At home chicken karaage for chicken lovers

We've been making our own chicken karaage at home! Disclaimer we don't make it from scratch, we get a flavor and seasoning bag from an Asian grocery store or market. I personally recommend Mitsuya, because they have a great selection. I want to share some of the flavor packs that we used with chicken tenders that were bought from Costco. Basically all you have to do with the flavor packs is READ THE DIRECTIONS ON THE BACK (usually you will be adding eggs, water, or milk) and dip the chicken pieces in the batter. If you want to try making your own karaage at home or just want to make your chicken more interesting, these are the packs we have tried!

• Nisshin Karaage Flour

This is hands down the best flour packet that we tried with our Costco chicken tenders. Why you might ask... We've tried the red pack (I highly recommend), which is the garlic flavor, and it's basically Japanese restaurant quality. When you use this pack with the chicken tenders, it makes the outside layer crunchy and flavorful, while keeping the inside juicy.

Unfortunately, this one cannot be found at the Saratoga Mitsuya, we got our special trial pack from Ginny, Eric's sister, who lived in Japan for a year. We liked this one so much that we went looking for more! When you search for this on the internet it takes you to Rakuten, but we haven't bought any online to be able to share how legit it is.

• Showa Koromo Kari Kari Kaarage Chicken Mix

Let me just tell you that you ABSOLUTELY NEED MILK. Like don't be lazy and just substitute milk for eggs and water like we did. In fact it will not look anything like the picture. The chicken turned out pretty well, but I like to think that if we actually had milk like the recipe called for then it would have turned out way better. If you try this WITH MILK let me know how it turned out.

Here is our first attempt, with no milk.

• NIPPN Densetsu Karaageko Shio

We had pretty good results with this karaage flour! It's definitely in our TOP 3 list of best karaage flour that we've tried so far. It can't beat the flavor and crunchiness of the Nissin, which is the first one I talked about, but it's definitely a clear runner up. When you open up the pack, you can already smell the spices, such as rosemary. When you dip the chicken and fry it, crispy flavorful crust forms on the outside.

#chickenkaraage #foodreview #Japanesefriedchicken