Kara-age is a Japanese style fried chicken! It’s often served in many Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, but in Japan it’s a common food enjoyed at izakayas (Japanese drinking establishments), in bento lunch boxes and street stalls. This juicy, flavorful and crispy chicken is a must try in Japan.

On our Tokyo food tour, we stop by an izakaya that specializes in kara-age and they are DELICIOUS! Learn to make kara-age by this simple recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 lbs of boneless chicken thigh with skin

• 1/2 kosher/sea salt

• ground pepper

• 2 tbsp potato starch/cornstarch (more if necessary)

• 2 tbsp all purpose flour (more if necessary)

• neutral flavored oil (canola, vegetable)

  Seasoning

• 1 knob ginger (Only need 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger)

• 1 clove garlic

• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1/2 tbsp sake (sub with Chinese rice wine or skip)

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

  Garnishes (optional)

• Lemon (optional put squeeze ontop)

• Japanese mayonnaise to dip in

  Procedure

• Cut each chicken thigh into 2-inch pieces and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

• Grate the ginger (you will only need ½ tsp) and mince the garlic (I use a garlic presser).

• In a large bowl, combine ginger, garlic, ½ Tbsp soy sauce, ½ Tbsp sake, and ½ tsp sesame oil. Whisk all together.

• Add chicken in bowl and mix. Keep in fridge for 30 minutes to marinate.

• Put oil in pot. Heat on medium heat to about 325 ºF (163 ºC).

• Meanwhile, prep starch and flour in separate piles

• First, lightly dredge each chicken piece in the flour. Then dredge the chicken in the potato starch and remove excess starch.

• Same for rest of the chicken

• When the oil temperature has reached 325 ºF (163 ºC), gently submerge each chicken piece into the oil. Do not overcrowd; add 3-5 pieces at a time. If you put many pieces in the oil, the oil temperature will drop quickly and chicken will end up absorbing too much oil.

• First deep fry: Deep fry for 90 seconds or until golden brown. If it fries too quickly then the heat is too high. Pat with paper towel to remove excess oil once done.

• Let chicken rest. It will cook all the way inside while it rests.

• Second deep fry: Now heat oil to 350 ºF (177 ºC). Deep fry for 45 seconds or until it’s a nice golden brown color.

• Frying it twice makes it crispier. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Just One Cookbook

Recipe, procedure and video credits to Just One Cookbook

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A delicious bowl of Japanese curry for dinner - tender pieces of chicken, carrots, potatoes, curry sauce and any other ingredients you wish to put in can make for a very simple and easy Japanese meal from home!

Coming from a Japanese family, a common household meal that my mother liked to cook when she was very busy was curry. You can have it prepared in the morning or even the day before and simply heat it up when you’re ready to eat.

Japanese curry compared to Thai and Indian curry is much thicker and less spicy. In fact it’s a bit sweeter compared to the other curry recipes so it’s often seen as a beloved kids food in Japan. Check out this recipe below

Video Credit to Tasty

INGREDIENTS (4 people)

Tonkatsu

• 4 cups white rice cooked

• 4 boneless pork chops

• 4 shiso leaves

• 4 slices mozzarella cheese

• 1/2 cup flour

• 3 eggs

• 3 cups panko crumbs

• oil, for frying

• Curry packet

Curry

• 1/2 onion sliced

• 2 medium potatoes cubed

• 1 medium carrot diced

• 3 cups water (720ml)

• Japanese curry paste (Golden Curry, Vermont Curry or Java Curry to name a few)

  Procedure

• Season pork chops with salt and pepper.

• Cut a large slit through the side of the pork.

• Place cheese and shiso leaves inside the slit of the pork.

• Repeat with remaining pork chops.

• Put the pork in flour, then dip into eggs. Roll into panko bread crumbs evenly, dip in eggs

  again and roll in bread crumbs once again.

• Repeat with other pork chops.

• Heat oil over medium heat until 360F (185C).

• Fry pork chops one at a time until golden brown and pat with paper towel. Let it rest.

• In a pot, saute onions until translucent. Add in your potatoes and and carrots and cook for a few minutes.

• Add water into pot and bring to a boil. Let the vegetables cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft.

• Add curry paste into pot. Stir until dissolved.

• Cook for another 10 minutes.

• Slice pork cutlets into 1/2 inch slices.

• To serve, place the pork cutlet slices over the rice, then pour a generous serving of curry on half of the pork.

• Enjoy!

*How much curry paste is up to you. You can adjust amount to decide how much thicker and stronger in flavor you want your curry to be. Other foods like mushrooms and eggplants can be put in as well. GEt creative!

