Chicken Karaage w/ Soy Honey Glaze

This is a japanese bento staple.  Nuggets of moist juicy chicken with a crunchy crust exterior.  This is relatively simple to make, but a few key pointers should be followed.

The biggest key to making this well is in making sure to cut large chunks of chicken when you cut up the chicken thighs.  The minimum size should be 1 1/2" but I try to error on slightly bigger than that.  If you cut too small of a piece, the chicken will basically turn into a chicken cracker with a dry interior when fried.  You need large chunks of chicken so that when you bite into it, you get a substantial amount of moist juicy meat.

The second key is to make sure your oil is hot enough when you place in your chicken pieces and that you fry them long enough to get a hard outer crust.


ingredients:
Makes 8-10 nuggets, depending on the size of the thighs

1.  2 chicken THIGHS (NOT  BREASTS) cut into large 1 1/2 - 2" chunks
2.  1 tsp soy sauce
3.  1 tsp sake
4.  1 tsp sesame oil
5.  1/2 tsp sugar
6.  1 clove garlic grated
7.  2 tsp ginger grated

8.  1/4 of a beaten egg
9.  2 TBL corn starch
10.  Vegetable oil


recipe:
1.  Combine soy sauce, sake, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and sugar into a bowl and mix well.
2.  Add chicken pieces and toss to coat well.
3.  Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
4.  Add enough oil to a small pot or fryer so that it will cover the chicken pieces or just be under the height of the chicken.  Heat to 360 degrees on medium high heat.
5.  Take out chicken and add 1/4 of a beaten egg
6.  Add 2 TBL corn starch then mix well until all the chicken pieces have been coated in a paste.
7.  Add 1 chicken piece to the oil.  The chicken should bubble aggressively as soon as you drop it in.
note:
if the chicken piece does not bubble aggressively, your oil is too cold and you need to heat it longer.
8.  Drop all the chicken pieces into the oil and fry for 3 minutes without touching.
9.  Flip over the chicken pieces and make sure they aren't stuck together.  Break them apart if they are stuck.
10.  Fry for another 2 more minutes, then pick up one piece of chicken with chopsticks and touch the outside of the chicken to test the crust.  If its hard and crispy, take out all the chicken, if it's still a little soft, increase heat to highest and fry for another 1-2 minutes until crust is hard.
11.  Transfer chicken pieces to paper towel lined plate and pat off any excess oil
12.  Serve as is with lemon wedge on the side to squeeze on top, or with a sauce.


soy honey glaze:
This is something I DO NOT EYEBALL.  Honey especially, is very difficult to judge the volume of as your are squeezing it out of a bottle.  Chances are your assumption of what 1/4 cup of squeezed out honey will be grossly under an actual 1/4 cup of honey.  The other reason you should use measuring cups/spoons for this sauce is because I found it to be very sensitive.  An extra teaspoon of soy sauce requires a shit ton of honey to even out.  Please measure accurately.

ingredients:
1.  1/4 cup of honey (+ 1 TBL or more if needed)
2.  2 TBL soy sauce
3.  1 TBL white vinegar

recipe:
1.  Combine ingredients in small pan and heat over medium-high heat until reduced and thick and syrupy.  The sauce will thicken a lot as it cools so be aware of that.
note:
The sauce should taste too sweet initially, then the saltiness of the soy sauce should come in right after to round out that sweetness.  If the sauce does not taste too sweet initially or has an obvious initial saltiness, add more honey.  If you taste no saltiness, you need to add a few drops of soy sauce.  The saltiness should not be aggressive in anyway, but you should obviously be able to taste it.  
2.  Wait till sauce cools slightly then liberally pour over chicken karaage.  Shit is amazing.