Chicken Karaage with Japanese Mayonnaise & Lemon

Ingredients

• 700 g chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into large chunks
• 100 g rice flour
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
• 3 spring onions, green tops only, finely sliced
• 0.5 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• vegetable oil, for shallow frying
• 3 tbsp tamari
• 1 tbsp sake or dry sherry
• 4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the tamari, sake, grated ginger and sesame oil together in a bowl. Add the chicken chunks and turn them through until every piece is glossy and slick. Leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes at room temperature, or up to an hour in the fridge — any longer and the tamari starts to cure the surface and the texture turns dense.
2. Mix the rice flour, cornflour and fine salt together in a shallow bowl. Season the marinated chicken with a pinch more salt as you lift it from the bowl — the marinade carries flavour but the surface of the meat still wants direct seasoning before its coating goes on.
3. Drain the chicken well, letting the excess marinade drip off, and discard the liquid. Wet chicken means a gummy crust, not a craggy one. Toss the pieces in the seasoned flour, pressing gently so each one wears a dry, powdery jacket — the rougher the surface, the crunchier the result.
4. Pour 1–2 cm of vegetable oil into a deep frying pan or wok and heat to 170°C. A pinch of flour dropped in should sizzle on contact and float, not sink. Fry the chicken in two or three batches — don't crowd the pan. All at once and the temperature crashes, oil seeps in, and you've stewed the chicken instead of frying it. Cook each batch for 4–5 minutes, turning halfway, until deeply golden, crisp, and clear-juiced when pierced. Lift onto kitchen paper.
5. Taste a piece — adjust with a final pinch of flaky salt while the crust is still hot enough to grip it. Season now, not at the table.
6. Pile the karaage onto a warm plate while still crackling. Scatter the spring onion greens over the top, set out a small bowl of Japanese mayonnaise alongside for dipping, and tuck the lemon wedges in at the edge — a squeeze of lemon over the hot crust just before eating cuts the richness and lifts everything you've built.