Fried chicken is possibly everybody’s favorite across the world, and so is Japanese fried chicken-KARAAGE.
There are so many recipes but Karaage recipes often require only simple ingredients and simple steps.
Despite Karaage chicken recipes often use chicken thighs, (yes, because of its greasy savory addictive juice,), but, you want to attempt to make tender, juice, crispy fried chicken breast.
With this recipe, you’ll be shocked.
The boneless chicken breast will turn to be tender and juicy (moist) like chicken thigh!
Even the next day, this chicken breast karaage will be tender and juicy.
In the Japanese Karaage chicken recipe, chicken is seasoned and flavored, so it is delicious without dipping sauce.
So, how to make chicken breast tender and juicy, and how to make fried chicken crispy?
We don’t need special ingredients to do so.
This recipe uses just magic ingredients that are in your pantry, no buttermilk.
- How To Make Tender And Juicy Chicken Breast
- Tenderize The Chicken Breast Quickly
- How To Make Crispy Karaage Fried Chicken
- Karaage Sauce Ideas
- Tender Juicy Crispy Boneless Chicken Breast Karaage In Two Tenderizing Methods
- Make Oyakodon Using Karaage Chicken Leftovers
- Karaage Fried Chicken Leftover Recipe: Easy Sweet And Sour Chicken With Ketchup & Yakiniku Sauce
How To Make Tender And Juicy Chicken Breast
I am writing about Japanese home cooking, so I will not talk about using buttermilk since we don’t have buttermilk handy in Japan. LOL.
The Best Way Is The Baking Powder Solution
The best way to make chicken breast tender and moist is “the baking powder solution” method in this post.
If you have time to brine the meat overnight (more than 6 hours), I recommend using this method.
It can make chicken breast super tender and moist without getting salty.
Tenderize The Chicken Breast Quickly
However, you want to tenderize chicken breast ASAP.
These two methods can help you save marinating time, which means you can skip brining in the baking powder solution.
Salt And Sugar Solution
- Pierce the chicken breast with forks, and cut the chicken breast into chunks.
- Add chunks, salt, sugar, and water in a bowl or a bag.
- Massage them well and marinate them for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Piercing the chicken breast tenderizes the meat and also helps the solution penetrate quickly.
Soaking the meat in salted water allows the chicken to absorb the water through osmosis, and the sugar keeps the moisture inside.
Make a 2% salt solution as a guide.
Add the same amount (I add double the amount) of sugar to the brine.
Since the chicken breast is cut, it can reduce the bringing time.
Brine the chunks anytime between 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Shio-Koji
- Pierce the chicken breast with forks, and cut the chicken breast into chunks.
- Mix the chunks and Shio-koji in a bowl or a bag.
- Massage them well and marinate them for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Shio-koji is a Japanese versatile fermented condiment.
This superfood can tenderize and moisten the meat while enhancing its rich flavor.
The appealing point of marinating the meat with shio koji is it can be done for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Contrary, in the marinating process over 1 hour, the meat will be salty.
Freeze the marinated meat if you don’t plan to use it.
You can get shio-koji on Amazon or make homemade shio koji.
How To Make Crispy Karaage Fried Chicken
Let the coating absorb the moisture after coating the meat.
After you coat the meat with flour, refrigerate the meat to let the coating absorb the moisture for 1 hour or up to overnight.
This process makes the coating crispy and also sticks the coating to the meat in oil.
My Best Flour To Make Crispy Fired Chicken
- Rice flour
- Potato starch
- Potato Starch + Cake flour
The easiest way to make fried chicken crispy is using rice flour.
I talk about the coating details in the post about Karaage Chicken (thighs), so check it out later.
I am now obsessed to use rice flour which is gluten-free, so I’ll not go deeper into this topic today!
Double-Fry
This is another important key to making crispy Karaage chicken.
Double frying helps to cook the piece efficiently to the center without burning outside or drying the meat.
Technically, cook the meat and form the coating at the first frying, and cook the rest while resting on the rack.
When putting back the piece in the oil, the water evaporates quickly and makes the coating crispy.
In the Karaage chicken thigh recipe, deep-fry the meat at 320F and turn the temperature up to 350F for the second fry.
For chicken breast, we can keep the same temperature at 350F.
How long to fry the chicken for both attempts?
Cook the piece for 3 minutes at the initial fry, rest it for 3 minutes (while cooking the remaining pieces,) and cook for 1 minute at the second fry.
Karaage Sauce Ideas
Karaage chicken is already flavorful, so generally, you don’t need a dipping sauce.
Yet, it is often served with a fresh lemon wedge.
My husband uses “Sweet chili sauce” and “Chinese garlic chili oil” for his taste.
He loves drizzling Japanese Layu on Kraage Chicken. If you like sesame oil and spicy food, make homemade Layu!
Japanese Mayonnaise lovers called Mayolaah like dipping Karaage chicken in Japanese Mayo.
I recommend The Easy Japanese aurora sauce for kids, which is made of ketchup and Japanese mayo.
Besides, Japanese tartar sauce is also a popular dipping sauce item for Karaage chicken.
