What is Karaage?
Karaage (唐揚げ) is Japanese fried chicken where small bite-sized pieces of chicken are marinated and then deep-fried to crispy perfection.
Karaage is a very popular item at Japanese restaurants here in the US. It’s often served as an appetizer or as part of a Japanese combo or bento meal, it’s also called sesame fried chicken.
Other Japanese Deep-Frying Recipes:
- Japanese fried chicken
- Tonkatsu (Japanese Fried Pork Cutlet)
- Chicken Katsu
How To Make Karaage
- Use chicken thighs or chicken legs for the best chicken karaage. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Marinate the chicken with soy sauce, Japanese cooking sake, ginger, garlic and sesame oil for as little as 15 minutes.
- Coat each piece of the chicken generously with potato starch or corn starch.
- Deep fry the chicken. They should be brown on the outside but the meat should be juicy and bursting with flavors.
The Secret To Good Karaage
For the best karaage recipe, you should marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours or best overnight so the flavors seep inside the chicken meat.
Serve the chicken with mayonnaise and lemon wedges. Squeeze the lemon juice on top of the karaage and dip it with the mayonnaise.
How Many Calories Per Serving?
This recipe is only 361 calories per serving.
5 Secrets to 20 Min Dinners
Get tricks for quick & easy meals!
Chicken Karaage (Sesame Fried Chicken) Recipe
Chicken Karaage - crispy Japanese sesame fried chicken, the best chicken karaage recipe that is better than Japanese restaurants.
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts/thighs, cut into cubes
- 6 tablespoons Japanese cooking sake
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 inches fresh ginger, peeled and pounded with a mortar and pestle to extract 2 tablespoons ginger juice
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- cornstarch
- oil, for deep frying
Directions
- 1
Use paper towels to pat dry the chicken and transfer to a bowl. Add in the sake, soy sauce, ginger juice, sesame oil and marinate for 30 minutes, best for 2 hours. Transfer the chicken pieces out of the marinate and coat them evenly with cornstarch, in a plastic bag such as Ziplock. Shake off the excess cornstarch.
- 2
Heat up a wok/pot of cooking oil. When the cooking oil is hot enough for frying (350F - 375F), drop the chicken into the oil and quickly deep fry them until they float. Transfer them out onto a plate and wait for a couple of minutes. Put the chicken back into the oil and deep-fry again until golden brown and crunchy. Dish out to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil, serve hot with a slice of lemon and mayonnaise.
Michelle
I wasn’t able to get it to crisp up. How much corn starch should I have used? I wonder if I didn’t take enough of the marinade off the chicken? I did fry it twice but it still did not crisp. I’d love to try making this again. Even though it didn’t crisp, the chicken was delicious and juicy! Loved the marinade.
Rasa Malaysia
You need to shake the marinade off and then coat thickly with corn starch.
Amna
Looks delicious. Cnt wait to try it.
What would be a non alcoholic substitute for Sake?
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Amna, I am not sure. Almost all Japanese recipes has sake or mirin, both are alcoholic.
Mary Jo
I have made Karaage Chicken many times but never with the ingredients in this recipe. The sesame flavor is wonderful. We used Bulldog sauce for dipping and really enjoyed. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.
Rebecka
OMG, I made this recipe tonight. It was amazing. I marinaded the chicken for 4 hours.
It was as good as I have had at any Japanese restaurant. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Will be making again soon.
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome thanks Rebecka. Yes this chicken karaage recipe is very good.
James
I thought the whole idea was to use potato starch instead of corn starch
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, traditionally yes but most people can’t find potato starch so corn starch is fine. If you have potato starch use it by all means.
Sandy
This is the best chicken I ever made! Exceptional flavors. I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand but it still turned out great. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Sandy.
Suannee Lim
Hi Bee, I dont know how or why but I found myself with a bottle of Walnut Oil in kitchen. I dont know what to do with it. Can you help ?? Thank you.
Suannee
Sylvieann
Bee, looks easy and delicious! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes! Sylvieann xo
kyozai
I learn this recipe when I was the cook in the japanese restaurant.
Add in sake, ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil (optional), kiwi juice, garlic (fresh), white pepper, and also add 1 egg.
Cheers!
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Kyozai, thanks for your tips…kiwi juice, wow, I will have to try it. :)
Simon
Love this recipe. But could you get same effect from oven baking. Prefer it to frying
Rasa Malaysia
You can try.
Melissa
Yes would love to see if traditional oven baking or convection oven/ air frying will work. Please let us know if you do! Thanks!
Rasa Malaysia
I think air fryer is an option but I don’t recommend oven.