Photo credit: Just One Cookbook

Photo credit: Chopstick Chronicles

Recipe and procedure credits to Tasty

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A very common staple food in Japanese dishes, miso soup is a basic soup familiar to the Japanese household. This traditional soup is made from dashi stock mixed with miso paste. Additionally, it is common to put in Japanese kelp, tofu and other seasonal ingredients of your choice inside.

They can be sold in instant packets or as a side dish a long with a traditional Japanese meal. It is normal to enjoy miso soup for any meal as some households will even have it for breakfast a long with rice and fish.

If you’d like to try miso soup at home, try making it at home! It’s nice and easy!

Video Credit to Tasty. Miso Soup instructions are from 1:27-2:44.

INGREDIENTS

• Dashi broth (360ml)

• 7oz of tofu

• 1/2 cup of snow peas (Can be substituted for your choice of veggies. I personally like onions or carrots!)

• 2oz enoki mushrooms (Again, it can be substituted with your choice of veggies)

• 2 tablespoons of miso paste

• A handful of Japanese wakame seaweed

Procedure

• Cut the tofu into cubes.

• Trim your snow peas (Or whatever veggies that you may have).

• Cut the ends of your enoki mushrooms off.

• In a pot, add your dashi and bring it to a boil. Then add your tofu, snow peas and mushrooms in and boil for 3 minutes. Add in your wakame seaweed into the soup while its boiling as well.

• Turn off your heat.

• Then, put your miso past in a small bowl and add some dashi inside.

• Dissolve the miso with the dashi by mixing

• Once dissolved, add this miso into your pot.

• Turn the heat back on and enjoy!

*How much dashi and miso you add in is up to you. It depends on how strong you want the taste to be! You can also use any veggies you wish to use.

Photo credit: Matcha Website

Recipe and procedure credits to Tasty

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#misosoup

A beloved snack in Japan, the fruits sandwich consists of a milky white bread with the ears cut off with whip cream and your choice of fruit (typically strawberries) in between for a sweet-delicious sandwich.

They are sold anywhere in Japan, ranging from cheap convenience store sandwiches to high end, high quality sandwiches costing over 1500 Yen (about 14 USD). We also visit a fruits sandwich shop at Tokyo Station on our Tokyo food tour.

If you have a sudden craving for a fruits sandwich, check out the recipe below by Just One Cookbook.

Video credit to Just One Cookbook

INGREDIENTS

• 12 strawberries

• 2 kiwis

• 1 navel orange

• 4 slices of shokupan (Japanese milky white bread or any kind of bread of your choice if unavailable)

  Whipped Cream

• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream 240 ml

• 5 tsp sugar (or ten percent of heavy whipping cream)

• 1 tsp rum (optional)

Procedure

• Remove core of straberries

• Cut off both ends and peel kiwi

• Cut off both ends and peel orange

• Cut off segment wall and separate oranges into each segment

• Pat down fruits with paper towel

  Whipped cream

• Prepare a large bowl of iced water and place a medium bowl inside the larger bowl to keep cool. Make sure the bowl is clean and dry. Add the heavy whipping cream and start whisking on low speed.

• Once bubbly, add sugar and rum (if you are using) and start whisking on medium-high speed.

• The cream will be thicker as you whip.

• When you lift the whisk out of the cream and shows peaks, remove the bowl from the ice bath and switch to a hand whisk. Whisk until you achieve the right consistency. Check the consistency of the whipped cream as you whisk. It should be spreadable but not runny because it goes between the sandwich bread.

• Now spread the whipped cream on both sides of the sandwich bread.

• Only on one side of the sandwich bread, align the fruits. I plan to cut the sandwich diagonally. Think carefully about how you want to show your cross section. I recommend taking a picture of the alignment of the fruits and don’t change the orientation of the sandwich.

• Put the whipped cream to fill in any gap between fruits.

• Put the second slices of sandwich bread over the fruits, facing the whipped cream side down.

• Prepare plastic wrap, large enough to wrap the sandwich tightly from all four sides. 

• Mark the cross section over the plastic wrap with a pen.

• Put the sandwiches between plates and refrigerate for at least one hour (up to overnight). In Japan, putting weight on the sandwich is a pretty standard method prior to cutting in half.

• Open the plastic wrap and cut the sandwich in half diagonally with a clean knife. Keep it closed (Don’t open the sandwich to show cross section yet). Clean the knife with a hot wet towel before each cut.

• Cut off all the ears.

• Then serve and enjoy!

Photo credit: Just One Cookbook

Recipe and procedure credits to Just One Cookbook

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