Tender Juicy Crispy Boneless Chicken Breast Karaage In Two Tenderizing Methods
Ingredients
- 2 boneless chicken breast
- ½ cup or more rice flour
- cooking oil for deep-frying
The Salt And Sugar Solution Method
- 4 tbsp water
- ½ TSP salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
Shio Koji Method
- 4 tbsp Shio Koji *1)
Marinade Sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce *½ dark soy sauce in shio koji method.
- 1 tbsp Japanese sake/ white wine
- 1 TSP grated fresh ginger
- ½ TSP grated fresh garlic
- 1 tbsp rice flour/ potato (corn) starch
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce *optional
Instructions
Tenderize Chicken Breast
- Trim and pierce the chicken breast. Butterfly the breast to make it flat. Cut the meat into chunks. (about 2X2X1 size)
- In a bag or bowl, place the chicken chunks. Add the salt and sugar solution or shio koji. Massage well and refrigerate it for 30 minutes to 2 hours. (up to 1 hour in shio koji.)
Marinate the Chicken in the sauce
- Remove the chicken from the salt and sugar solution. Towel dry the meat. Scrape the excess shio koji if desired.
- In a bowl or a bag, add the chicken, soy sauce, sake/ wine, grated fresh ginger, and garlic. Combine them well.
- Add 1 tbsp of rice flour or potato/ corn starch.
- Marinate the chicken breast for 30 minutes.
Coat the Chicken
- Transfer the marinated chicken to another bowl if there is too much sauce.
- Coat each piece of the chicken with rice flour. You don't need to shake off the excess flour.
- Line the pieces on a baking pan or a large platter. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour to overnight. *For the best result, refrigerate overnight.
Cook The Chicken
- Bring the chicken to room temperature. Use a small-medium-sized pot. Pour about 4-5 inches of vegetable oil and place it over medium heat until the oil reaches 350 F.*There are recipes that often use a small amount of oil for deep-fry, but, I believe that the fried chicken will be delicious when using deep enough oil. Using the small pot, you don't need too much oil, and also it helps to keep the temperature easily.
- Add 2-3 pieces to the oil each time. Cook for 3 minutes. Often, stir the oil to keep the temperature. Remove the piece from the oil for seconds to make the coating crispy after the initial 1 minute.
- Remove the fried chicken pieces, and place them on the cooling rack. Fry the remaining chicken.
- Fry the pieces a second time. Be sure the cooking oil is at 350 °F. Unlike Chicken thigh Karaage, the same temperature (350 °F) is OK.
- Deep-fry the pieces for 1 minute. Place them on the cooling rack.
Make Dipping Sauces
Make Oyakodon Next Day
- You can make Japanese chicken and egg on rice using up Karaage leftovers. Recipe
Video
Notes
Make Oyakodon Using Karaage Chicken Leftovers
Use this quick and easy traditional Japanese fast food recipe to serve the restaurant grade, Oyako Don, at home.
The broth is a Japanese flavor made of authentic dashi broth, soy sauce, sake, and sugar without mirin, for a sweet and salty profile. You can use up leftover roast/ fried chicken, thanksgiving turkey, and Yakitori/ Karaage chicken in this Oyako don recipe!
Korean Fried-Chicken Inspired Sweet and Sour Chicken to use up fried chicken leftovers.
This sweet and sour chicken recipe takes just 20 minutes to make and tastes delicious with an Asian complex flavor.
The homemade yakiniku sauce can provide the perfect balance of sweetness and light but rich sauce if you make it.
Tomato ketchup coats the fried chicken beautifully and adds gochujang for the rich and spicy flavor.
It’s great over rice or veggies.
Since this recipe uses fried chicken, we can skip the coating process to chicken, yet, you can use fresh raw chicken if desired, of course.
Karaage Fried Chicken Leftover Recipe: Easy Sweet And Sour Chicken With Ketchup & Yakiniku Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 lb fried chicken leftovers *ex. Karaage Chicken
- ¼-½ onion, sliced
For The Stir-fry Sauce
- ¼ cup Yakiniku sauce (Japanese bbq sauce)
- 2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar *adjust the amount depending on the sauce
- 1 TSP gochujang *skip it for kids meal
Instructions
- Gather ingredients.How to make homemade Yakiniku sauce.
- Cut fried chicken into bite-size.
- In a skillet, oil the pan and saute sliced onions until getting tender.
- Make the sauce. Add Yakiniku sauce, ketchup, water, sugar, and gochujang and combine well.
- Over medium-high heat. Add the sauce to the skillet, and simmer until the sauce becomes thicker but still remains liquid.
- Add fried chicken, and coat them with the sauce. If the fried chicken were refrigerated place a lid on the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes. (or microwave them before adding to the sauce.)
- When each piece is coated with the sauce, transfer to a platter and serve.
Notes
Make A Unique Sandwich With Leftovers
How To Make Healthy Rice Buns Without Falling Apart: Non-oil, Non-Sugar
To make a beautiful “bun”, the best way is to use a round mold, but, you can still use a round cookie cutter, a plastic container (which I use), or a ramekin. Adding starch to the warm rice is the secret key to how the rice can hold together firmly. Enjoy the crispy light-browned rice buns.