Crispy White Meat Karaage Chicken

The first time I had karaage chicken, it was at a local Japanese restaurant and it reminded me a lot of Chinese brandy fried chicken only better because they were bite sized and delicately crispy. Karaage chicken is traditionally made with chicken thigh meat, but I prefer chicken breasts because of texture. Yes, this is a fried chicken recipe, I'm all about balance ;P, I'd typically have this with steamed broccoli or a salad. I knew this recipe was a big hit when my god-sister's son kept asking for it after I made this for my son's birthday party!

I simplified the recipe by using ground ginger and garlic powder in lieu of fresh. This saves a ton of time and makes this recipe a little more pantry staple friendly. You can also marinate the chicken in bulk and portion out in ziplock bags and freeze until ready to use!

Marinate in bulk for easy weeknight meals!

Crispy White Meat Karaage Chicken
Adapted from Food.com
Makes 4 servings (4 oz. per serving)
Nutritional Value per serving- Calories: 321 Fat: 17g Protein: 21g Sodium: 766mg Sugar: 1g Carbs: 22g

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts cut into bite size
1/8 Tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 Tsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp. Sake (Japanese Rice Wine)
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/8 Tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 Cup Potato Starch
Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Directions:
To make marinade, combine ground ginger, garlic powder, soy sauce and sake in a large bowl. Whisk until well blended. Add chicken to the marinade and mix so that the chicken is well coated. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

In a heavy bottom skillet or a wok, heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees F**. While the oil is heating, dust the chicken with potato starch.*** When oil is ready, fry the chicken in the oil until golden. For extra crispiness, lift the chicken from the oil with a steel strainer and return to hot oil.

**If you don't have a thermometer, you can use an un-lacquered wooden/bamboo chopstick to test if your oil is hot enough. After heating up your oil for a few minutes, touch the bottom of the pan with the chopstick, if little bubbles start rolling up, the oil is ready to fry!

***Alternatively you can dust the chicken with corn starch, I've read that potato starch is what gives the karaage chicken it's light crispiness; corn starch would yield a more dense crunch.

Foodspiration:

Karaage Chicken Sliders!

With Taylor Farm's Asian Chopped Coleslaw.

Baked Apples with Oat Crumbles

I love me some apple cobbler, but cobblers generally have a ton of sugar and with each recipe I make more cobbler than I can resist! When I saw this recipe on skinnytaste.com I was so excited! I followed the recipe to a "t" the first time and it was good, the only downfall was that any crumbles that didn't stay on the apple ended up being a burnt mess on my baking sheet (the wasted crumbles was just such a tragedy!) ! -_-. By slicing the apples and placing them in a ramekin I was able to maximize the crumbles and cut the baking time by a little. This is budget friendly and can be easily scaled up for larger families. And also because this dessert is so small and isn't extremely temperature sensitive, you can bake them in your toaster oven! HUZZAH! 

In the future, I'm going to make the crumble mixture sans butter in bulk and store in an airtight container and add just mix 1 Tbsp of butter per 4 Tbsp of crumble mixture. I've also substituted the butter with coconut oil the second time around and it was just as delicious!

Baked Apples with Oat Crumbles
Adapted from Skinnytaste
Makes 2 servings
Nutritional Value per serving - Calories:152 Fiber:3g Protein: 1g Sodium: 0mg Sugar: 13g Carbs: 20g

1 large apple

1 Tbsp butter, melted 

1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp quick oats
pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, slice apples (I used an apple slicer and then sliced those slices in halves). Arrange apple slices into a ramekin.

In a small bowl combine butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon. Spoon on top of the sliced apples and bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until apples are tender.

Here's a picture of the Apple Slicer, the price is a little steep but it's super convenient to slice apples for baking or even just to slice apples in seconds for a healthy snack!

OXO Grips Apple Slicer/Corer (photo courtesy of Amazon.com)