Chicken Karaage Bento

Another holiday activity with my boys, this time we assembled a meal in the bento box to share together. I've shared the Okonomiyaki recipe in my last post. I made few extras at that time then I froze them (without the topping) and took them out whenever I needed.

So this time, I share another yummy recipe :

Chicken Karaage 

Ingredients:
450 gr boneless and skinless chicken breasts/chicken thighs (cut into small pieces)
3 cm fresh ginger (peeled and pounded with a mortar and pestle to extract 1 tablespoons of ginger juice)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sake
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)
Corn starch to coat the chicken
Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Use paper towels to pat dry the chicken pieces and transfer to a bowl.
2. Add in sake, ginger juice, soy sauce, sesame oil (optional) and marinate for 30 minutes. 
3. Transfer the chicken pieces out of the marinate and coat them evenly with corn starch. Shake off excess.
4. Deep-fry in oil for two times. 
5. Heat up a wok/pot of cooking oil until it is hot enough for frying. 
6. Drop the chicken pieces into the oil and quickly deep fry them until they float. 7. Transfer them out onto a plate and wait for a couple of minutes. 
8. Put the chicken back into the oil and deep-fry until golden brown and crunchy. 
9. Dish out to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. 10. Ready to serve

This bento box consists of :
1. White steamed rice with sprinkles of black sesame seed
2. Chicken karaage
3. Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) with katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) and Japanese mayonaise (Kewpie) on top.
4. Pickled red ginger
5. Watermelon cuts

I used these foodpicks in this post :