Chicken karaage is a classic Japanese dish made primarily with breaded fried fillets of meat or fish. The fillets are cut into bite-sized pieces, marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, citrus juice, rice wine and ginger, dredged in flour, then fried.
This chicken dish was cooked in precisely that manner, except that the condiments I used to complete the dish were very un-Japanese. See, I topped the fried chicken fillets with mayo, Dijon mustard and Sriracha rather than serving them with a traditional Japanese dipping sauce on the side.
Chicken Karaage
Print RecipeIngredients
- 8-9 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2-inch cubes
- 2 generous splashes of rice wine
- About â…› cup of light soy sauce
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
- ½ to ¾ cup of tapioca or cornstarch
- About 2 cups of vegetable cooking oil
- Mayo
- Dijon mustard
- Sriracha
- 1 tablespoon of finely sliced scallions to garnish
Instructions
- Place the chicken fillet cubes in a bowl. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, lemon juice and ginger. Mix well. Cover and allow to marinate in the fridge for about an hour.
- Heat the cooking oil.
- Dredge each piece of chicken in starch and cook in batches over medium-high heat. Depending on the size of your frying pan, you may need to cook all the chicken in 3 to 4 batches. Each batch should cook in about five minutes without the chicken pieces turning too dark if the temperature is correct.
- Drain the fried chicken fillets on a rack or a stack of kitchen paper. Transfer to a serving platter.
- Drizzle the mayo, mustard and Sriracha over the fried chicken. Sprinkle with finely sliced scallions.
