I recently posted about Korean Fried Chicken and in the comments Mr Noodles suggested I needed to make some Japanese Karaage for the blog. Not wanting to miss out on any excuse to fry some chicken here it is, I think it will be the first in a few fried chickens, adding to the Chicken 65, Southern Fried and Korean Fried Chicken that are already on here to make a complete(ish) guide to the Fried Chickens of this world. Feel free to suggest some more.
I've already stated that it is the coating that makes fried chicken and the karaage method calls on a starch for this purpose. Cornflour (or cornstarch as it's known in a lot of places) gives a coating that is harder and more durable than wheat flour or batter - knobbly and lumpy and keeping its crunch for a long time.
In karaage, before coating the chicken takes a reasonably short marinade in sake, soy, ginger juice and sesame oil. The bath is short so the salt in the soy doesn't toughen the meat but it's long enough to impart its flavour on the smallish morsels. For health purposes you can use breast if you want (but it's not very forgiving and turns dry rapidly) or you can omit the skin if you do choose thighs. This is deep-fried food though, so forget trying to be healthy and leave the skin on, it will crisp up delightfully, giving another layer of texture between the crunch of cornflour and the juicy thigh meat underneath.
Karaage (Kara-Age) Recipe
A good snack for 3-4 people
Ingredients
7-8 Chicken Thighs with skin, or without if you must
3 TB Japanese/light soy
3 TB sake
8cm ginger
Few splashes of sesame oil
Cornflour to coat
Method
If the thighs still have their bones in take them out, they're handy for making a chicken stock. Cut each thigh into medium chunks, maybe 4-6 per thigh depending on its size.
Roughly chop the ginger and then blend in a mini-blender with the soy, sake and sesame oil. Strain the marinade through muslin to remove all the ginger fibres then marinate the chicken in it for 45 minutes.
Remove the chicken into a sieve, shaking to remove excess marinade, then dump into a bowl with a couple of handfuls of cornflour, coating well.
Heat oil to 180C and fry the chicken, in batches so the oil stays hot, until it floats - around 3 minutes.
With the oil still at 180C add the chicken back and fry till golden, this time around 2.5 minutes. For this second fry I'm happy to put the chicken in all together as it is still hot from the first fry so doesn't bring the temp of the oil down like cold chicken does.
We ate this dry, but it would happily take mayonnaise, chili sauce or Japanese katsu sauce (or a squeeze of lemon or some ponzu) as a dip.
Thank you for indulging my request! I fell in love with this stuff during my recent visit to Tokyo, where it was served with a squeeze of lime and some mayo. And yes I wholeheartedly agree that the chicken skin stays on!
What next in the fried chicken hall of fame? Cantonese crispy fried chicken? Go on, you know you want to!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispy_fried_chicken
Posted by: Mr Noodles | February 13, 2011 at 12:09 AM
I'm happy to indulge any request as tasty as that.
Definitely intrigued by the Cantonese stuff, the lack of batter (assuming it is batter free) is very interesting.
I really want to make Taiwanese Salt and Pepper chicken but it uses Taiwanese 5-spice as the main flavouring and I cannot find it (or what's in it for that matter, no cinnamon I believe though) in this country. Any suggestions?
http://rasamalaysia.com/uploaded_images/salt-pepper-chicken/five_spice.jpg
Posted by: Joshua Armstrong | February 13, 2011 at 09:54 AM
The Cantonese crispy fried chicken is indeed batter free. Done properly, it's cooked by ladling hot oil over a marinated chicken. I've never had a decent version in blighty, as it tends to be too dry and I suspect that its been deep fried. Different story when I've eaten it in HK though.
On Taiwanese 5-spice, I've never come across it before. Truth be told, I didn't even know there was such a thing! Good luck in your quest.
Posted by: Mr Noodles | February 13, 2011 at 10:31 PM
Am loving the idea of using ponzu as a dip to cut through some of the richness....
Posted by: Tori @ eat-tori | February 14, 2011 at 06:00 PM
Mr Noodles - that must take ages for the heat from ladled oil to pass through the flesh. I may have to cheat. Taiwanese 5-spice is proving very elusive, can't even confirm exactly what's in it or I'd make my own.
Tori - I'd like to claim it as my own but it was Charmaine Mok who suggested it so I stuck it on the end.
Posted by: Joshua Armstrong | February 15, 2011 at 08:58 AM