Hot, golden and crisp chicken, dipped in a fiery, soy and sesame sauce. Tori no karaage (sometimes called tori kara age) has got to be one of my all-time favourite dishes. This recipe makes for the most moreish Japanese fried chicken around. Crack open a beer and enjoy on a warm summer’s evening.
To really load the tori no karaage with taste, give it a good marinade before frying. Ginger, sake and soy, give the chunks of chicken so much flavour. Make sure you choose a really good quality soy sauce as you will definitely taste the difference – I use Kikkoman as it’s DELICIOUS! The great thing about tori kara age is, if you’re disorganised like me, you don’t have to marinate it for hours and hours. Go ahead and marinate the chicken overnight if you can, but just 30 minutes will still impart tons of flavour.
I kept things really simple with the coating, a cornflour and plain flour mix makes the tori no karaage super crispy and delicious. Three top tips when frying – 1) Don’t overcrowd the pan, they’ll stick together and not get uniformly crisp. 2 )Keep an eye on the oil temperature, make sure it’s stays as close to 180°C / 350°F as possible. 3)Turn the tori karaage whilst is cooks to colour it evenly.
This recipe is so delicious you could eat it as is, but to take it up just a notch, serve it alongside a beautiful dipping sauce. One of my fave’s is from The Wagamama Cookbook. A mix of garlic, chilli, soy and malt vinegar, it cuts right through the richness of the chicken and gives a garlicky, spicy hit. Because I’m greedy, I also like to have a little sriracha mayo on hand to dunk in too!
I chose to devour the tori no karaage alongside a lightly dressed salad of cucumber, green beans, watercress and green chilli, but you could serve the chicken in a variety of ways. Make your own crispy chicken sushi rolls, or serve as part of a noodle broth. They’d go brilliantly served before this EPIC Thai prawn stir fry too. However you choose to serve them, you’re going to love them!
Tori No Karaage / Tori Kara Age
Ingredients
Tori No Karaage
- 5 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 heaped tsp ginger finely chopped
- 600 g boneless chicken thighs chopped into 1" pieces
- 100 g cornflour
- 100 g plain flour
- veg oil for frying
- lime wedges to serve
Dipping Sauce
- 20 ml malt vinegar
- a good pinch brown sugar
- 50 ml soy sauce
- 1 birdseye chilli finely sliced
- 1/2 a clove garlic finely crushed
- a splash sesame oil
Instructions
- Mix the soy, sake & ginger well. Add the chicken and marinate. In a bowl, mix the dipping sauce ingredients together.
- Mix the flours well. In a large saucepan, add oil & heat to 180°C / 350°F
- In batches, drain the chicken and coat thoroughly in flour. Shake off excess & carefully add to oil. Fry for 7-8 minutes or until golden, turning occasionally. Using a spider/slotted spoon, transfer to paper towel lined plate & keep warm. Repeat with remaining batches.
- Serve chicken alongside dipping sauce and lime wedges.
