Hi everyone it's Kunihiro. Thank you for
coming back to my kitchen today I'm going to show you how to make karaage, a Japanese
Fried Chicken step by step. So let's begin. Alright here are today's ingredients. So here
I have 600 grams of bone in skin on chicken thighs. We usually use chicken thigh meat
to make Karaage because it's the juiciest and the most flavorful part of a chicken. And
we prefer using ones with skin on because the skin becomes very crispy once deep-fried
adding extra crispness to your Karaage. And for marinating the chicken, I use salt
and black pepper, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce 2 tablespoons of sake, 1 teaspoon of sesame
oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and 10 grams of fresh ginger. And for coating the chicken, I
have one large egg, 70 grams of corn starch, and 70 grams of all-purpose flour. Today I'm using
corn starch, but you can substitute it with potato or tapioca starch. The result will be the same.
Alright so let's start with chicken preparation. The first thing we do is to wipe off the moisture
on the chicken with paper towels very well. It will reduce The Unwanted smell of chicken. Also,
the dried chicken will absorb the marinade better. Next, we are going to debone the chicken.
So first, please identify where the bone is and make initial incisions on the left side of
the bone running from the top to the bottom. Make sure to run the tip of the knife
along the bone so you won't lose much meat. At this time I'm slightly pressing the
side of the blade against the bone. And once this much bone is
exposed, rotate the chicken and carefully detach the meat from the other
side of the bone using the tip of the knife. Then slide the blade along the
bone while pressing against it. Once this much bone is exposed,
slide the blade under the bone and cut and disconnect one end of
the bone. Then stand the bone up, and cut and disconnect the
other end of the bone like this. And you'll always find the cartilage
here. So please cut it off. Then check if there are no small bones left on
the chicken. Please remove them if you find them. And as for the excess skin, you don't have to cut it off. But sometimes it has lots of fat
on the edge like this one. In that case, please cut only this part off because the
fat will not render even after deep fried. You don't have to be nervous about removing all
the fat, but I suggest removing big and visible ones. Okay, this is clean enough. So that's
how I debone and clean up a chicken thigh. Next, we are going to cut the chicken into
big bite-sized pieces. So after deboning, you'll notice the middle part where the bone was
located is thinner than both ends. So please make a first cut at the thinner point. Now the
chicken is cut into two pieces. Then you'll notice one is a little smaller than the other.
So please cut this smaller one in half. It's a kind of big piece. It weighs about 30 grams.
Then please put these cut chicken into a bowl. And cut this bigger piece
into three equal size pieces. Cutting this way will make all the
chicken pieces almost equal in size, which is very important because equal
size meat will cook evenly in the oil. By the way, please lay these cut chicken
pieces flat like this in a bowl. It will come in handy in the next step. Next, we are going
to season the chicken with salt and black pepper. So please sprinkle a few pinches of salt and
black pepper over the chicken. Since we laid out the chicken flat in the previous step,
you can easily see how much salt and black pepper you are adding at this point. The amount
of salt and black pepper will vary depending on the amount of chicken you have at that time, so
please lay out the chicken evenly before adding salt and black pepper. Also, I suggest
adding a little more salt than you would usually think was enough. If you add too little
salt at this stage, your Karaage will be bland. Even though today's recipe uses soy
sauce, it is mainly for adding aroma, not for adding saltiness to the chicken. So
please seasoned the chicken well at this point. Then grate 2 cloves of garlic
over the chicken. It will add a nice garlic flavor. But please don't add
too much because it will easily overpower the entire dish. So stick with two if you
are preparing a similar amount of chicken. Then grate 10 grams of fresh ginger over
the chicken. It will add a refreshing ginger flavor. However, for the same reason as
garlic, just a little bit of ginger is enough. Then add two tablespoons of soy sauce. It will
add a delicious soy sauce aroma. And add two tablespoons of sake. It will reduce the chicken
smell, also soften the meat and keep it moist. And in the end, add one teaspoon of sesame oil. it
will add a hint of nutty flavor to your Karaage. And mix it well and let the
chicken absorb the marinade. Once you don't see any more liquid left in the
bottom of the bowl, that is the sign it's mixed enough. So cover the chicken with plastic and
let it rest outside the fridge for 20-30 minutes. We'll bring the chicken to room temperature while
marinating it because the cold chicken will cause undercooking. So set this aside for now, and
let's move on to the next step. Please get a separate bowl and put 70 grams of cornstarch
and 70 grams of all-purpose flour in it. Then mix it well. We'll use this mixture to coat the
chicken. Some people use only starch for coating but I believe a starch and flour mixture makes
Karaage much crispier and stays crispy longer. Okay, 20 minutes have passed. Your chicken will
look like this. Now break an egg over the chicken. And mix it well. This egg will act
as a barrier between the chicken and the cornstarch and the flour mixture
so that the moisture of the chicken won't mess up the crispy coating
of the Karaage after deep-frying. Next, we are going to coat the chicken
with the starch and the flour mixture. So please arrange these items on the counter,
starting from the left, the chicken first, the starch on the flour mixture next, and the
dry plate last. Please take a piece of chicken and coat it with lots of starch and flour mixture. Then shake off the excess powder and put
it on a dry plate. If the skin is coming off like this piece, attach the skin to
the meat first and put it on the powder. Then shake off the excess powder
while holding the skin on the meat. After coating, your chicken will look like this. Now let it
rest for a couple minutes and let the powder absorb the moisture on the chicken. Doing
that will make your Karaage even crispier. So while waiting for the chicken, let's heat
the cooking oil. Please get a large pot and fill it with cooking oil up to two centimeters.
