Recipe: Kara-age with a Kabucha Twist (Patreon)

Hey hey, and so sorry for this taking so long to get up. I have a real problem with following directions. I get it now. I'm putting up the recipe as I found it in Japanese and I'll comment where I might have changed something. Feel free to experiment. My theory is all recipes are suggestions. Starting and jumping off points. 

Ingredients:

*2 chicken thighs (200 grams) I probably used quite a bit more.

*1/4 kabocha (cut into wedges)

*oil for frying

*daikon oroshi (grated daikon radish)

*aonegi (thin green onions) (chop chop chopped)

*mizuna ("water greens", Japanese mustard greens or spider (!) mustard  

Note: I'm sure you could use anything really. This just forms the fluffy/leafy bed for the chicken to rest on. Edible presentation.

*ponzu (This recipe calls for yuzu pon. But any ponzu sauce would do. Man, do I love ponzu. Seriously, you could use a goma-sesame sauce on this and it would be delightful, too.)

Marinade for chicken:

* 1 teaspoon grated ginger 

* 1 teaspoon grated garlic

*to taste, salt and pepper

* 1 tablespoon soy sauce

*1 tablespoon sake

*2 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I didn't use this. The recipe says adding this makes it milder. The frying takes away the mayo taste so even if you don't like mayo, it's okay to use.)

*1 egg

Note: I'm also fairly sure I doubled or tripled the above ingredients.

For dredging:

*some katakuriko (potato starch) (30 grams-I'm sure I used more). Again I think corn starch would be okay, too. 

*some flour (20 grams-I'm sure I used more)

Note: Looks like there are two trains of thought. One, you marinate in wet ingredients, then dredge in dry and fry. Two, you actually add the dry and wet together to marinate, then fry that.

How to:

1. Get your thigh meat and cut it into bite sized pieces. This absolutely looks like more that 200 grams. 

2. Put the thigh pieces into a ziplock back and add the wet marinade ingredients, or everything if you want to try that route. I personally like to dredge in the katakuriko last. It seems to make them crispier. 

As you can tell by my little bowl there, I used some grated garlic and ginger and then chopped up some fresh. Next massage the crap out of that and let sit in the fridge for awhile (30 minutes or so). 

3. While your chicken is marinating, wash your mizuna (or whatever leafy green you desire, dry it, and cut into an easy to eat size. 

Wash and cut your kabocha like below. Thin wedges, I guess I'd call them. I left the skin on, but you can cut it off if you'd like. Make sure they're thoroughly dry. Because next you're going to want to fry them until lightly brown and you're able to easily stick a toothpick in them. I find kabocha cooks fairly quickly. After frying you can lightly salt if you'd like. Set aside on a rack if you have one so they don't sit in their own oil.

(I don't know why carrots are in that photo.)

4. Take some daikon and grate that until you get a nice watery mash (see below).  Put in a bowl. You can make as much as you like. I kind like daikon oroshi so I make a lot. It's for garnishing, so go with as much as you like.

5. Cut your washed green onions. See below. I probably should have cut these thinner.

6. So the trick with Japanese kara-age, I guess, is that it is deep fried twice. 

Take your marinated chicken from the fridge and dredge in your katakuriko/flour mixture (yeah, just mix those two together in a bowl). Then deep fry the pieces at 170 C (340 F) until lightly brown. 

Photo below is lightly brown. I read somewhere to fry them until they're 80% done. Then let them rest for three minutes while you heat up the oil to 190 C (380 F).

7. Carefully plop those puppies in the oil again until they turn they "color of a fox" (kitsune iro). 

Here they are completely cooked and crispy. Actually, my gas range has a thing on it that won't let oil get too hot. It cuts way down suddenly (and the oil gets too cool) and there is no override. So I screwed this up several times before I kinda got it right. 

8. Now you get to lay down your bed-o-greens in a plate. Place the crunchy chicken on top.

9. Along with the fried up kabocha and dollop on some daikon oroshi.

10. Shake some ponzu all over that baby and sprinkle with the green onions and there you have it.

Kara-age with a kabocha (and daikon oroshi) twist!

It's yummy. Quite filling. There is salty from the chicken, sweet from the kabocha, and sour from the ponzu. I ate too much. 

Green onions could have been sliced thinner. Those are pretty clunky.