Our Taste of Home: Karaage Chicken

picture credit to Beyond Sweet and Savory: https://twoplaidaprons.com/chicken-karaage-japanese-fried-chicken/

by Cole Nagata

The summer of my sophomore year of college was the first time I started feeling homesick. Born and raised as a Hawaiian-Japanese American, it was my first summer I’d spent away from home. Because of this I started to teach myself cooking, so that I could at least eat the foods that I missed from home. This karaage chicken recipe is one of the first recipes I learned and one I’ve worked on improving over time. It's a Japanese Fried Chicken that I used to eat often in Hawaii that's fairly simple to make, but very delicious!

Ingredients:

Karaage Chicken:

1.5 tsp ginger, minced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp of sake

3 tbsp of shoyu

2 tbsp sesame oil

1.5 lb of boneless chicken thigh

2 tbsp of flour

2 tbsp of potato starch

Neutral oil (for frying)

Dipping sauce:

Kewpie Mayo

Shichimi Togarashi (japanese seven spice)

Instructions

● Cut up the chicken into large bite sized pieces (~2in x ~1in), and marinate the chicken in

ginger, garlic, sake, shoyu, and sesame oil for 24 hours.

● Mix equal amounts of potato starch and flour in a bowl.

● Dredge the marinated chicken in the mixture and be sure to dust off the excess potato

starch and flour.

● Fry the chicken first at 325F or until the outside is a light golden color (around 3-4 min),

then fry at 350F until the outside is golden brown (around 1 min).

● To make the dipping sauce mix shichimi togarashi with kewpie mayo to taste

● Enjoy!