Air Fried Karaage (唐揚げ) Japanese Fried Chicken Recipe

I love making this air fried karaage as a chill lunch when I want the satisfaction of fried chicken, without the hassle and fat of traditional karaage.

What is Air Fried Karaage?

Karaage (ka-rah-ah-ge) is essentially Japanese fried chicken. While there are other methods in Japan for frying chicken (such as toriten), karaage is one of the most popular and easiest to recreate at home.

The classic karaage method includes the following steps

• Marinate bite-sized pieces of chicken in a soy-based marinade
• Dredge in either 100% potato starch (or corn starch), or a mix of starch and wheat flour.
• Deep fry the coated chicken (often in two stages) until crispy on the outside and crispy on the outside.

Karaage is usually served with lemon wedges in Japan. Acid makes dishes taste lighter, which is especially important when cooking fried dishes.

Spicy mayo, made with Japanese Kewpie mayo is another popular condiment that I’ve seen served at many Japanese American restaurants. It tastes pretty good, so I included it in this recipe.

I have a recipe for a traditional Japanese karaage that’s great for feeding a crowd, check it out here. 

Why Choose Air Fried Karaage?

Karaage is delicious, and the deep-fried version is undeniably better than the air-fried version.

But as you probably know, deep frying adds a lot of calories and fat to whatever is being fried. According to this in-depth article, it can more than double the calories of many foods. 

Air frying significantly reduces the amount of fat in deep-fried foods, and while it doesn’t taste quite like deep fried food, it still has the potential to be crispy and delicious.

All foods absorb different amounts of oil, but a base estimate for deep-frying is to take 10% of the food’s mass to find the amount of oil absorbed, and then divide that by the number of servings. For example:

All that to say, air fried karaage is a much healthier option, so it’s my go-to for meal prepping healthy lunches for myself, while deep-fried is my choice when I’m cooking for my friends or just want to make the best karaage I can.

Ingredients for Air Fried Karaage

Chicken – I’ve tried this recipe with chicken breasts, but thighs stay much juicier, and their fat is necessary for the low-fat cooking technique.

Soy Sauce – The base of the marinade and salty component. I almost always use Kikkoman for Japanese dishes.

Sake – This rice wine is used as a seasoning in many Japanese dishes. Ryorishu (cooking sake) is an accessible and inexpensive option.

Sugar – A little sugar to balance out the flavor, but not enough to make it taste sweet.

Garlic – Fresh garlic and ginger give karaage its signature flavor. 

Ginger – In addition to flavor, ginger has enzymes that tenderize meat when used in a marinade.

Cornstarch – Cornstarch is perfect for frying because it dries the outside of the food, creating a crisp and light crust.

All–Purpose Flour – Mixing equal parts flour into the cornstarch makes the breading more substantial, while still maintaining a crisp and light coating.

Spray Oil – Spray oil is perfect for this recipe because it coats the chicken evenly in a light layer of oil (necessary for browning).

Ingredients

Karaage

• 900 grams (2lbs.) of boneless skin-on chicken thighs, cut into 1 ½ inch chunks
• 25 grams (1 tbsp. + 2 tsp.) of soy sauce
• 20 grams (1 tbsp. + 2 tsp) of sake
• 5 grams of sugar (1 tsp.)
• 15 grams of garlic, finely minced
• 15 grams of ginger, finely minced
• 65 grams (about 6 tbsp.) of cornstarch
• 65 grams (about 1/2 a cup) of flour
• 2 lemons, sliced into 4 wedges

Low Fat Spicy Mayo

• 100 grams of greek yogurt 
• 25 grams of kewpie mayo 
• 15 grams of ketchup
• 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper
• A sprinkle of shichimi togarashi

Directions

Low-Fat Spicy Mayo

1. Mix the yogurt, mayo, ketchup, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Set aside and garnish with shichimi togarashi before serving.

Karaage

1. Place the cubed chicken in a gallon sized ziploc bag, then add the soy sauce, sake, sugar, garlic, and ginger.

2. Seal the bag, massage the seasonings into the chicken, and marinate the chicken overnight.

3. The next day, add the cornstarch and flour to the bag, seal, and shake vigorously to coat the chicken.

4. Preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for a few minutes.

5. Spray the air fryer with the oil, then place about half the chicken in the air fryer (make sure no pieces touch each other, amount will vary based size of the air-fryer). Lightly spray the chicken with oil.

6. Set the air fryer to 400 hundred degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 11 minutes, flipping halfway through, until the chicken is golden brown and reaches about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

7. Remove the cooked chicken from the air fryer, and repeat steps 5-6 with the second half of the chicken

8. Serve the first round of chicken immediately with lemon wedges and the prepared mayo, or keep the cooked chicken warm in a 170 degree oven until the next round is finished.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 379kcal (19%) Protein: 30.9g Carbohydrates: 18.3g (7%) Total Fat: 18.9g (24%) Saturated Fat: 5.3g (26%) Cholesterol: 106mg (35%) Sodium: 320mg (14%) Dietary Fiber: 0.6g (0%) Sugar: 1.9g (4%) Vitamin D 0mcg (0%) Calcium 35mg (3%), Iron: 2mg (13%) Potassium: 324mg (7%)

The (%) tells how much a nutrient contributes to a daily diet, based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.

Nutrition Disclaimer

I am not a certified health professional, and while I do my best to provide accurate nutrition information, these values should be considered estimates. Specific brands, natural variation in produce and meat, as well as the nutrition calculator used can cause small deviations in the nutrition of any recipe.