Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Chicken Karaage

Sorry for the lack of post(s) these few weeks because I was pretty busy with a few projects on hand. I would try to get all the draft post(s) published as soon as possible but to compensate, I have invited a few well-known bloggers to guest post(s) some of their home-style dishes and bakes.

Today's let put our hands together and welcome Nami from "Just One Cookbook". I know Nami through her comments on my blog a few months back. From her blog link I also get to know her better as well as exploring her wonderful recipes collection on her home-style Japanese Cuisines. She is also the one who help me to look up recipes on Japanese website regarding the Japanese Steamed Cake which I wish to learn more about it. Today I am so happy to invite Nami to Cuisine Paradise to share her classic “Chicken Karaage” recipe with us and I sure you would like it as much as we do. Enjoy!

Hello readers of Cuisine Paradise! Usually, I’m just the same as you, a fan enjoying Ellena’s delicious creations. She was generous to invite me to contribute a recipe on her site so today I will share one of my family’s favorite Japanese dish, Chicken Karaage (鶏の唐揚げ) recipe. I am a dedicated visitor to Ellena’s site and her mouth watering photos always make me hungry. With her extensive library of recipes from around the world, I learned so much from Ellena and especially Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking techniques. Personally I’ve used multiple recipes from her site to feed my family lunch and dinner and her website has been a great inspirational resource.

Chicken Karaage is a classic Japanese fried chicken dish. It’s a very common Japanese home cooking recipe and many Japanese restaurants including Izakaya (Japanese tapas) offer it in many countries all over the world. You might also find them as a main dish in lunch teishoku (meal set) at restaurants or bento box (lunch box) you buy from Japanese supermarkets. Usually the chicken is marinated in a mix of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and lightly coated with potato/corn starch mix, then finally deep fried. However, each family has different way of preparing it, and here is mine that my family loves.

I hope you enjoy my Chicken Karaage recipe and thank you so much Ellena for having me!



Chicken Karaage



Difficulty: Modearate
Cooking Time: 60 minutes (excluding marinade time)
Makes: 5-8 servings

Ingredients:
5-10 Chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2 inch pieces (make sure each piece is about the same size so it takes about the same amount of time to deep fry.)

Seasonings
¼ onion, grated
½ Tbsp. ginger (1.5 inch ginger), grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp. cooking sake
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup corn starch (Please adjust if necessary. If you use 10 chicken thighs, probably about ½ cup)

Oil for deep frying

A couple of lemon wedges
Ichimi Togarashi (Japanese red chili pepper flakes) (optional)
Green onion for garnish (optional)



Directions:
1. Put chicken in a Ziploc bag and combine all the ingredients for Seasonings in a bowl and mix all together.

2. Pour the Seasonings into the Ziploc bag and rub the chicken well with hands. Keep it in the fridge for at least 1 hour, preferably 3-4 hours.

3. In a wok, add oil to about half way full and heat it on medium high heat. When you put a chopstick in the oil and bubbles start to appear around the tip, the oil temperature is now around 180C (356F) and ready for deep frying.

4. When oil is ready, take out the Ziploc bag from the fridge and transfer the chicken into a bowl and discard the marinade (liquid). Then add corn starch and mix quickly. You don’t need to mix it evenly (as you see in the picture below). The uneven coating gives each piece its unique texture.

5. Place each piece of chicken separately into the oil. Do not overcrowd the wok, fry maximum 5 pieces at a time. If you put a lot of chicken in the oil, the temperature will drop quickly and chicken end up absorbing too much oil. Make sure the oil temperature stays around 180C (356F) at all time.

  1. Deep fry for 90 seconds.
  2. Transfer the chicken onto a wire rack (if not, paper towel) to drain the oil for 4 minutes,
  3. Deep fry again for 45 seconds, or until golden brown.

Transfer the chicken onto a wire rack to drain the oil. Before you start the next batch, skim/remove leftover crumbs from the oil in order to keep it clean.

6. Serve the chicken with lemon wedges. Squeeze the lemon right before you eat. You can dip in Ichimi Togarashi if you enjoy spicy chicken.


For more Japanese home-sytle recipes, you can refer to Nami website at Just One Cookbook for more recipe ideas.


14 comments:

  1. I love everything cook with chicken, this deep fried chicken sound so tempting and good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ellena, thank you so much for inviting me!  It's been my pleasure to know you & your blog and it's fun discovering your recipes as well as sharing some recipes with you. :-)  I hope your readers will enjoy this Karaage recipe, and thanks again!  

    ReplyDelete
  3. Livia Chua20/7/11 7:10 pm

    Dear Ms. Ellena Guan,

    I am Livia Chua, a Year 2 Mass Communication student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of FIlm and Media Studies.

    I tried contacting you through email as well as Twitter however my request might not have gotten to you.

    For
    my group's TV Production project, we are to film an episode of a
    demonstration show that will last 15 minutes. The theme of our show is
    food art and we would like to feature you on our pilot episode which
    will be about Bento-making. The day of filming will most likely be
    within the first 2 weeks of August and we will require only 2 hours of
    your time.


    We are really keen on having you on the show, and are
    looking forward to hearing from you.

    Should you wish to decline this offer, do please let me know as well.


    Thank you for taking time to read this and may you have good week ahead.

    God bless.

    Regards,
    Livia Chua.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love Nami's site, she always posted the most delicious dishes that I love. Thanks for sharing this Chicken Karaage that my little ones love this a lot :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I adore Nami and her side and so happy to find her here! Wonderful recipe Nami, and Ellena nice to meet you! Great job ladies!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Belogrlic Dubravka22/7/11 11:39 am

    this looks scrumptious.Again new recepie.Happy about that:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Belogrlic, thanks for popping by :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Sandra, thanks for dropping by and it's great to have you here too. And I agreed with you that Nami has a wonderful collection of recipes too :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. thanks for sharing this wonderful dish Nami :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love Nami & her blog, and it's awesome to see her here on your wonderful site!
    Amazing guest post as usual! Congratulations to you both!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great guest post from Nami! I love her blog and all her mouthwatering authentic Japanese dishes with all her step by step instruction pics and product pics which I find is very useful to me bcoz some of the Japanese products in Singapore are all in Japanese which I don't understand and dare not buy. So I learned a lot from her! :D
    Nice to know you too Ellena! :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. lipsmacking post from Nammi..
    thankx for sharing..
    first time here..love ur space..
    very interesting recipe collection..
    Am your happy follower now..:)
    do stop by mine sometime..
    Tasty Appetite

    ReplyDelete
  13. elisabeth@foodandthriftfinds25/7/11 10:17 pm

    Such a wonderful guest post. Love these crunchy and spicy chicken thighs with the delicious and tasty batter. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  14. elisabeth@foodandthriftfinds25/7/11 10:31 pm

    Befre I forget, thank you Ellena, for having Nami as you guest post, and thank you Nami for mentioning me on your blog re: the award I passed on to you! Enjoy your stay with your mom, sound like you're having such a wonderful time together. That's what family is all about, caring and being there for each other!

    ReplyDelete

Dear All,

Thanks for leaving down your comments. I do value each and every of your suggestion(s) or comment(s) so if you are signing off as Anonymous, please kindly leave your Name so that I could address you. Thanks

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Regards
Ellena (Cuisine Paradise)

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