Japanese Fried Chicken "Kara-age"

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Japanese kara-age is a popular menu item for everyone from children to adults,
and you can eat it in a variety of places, including home cooking, bento boxes, restaurants, and local gourmet food.

Kara-Age 

There is a similar dish to kara-age called "tatsuta-age", but
tatsuta-age is seasoned with mirin and soy sauce, then coated with potato starch and deep fried,
whereas kara-age is seasoned with nothing and then coated with flour and deep fried.

The method of deep frying food without coating it in batter, like karaage,
was widely eaten during the Edo period when cooking oil became widely available.

 

Deep fried flounder

The Edo-period cookbook "Nanban Ryōri Sho" (Western-style cookbook) says
"For any kind of fish, cut it down the middle, coat it in wheat flour,
deep fry it, and sprinkle it with clove powder and garlic before eating
."

"Nanban Ryōri Sho" (Western-style cookbook)
https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100306940/1?ln=ja
 
As you can see from this book, karaage was already a fully-fledged dish with a complete recipe in the Edo period.

Of all the different types of karaage, the most popular is chicken karaage.
It is said that chicken karaage was first added to the menu of the Tokyo restaurant 'Mikasa' in around 1932.
At the time, the restaurant was suffering from a slump in business and was running at a loss.
So, the head chef came up with the idea of 'fried young chicken' as a desperate measure.

Tatsuta-age

Later, after World War II, the government's policies led to the establishment of many poultry farms across Japan,
and fried chicken became a widely popular dish.



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