How do you make karaage so soft?

12 comments

1. Try adding mayonnaise when seasoning chicken. The emulsified vegetable oil in mayonnaise acts on the chicken protein and softens it.

2. Tense your legs or think of grandma is an old classic.

   I’ve found marinade time helps and not frying the hell out of it.

3. From a non-japan resident so feel free to ignore me… but this is how I do it in the UK to get as authentic a taste as possible.

   – Use chicken thigh. Keep the skin on.
   – coat evenly in the potato starch marinade
   – don’t over marinade
   – cut to the right size for even cooking (and have equal size pieces)
   – ensure oil is the perfect temperature
   – cook for the right length of time – first dip to get the cooking process going. Take out a minute or so early then leave to drain -rest for a few mins to allow slow internal cooking to continue for a five mins or so, then dunk again to really crisp up that outer layer!
   – treat the first batch as a sacrifice to ensure all your conditions are perfect (plus – free snacks!!!)

   Probably not the traditional or perfect method, but it works for me! 🙂

4. While my wife is the karaage expert in our house, definitely chicken thigh.

5. Karaage with chicken breast !? Barbarian!

   Immerse in yogurt for an hour.

6. 100% need to use chicken thigh. And then of course don’t overcook it, which will need some practice as you also don’t want to undercook it.

7. My Japanese partner leaves the meat in a sealed bag with shoyu, negi, and grated ginger so they get the taste from it. It can stay in the fridge like that 24-48 hours.

   I just ask and she uses mune (breast). I like it because it’s less juicy and greasy compared to stores imo.

   We put a plastic bag with starch, put the meat in, shake it like McDo shakashaka fries, then fry.

   We season it with lemon juice when we eat it.

8. Marinate or brine the meat and don’t overcook. Double frying at a lower temperature gives the very crispy crust without overlooking.

9. Hammer it.Ayam Penyet.

10. Chicken thighs

11. 100% chicken thigh.

    Other than that it’s a matter of not overcooking.

    It’s also important that it’s brined in some way to retain moisture (salty marinade will do the same). (not with that prebought brine bullshit). And high-quality chicken.

12. I use this recipe (sorry, you’ll have to run through a translator if you can’t read), great results every time and calls for less oil. The important point is the sake in the marinade i think.
    https://cookpad.com/recipe/3740669