood or vegetables is lightly coated in starched and deep-fried in hot oil.

What is the difference between Katsu and karaage?

Katsu and Karaage both originate from Japan. However, the main difference is that karaage is marinated and dredged in a light coating of starch prior to deep frying. Sometimes it involves a double frying process.

On the other hand, Katsu is seasoned with salt and black pepper, coated in starch/flour, beaten egg and panko breadcrumbs before deep frying.

Other recipes you may like!

• Korean Fried Chicken
• Chicken Katsu
• Tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork)
• Sweet Sticky Korean Chicken
• Korean Bulgogi Chicken Wings
• Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken
• Sweet Spicy Gochujang Chicken
• Mongolian Chicken
• Honey Sesame Chicken

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