You don't need lots of oil for cooking Karaage. Then turn on the heat to medium and bring the
oil temperature up to 170 degrees Celsius. Once the oil is getting hot, please turn
down the heat to medium-low. Otherwise, the oil temperature exceeds 170 degrees very
quickly. By the way, your chicken will look like this at this point. The starch and the flour have
absorbed more moisture from the chicken, and the surface is moister than it was minutes ago. That
is exactly what you want, and it's ready to go. Alright, the oil is getting ready.
Let's check the temperature. So to check the temperature of the oil, first
wet the tips of your chopsticks with water and wipe off the water with a paper towel well. then dip the tips of your chopsticks in the
oil and look at the bubbles come out of your chopsticks. At 170 degrees, you'll see many teeny
tiny bubbles come out of the Chopsticks like this. You'll see a lot fewer Bubbles at 160 degrees
and at 180 degrees, you'll see bigger bubbles. So now gently put half the chicken into the oil.
If you put in all the raw chicken at once the oil temperature will drop dramatically causing the
coating to come out soggy, so please make sure to deep-fry the chicken in two batches. And
we are going to deep-fry them for 4 minutes. After you put the chicken into the oil, the oil
temperature will drop to about 160 degrees. But it will soon come back up to 170 degrees on
medium-low heat so please don't turn up the heat at this point. The ideal temperature during
those four minutes is between 160 to 170 degrees, so I suggest adjusting the heat
between medium-low to low heat. After 2 minutes, please turn the chicken
over and deep fry for two more minutes. And four minutes later, please take all the chicken pieces out of
the oil and put them on a cooling rack. At this point, the core of the chicken
is still slightly uncooked. So let the chicken rest for 4 minutes and let the
remaining heat cook the chicken entirely. By cooking slowly with the remaining
heat, your chicken will stay juicy. While resting the Karaage,
please clean up the oil once. And deep fry the remaining
chicken in the same way. So after 2 minutes, turn the chicken over. And after 4 minutes, take them out of the oil and let them rest for 4 minutes
just like the first batch. And after the second batch rested for 4 minutes, turn the heat back on, this time medium heat, and
raise the oil temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. I'm going to check the
temperature with chopsticks again. This time at 180 degrees, you'll see many
bigger bubbles come out of chopsticks like this. Now, put all the Karaage back into the
oil and deep-fry for about a minute until they become golden brown. The purpose
of this double frying is to crisp up the coating and add a beautiful brown
color to it at a higher temperature. Also, this double-frying method allows you
to serve more pieces at once. Please move the chicken around to make the oil temperature
even so that all the pieces get brown evenly. After 30 seconds, please turn the chicken over
and deep-fry for 30 more seconds. And after one minute, take the Karaage out, shake off the
oil well, and put them on the cooling rack. And drain the oil from the Karaage for one minute. Finally, put the Karaage pieces on a
plate. I always pile them up like this. Then please garnish them with a lemon wedge. And in the end, put a little bit of Japanese
mayonnaise on the side and that's it. Your delicious chicken Karaage is ready. It's very
juicy on the inside and super crispy on the outside. Alright, so that's it for today. I hope
you enjoyed watching today's video. So if you did, please give me a like and leave a comment below.
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I will see you soon in my next video. Bye bye
