Chicken Tempura (Toriten)

Step 1

Gather all the ingredients.

Step 2

Pound the chicken breast with a meat tenderizer. If you don’t own one, you can use the back of the knife. This helps to yield thinner and flatter piece of meat, so the meat cooks faster and more evenly (no more overcooking!).

Step 3

Cut the meat into roughly ¾" (2 cm)-wide and 3" (7.5 cm)-long strips.

Step 4

Grate 1 knob ginger and 1 garlic clove.

Step 5

Season the chicken with freshly ground black pepper, ¼ tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp sake, and 2 tsp soy sauce.

Step 6

Add the grated ginger and garlic and mix well with hands (rub the chicken with seasonings).

Step 7

Set a medium bowl over a large bowl with ice water in it. Add 1 egg and whisk well.

Step 8

With a fine-mesh sieve, sift the ⅓ cup (45 g) cake flour and ⅓ cup (55 g) potato or corn starch into the bowl with the egg.

Step 9

Gradually add ⅓ cup (75 ml) water and mix all together until just enough to combine (don’t over mix).

Step 10

Add the chicken pieces and coat well with the batter.

Step 11

Heat the 3-4 cups (700-950 ml) oil to 350 ºF (180 ºC) in a deep fryer (or in a medium-size pot). Add in only 2-3 pieces of battered chicken at one time. To prevent the temperature of the oil from decreasing, do not add too many cold chicken pieces at once. Deep fry each batch until crispy on the outside, about 4 minutes total, 2 minutes each side. Then repeat with another 2-3 pieces, until all pieces are cooked. Pick up tempura crumbs in the oil to keep your oil clean.

Step 12

Serve the Chicken Tempura with shredded cabbage (I use this cabbage slicer which yields thinly shredded cabbage) and ponzu with karashi mustard on the side.