Sesame Karaage from Japanese Soul Cooking

A couple weeks ago I made another recipe from Japanese Soul Cooking. I was really excited to see a whole chapter on karaage, the yummiest of yummy fried chicken. I didn't want to try the standard recipe because I have a favorite place here that I didn't think I could top, but I was excited to try the sesame coated variant. It was an easy recipe to follow, with no unfamiliar ingredients.

Most karaage is made from chicken thighs, and some of it can still have a lot of skin or fat still left on it. But I really prefer chicken breast, so that's what I used, even though the recipe called for thighs. I was worried that the sesame seeds wouldn't stick to the chicken when it fried, but they stuck just like they were supposed to. About a million seeds came off in the frying, but it seemed to be because of the chicken shrinking as it cooked.

In the end , I have to admit I was disappointed. I had a really hard time keeping the oil temperature stable which resulted in really dry chicken. I partly attribute the problem to my IH stove, but also to my lack of experience deep frying. To be honest, deep frying always seems like more trouble than it's worth. While I was trying to get the right temperature I ended up over-marinating the chicken so it was super salty! And worst of all, I don't necessarily think the sesame seeds were an improvement on regular karaage.

If you're in Tokyo and you want some of the best karaage ever, I recommend going to the food hall in the basement of Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi. I don't know the name of the the place, but it's in between the Vietnamese food, and the fancy rice counter. I prefer the shio karaage which is white meat, but if you prefer dark meat, I bet the momo karaage is wonderful too.

Read about other JSC recipes:
Oyakodon/Gyudon/Shiso Pasta
Yakiudon
Mabo Dofu
Sapporo Soup Curry
Omurice
Tan Tan Men
Pork Gyoza
Ebi Chili
Japanese Soul Cooking Review

Marinating

Frying

If only it tasted as good as it looked