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Karaage is probably the most popular bento side dish. For me, fried chicken was something I bought from the store.

Living in India, I became a home fryer. I used a recipe passed around for the bazaar at my kid’s school, and one time, I fried up 200 pieces.

When I returned to Japan amid the pandemic, it was a “karaage paradise.” There were three karaage shops within 500 meters in my neighborhood.

The offerings always smelled so good, making me want to buy some on my way home, but in the end, I never went in the shops. After the pandemic, demand for takeout lessened, but today, there are still two stores in my neighborhood.

Another reason I am not going back to being a karaage buyer is that as long as I have chicken, I can season it with whatever is on hand.

Soy sauce, garlic, ginger and sake are the most common seasonings for karaage, but you can also use just soy sauce and salt, or if you don’t have those, just Chinese soup stock and sake.

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Honey is added to soften the meat, but if you have no honey, that’s fine, too.

My mother used a packaged “karaage mix powder” without any hesitation. I guess it was positioned as an easy-to-prepare side dish.

The batter can be made with flour if you don’t have potato starch, or a mixture of both.

Potato starch is more crunchy, but I don’t think there is much difference between the two for bento. You can even choose not to fry them. How freeing!

Ingredients for 2 servings

300 grams chicken thigh / 1 tsp grated ginger / 2/3 tsp salt / 1 tsp soy sauce / 1 tsp sake rice wine / 1 tsp honey / 3 Tbsp potato starch / oil, for frying

Directions

1. Take chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before frying. Remove any white stripes in meat; cut into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle and rub salt into the meat.

2. In a bowl with the meat, add soy sauce, sake, ginger and honey. Mix well to marinate. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

3. Place potato starch in a plastic bag then add the seasoned chicken. Seal and shake well.

4. Chicken is ready when evenly coated with potato starch.

5. Pour oil in a pan about 2-3 cm deep; cook over medium heat. You’re ready to fry the chicken if small suds start to appear when you poke the tip of chopsticks in the oil (170 degrees C). Slowly add chicken.

6. Turn each piece over after 2 minutes. Fry for about 3 minutes and 30 seconds in total.

7. Drain chicken pieces on a wire rack when golden brown.

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to view the recipe video in English.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PenandSpoon

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This article originally appeared in the August 9, 2024, issue of Asahi Weekly.

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Chikako Tada

Chikako Tada: The author of seven cookbooks, Tada is a Japanese food journalist and editor of Pen & Spoon, a website devoted to food (https://pen-and-spoon.com/). She worked as a newspaper reporter for 12 years before going freelance. She spent two years studying baking in Paris and began making bento around 2016 during her seven-year stay in India. She returned to Japan in 2020 and lives in Fukuoka.

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