Karaage – the BEST Japanese Fried Chicken

By: Graciosa Wicaksono

500g chicken thighs, skin-on
3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee premium soy sauce
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp grated ginger, juice only
1 or 2 cloves of grated garlic, juice only
½ tsp sugar
¾ cup potato flour
about 1L of canola, sunflower or other vegetable oil, for deep frying
Japanese mayonnaise, for dipping
Mixed salad leaves 1 tbsp OBento Ponzu sauce1 tbps Rice Vinegar1/2 tbps Mirin
Steamed rice, to make it into Karaage Donburi bow. Serve along with the quick simple salad and miso soup.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Combine the chicken with the soy sauce, sake, ginger juice, garlic juice and sugar and stand for at least 10 minutes. Or if you have time, you can leave it overnight.
Place the potato flour in a tray or large bowl. Pull the chicken out of the marinade with chopsticks and drop it into the flour, one piece at a time. Shake any excess potato flour from the chicken and place in a tray in a single layer. Allow the floured chicken to stand, uncovered for at least 5 minutes before frying.
Heat the oil to 180°C in a wide saucepan. Add the coated chicken to the oil in batches. For each batch, deep fry for 1 minute then remove the chicken to a rack and rest for 30 seconds. Return the chicken back to the oil and fry for 30 seconds, and then rest on a rack again for 30 seconds. Transfer the chicken back into the oil for one last blast of 30 seconds to a minute, and then rest for a two minutes on a wire rack.The result would be juicy tender chicken with crunchy coating of the potato flour on the outside.
Serve the chicken with a lemon wedge, and a little Japanese mayonnaise scattered with shichimi togarashi. Or serve the karaage chicken on a bowl of steamed rice, along with simple salad and miso soup
Quick Salad Dressing; Golden ratio is Obento Ponzu sauce: Rice vinegar : Mirin = 1: 1: 1/2.However, you can adjust the taste by adding more or less mirin or vinegar to balance the acidity to your liking.