I make sweet karaage without mirin, without cooking sake, and with lots of brown sugar. For the batter, I usually use potato starch to make it crispy.
However, I thought there can be a better recipe, so I made the batter with different proportions of potato starch and flour.
Batter Ratios and Appearance
Potato starch only
Potato starch : Flour = 2 : 1
Potato starch : Flour = 1 : 1
Potato starch : Flour = 1 : 1
Flour only
I used a tablespoon to measure each and mixed by volume ratio.
I seasoned them with my usual recipe for karaage, and fried them in oil at 180 degrees Celsius until the oil made little noise.
Let’s check the appearance first.
The higher up you go, the more starch there is, and the lower down you go, the more flour there is. You can see that the more starch there is, the whiter the batter becomes. The result is a beautiful gradation.
Difference in Texture
In terms of texture, the batter with only potato starch is more crispy, while the batter with more flour becomes more moist. The ones with only wheat flour had almost no crunchiness.
The ones made with only potato starch peeled off easily from the meat and became soggy as they cooled. As more flour was added, it stuck more firmly to the meat and was less powdery.
The texture of the batter is a matter of taste, but I found a 1:1 ratio of flour to potato starch to be a good balance.
Other Big Difference
What surprised me the most was the difference in the way the oil stains. When I used only flour for the batter, the oil did not get dirty at all. As the amount of starch increased, the amount of batter residue left in the oil after frying increased. And those using only starch needed to be scooped out very carefully. I was very surprised to see how clean the oil was with flour, since I always use only potato starch. I was very surprised.
How to Make a Crispy Batter?
I found out that changing the ratio of flour and potato starch changes the texture of the batter. However, I think I would like to eat something with a little more crunchy texture.
In karaage, the batter is applied directly to the meat. Fried chicken, on the other hand, is covered with an egg solution before being coated with batter. I thought that the batter would tend to be thinner in karaage. As a result, the texture of the batter would be stronger and more crispy in fried chicken.
However, I don’t want to use egg solution when making karaage because it is too much work. So, I added water to the batter, lumped it beforehand, and sprinkled it on the meat. This method resulted in a fairly crunchy texture, and here is the recipe.
I used a mixture of potato starch and flour in equal amounts. You can enjoy two different textures by first frying the meat in regular batter and then adding water to make it crispy.
Karaage with Crunchy Batter
- Remove the chicken from the bag and drain on kitchen paper.
- Put flour and starch in a bowl and mix well.
- Pour the marinade evenly over the flour.
- Mix well with folk or chopsticks to make many small lumps.
- Dip the chicken in the batter and deep-fry.
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