Spicy Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken): Inspired by My Hero Academia (gluten free)

Inspired by My Hero Academia, these are some super crispy, spicy karaage that are bringing with the vibes of our favourite explosive hero, Katsuki Bakugou! These little pieces of fried chicken are so flavourful, and dangerously addictive. I promise you will be licking every last bit of sauce off your fingers. A perfect little treat!

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Total Time 2

Course Dinner, Lunch, Snack

Cuisine Japanese

Ingredients

For the Chicken:

4 boneless chicken thighs chopped into small chunks about 1-inch
5 garlic cloves minced
1 inch knob of ginger grated
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chili oil
1 Tbsp sake/chinese cooking wine
1/2 Tbsp mirin
2 tsp chinese chili powder mine had some flakes mixed in that was really nice
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp Shichimi togarashi

For Frying:

1 cup Potato starch you may need to add more depending on how wet your chicken was after marinating.
2 tsp chinese chili powder
1/2 cup neutral flavoured oil you may need more depending on the size of your pan
salt
Note: you can adjust the amount of chili powder to your liking.

For the Sauce:

2 Tbsp chinese chili powder
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 garlic cloves minced
1 knob ginger minced
2 Tbsp Gochujang
1 Tbsp sake/chinese cooking wine
Note: you can adjust the amount of chili powder to your liking.
Optional but highly recommended toppings:
Toasted sesame seeds
Sliced green onion

Instructions

Combine the chicken with all of the marinade ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, I let it marinate overnight.
In a shallow bowl or casserole, mix potato starch with chili powder together.
Coat your pieces of chicken in the potato starch. Shake to remove excess starch. Set aside on a tray while you coat them all.
Line a large plate or tray with paper towel on it and set aside.
In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat until hot. Add chicken, in batches, and evenly spread the chicken across the pan. (I use chopsticks to handle the chicken since I find it easier to maneuver).
Let the chicken cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the bottom is lightly golden brown. Flip the chicken and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until golden as well.
When golden and beautiful, remove the chicken from the pan and set on the paper towel lined plate, to remove excess oil. Lightly season with salt
Repeat this process with the rest of your chicken.
In a small saucepan, mix together all of the ingredients for the sauce, bring to a boil.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and mix together to evenly coat the chicken. Be careful it’s hot!
Note: I like to put the chicken and sauce into a container, close it and shake it up to coat in sauce!
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and green onion, serve and enjoy!

Keyword Anime, Comfort Food, Easy

4 Comments

Janelle

June 16, 2022 at 8:11 pm Reply

Tasty! Marinated the chicken overnight, made a nice lunch the next day and had a nice crunch. Husband approved too. For the sauce I used 1 Tbsp of sriracha instead of gochujang as there’s no GF gochujang that ive found in new zealand? Thanks for the recipe 🙂
- Carly
  
  August 22, 2022 at 3:06 pm Reply
  
  I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s definitely a favourite in our house and my husband loves it too. That sounds great, I’ve used white miso when I didn’t find GF gochujang at first and it was also really good. Definitely an adaptable sauce but I love it so much! Thank you <3
Jessica

August 22, 2022 at 3:06 pm Reply

I’m vegetarian so I substituted the chicken with some veggie chicken nuggets and used your sauce recipe. The sauce was really flavourful and had a great kick. Bakugo would definitely approve!
- Carly
  
  August 23, 2022 at 7:52 am Reply
  
  Thank you! That was a great idea, I’m glad you got to enjoy that amazing sauce!

Spicy Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken): Inspired by My Hero Academia (gluten free)

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