Japanese style chicken karaage often uses smaller, boneless pieces of chicken in contrast to the big bone-in pieces of American fried chicken. Additionally, potato starch or corn starch is used to create a light, crunchy texture.
Today we prepared our new Premium Karaage Powder with no MSG in our kitchen. We used two different methods of preparing the chicken: one method we used just the powder, and the other we mixed the powder with water. Both were tasty and brought about different characteristics.
Using just the powder is called MABUSHI, which simply means covered, or coated. We tossed the chicken with the powder and evenly coated each piece of chicken. Then, we let it rest for a few minutes. 5-10 minutes is sufficient. This allows the powder to really season the chicken and help to create a nice, deep flavor. We fried it in oil set at 350°F for about 3-4 minutes, until the karaage turned a golden brown color. The end product is a karaage with a great, crunchy texture that is comparable to American style fried chicken.
By mixing the powder with water, we created karaage in the MIZUTOKI style. This means dissolved, or mixed with water. We recommend 2 cups of powder to 1 cup of water. After coating the chicken, we immediately put the chicken into the oil instead of resting it. From here, the process is the same as mabushi. In contrast to the crunchy mabushi karaage, the mizutoki style karaage produces a softer, more delicate textured fried chicken that is more Japanese styled.
Both methods produce great karaage, all you have to do is decide which you prefer! In either case, serve with a squeeze of lemon, and you get a delicious appetizer that's lighter feeling than it's American counterpart.
On another note, we were amazed by the clarity of the oil after cooking. Normally, the oil becomes dirty and turns a brownish color after a few batches. This new karaage powder allowed us to keep using the same oil over and over because it remained clean. Why is this? The oil becomes dirty when the excess moisture from the chicken seeps into the oil. Our powder locks the juices and moisture in the chicken, so oil cleanliness is preserved. No more needless wasting of cooking oil!
