So tonight I finally made chicken karaage and it was good!
Well, when I say karaage, I use the term very loosely. Karaage is a Japanese dish of chicken marinated in ginger and garlic, soy and sake, and is fried to lovely crispy pieces. I don’t have sake in my cupboard on a regular basis (I’ve never had sake in my cupboard, ever!) but I do have shaoxing and sherry (as I cook more Chinese dishes than Japanese). So I tried substituting the sake with the shaoxing. I think it works. I will save up for sake, but for the meantime, shaoxing in the recipe works. And works well, if I say so myself!
Oh, I didn’t have potato flour (aka potato starch) as well, so I’ve substituted it with cornflour.
Ingredients:
- 500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into large-ish bite-sized chunks
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 heaping tablespoons cornflour
- vegetable oil for deep-frying
Directions:
- In a ziplock bag, combine chicken, ginger, garlic and soy. Carefully massage the chicken through the bag and marinade for at least 1 hour (better if you let the chicken marinade overnight though).
- In a bowl, fish the chicken out of the bag and mix with the cornflour until all chicken pieces are well-coated with the cornflour
- In a frying pan, heat up the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot enough, carefully drop chicken pieces and fry until golden brown (should take about 3-4 minutes).
- Serve with a slice of lemon or a teriyaki sauce, on its own or over a bed of fluffy steamed rice! Speaking of rice, I wrote a post on how to cook rice perfectly (I’ve been cooking rice since I was 11 so I like to think I know what I’m talking about – way before there were non-stick pans!).
Here’s a little recipe on sticky sauce that goes well with the karaage.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 200ml water
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling turn the heat right down and allow to reduce until there is only half of the liquid, making sure that you stir occasionally so that none of the sugar burns. This is brilliant as a little sauce to be sprinkled (sparingly) on steamed rice if you’re having friend chicken or fish.
Yellywelly 