By Koby Parry
I’m going to be honest, I’m a poor college student who enjoys eating good food. Being a college student, it can feel like there aren’t many cheap options for making good food. But, I’ve realized that with a little bit of effort, you can make nutritious, filling, and cheap food that’s both easy and delicious. Below I’ve listed a recipe for you to try. Let us know what you think of the recipe in the comments!
Karaage Chicken (Japanese Fried Chicken)
*Ingredients:
- 1 lb of boneless chicken thighs ~$7.60 ($1.52/lb)
- ½ cup of soy sauce ~$1.58 ($0.11/fl oz)
- 6 cloves of minced garlic ~$0.72 ($4.68/lb)
- Peeled chopped ginger, roughly the same amount as your garlic ~$0.90 ($3.58/lb)
- 1 cup of cornstarch or flour ~$1.92
- 1 egg (2 and 1 tbsp of water if not using gallon bags) ~$4.12 ($0.34/ea)
- Vegetable oil ~$5.24 ($0.10/fl oz)
- 2 gallon bags ~$2.34 ($0.06/ea)
Grand total: ~$24.42
Recipe total: ~$8.00
*All prices were estimations based on Walmart.com
Note: the gallon bags aren’t necessary; it just makes everything a lot faster and cleaner.
Karaage Chicken
Conventional Instructions (Fryer)
- Cut your chicken into bite size pieces, placing them in a gallon bag.
- Add garlic, ginger, and soy sauce to the bag (making sure each piece of chicken is thoroughly coated). Let marinate in the fridge for at least thirty minutes or overnight.
3. Preheat oil over medium high heat. While waiting for oil to warm, crack an egg into the bag of marinated chicken, shaking the bag until evenly coated.
4. In a second gallon bag, add cornstarch (or flour), then add several chicken pieces at a time into the second gallon bag.
5. After coating each piece in cornstarch, immediately place chicken in the hot oil. Cook for roughly two minutes on each side (or until golden brown). Repeat with the rest of the chicken.
6. Serve cooked chicken with rice and enjoy.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Prepare chicken the same as above (1–4).
2. Set your Air fryer to 400 F, and spray the tray with oil.
3. Air fry for 10–12 minutes, flipping and shaking chicken half way through.
Sauce is optional, but a common choice is teriyaki. My family uses tonkatsu sauce, but I haven’t found any near Buena Vista, so teriyaki or any other semi-sweet and savory sauce would be great. Some people use barbecue sauce, which seems like a disgrace to my ancestors. But if you like it, then I won’t judge.
If you have leftovers, you can freeze them in a bag and reheat them in the oven (or air fryer) at 400 F for 10–14 minutes.
College Cuisine Weekly: Karaage Chicken was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
