Featured Comment:
“Great recipe. Made this again tonight. Always a hit! Using chicken thighs is the key. I only had rice flour tonight but was just a crispy. There was nothing left after 24 hours. 😉”
– Garry (from Facebook)
What is Tatsuta Age?
Tatsuta-age (竜田揚げ) is a dish made from chicken, marinated with a soy sauce-based marinade, coated with potato starch, and fried in oil. It is a type of Japanese fried chicken also known as “karaage“.
It is said that the name comes from the reddish color of the soy sauce when fried and the white starch floating in some places, which resembles the Tatsuta River with its flowing autumn leaves.
Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Boneless Chicken Thigh: Skin-on chicken thigh yields the juiciest and crispy results. While chicken wings can work in a pinch, I really don’t recommend using breast meat, as the crispy coating tends to separate from its smooth surface.
- Soy Sauce: If you’re looking for the perfect balance of flavor and quality, I’ve put together a detailed soy sauce guide on our blog to help you choose the best option for your pantry.
- Sake: It makes the meat more tender while also adding a subtle depth of flavor. If you don’t have sake on hand, dry white wine or sherry can work, but each will add its own different touch to the dish.
- Black Pepper: White pepper is a great alternative.
- Grated Garlic & Ginger: Fresh is the way to go, but don’t let the prep time hold you back from trying this dish! High-quality, ready-made garlic and ginger pastes are great time savers.
- Potato Starch: If you’re short on time, you can use cornstarch or tapioca starch, but each will give you a slightly different crunch.
- Cooking Oil: Go for a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Canola, sunflower, or peanut oil are all great options for shallow frying.
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Tatsuta Age at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
Cut your chicken thigh into bitesize pieces. Try to keep them uniform as this will ensure even cooking.
Place the chicken in a container and add soy sauce, sake, black pepper, grated garlic, and ginger. Mix them all together until the chicken is evenly coated. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Once the chicken has finished marinating, preheat your oil to 160°C (320°F). Since this recipe is shallow fried, use a pan wide enough to place all your chicken in one layer. The oil should be about 3cm high (approx just over 1 inch).
Add potato starch to a container. Take the chicken and shake off the excess marinade before rolling it in the starch. Be generous and make sure the chicken is fully coated all over.
Once the oil is hot enough, place the chicken pieces in and fry for 3 minutes on each side.
Increase the heat to 190°C (374°F) and fry for 1 minute on each side at the higher temperature.
Transfer the tatsuta-age to a wire rack to allow the excess oil to drain off.
Serve up your perfectly crispy Tatsuta-age with a squeeze of lemon juice, and enjoy!
How to Store
In the unlikely event that there are leftovers, you can store tatsuta age in the refrigerator and eat within 1-2 days.
If you microwave it, it will lose some crispiness. I usually microwave it to warm up the middle and then put it under the grill to crisp the outside up again. But in all honestly, this tatsuta age still tastes great cold. If freezing, you can keep it for about one month.
Storage summary
Room temperature – Not recommended.
Refrigerated – 1-2 days.
Frozen – Up to a month.
I hope you enjoy this Tatsuta Age recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Japanese Fried Recipes
Chicken Tatsuta Age (Shallow-fried)
Equipment
- Stainless steel cooking tray with wire rack
Ingredients
- 300 g boneless chicken thigh skin-on
- 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 1 tbsp sake
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp grated garlic or garlic paste
- 1 tsp grated ginger root or ginger paste
- 5 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) or corn starch
- cooking oil for shallow frying
- lemon wedges optional
Instructions
- Cut 300 g boneless chicken thigh into bite size pieces. (40-50g, 1.4-1.7 oz per piece)
- In a zip lock bag or tupperware, add 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 1 tbsp sake, ¼ tsp ground black pepper, 2 tsp grated garlic and 1 tsp grated ginger root together with the chicken pieces and marinate for 30 mins in the refrigerator.Once marinated, start preheating a pan of oil to 160 °C °C (320 °F). It should be about 3cm deep (just over 1 inch).
- Sprinkle about 5 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) onto a plate. Shake the excess marinade off each chicken piece before rolling it in the starch.
- Once the oil is hot, place the chicken pieces in the pan and shallow fry at 160 °C (320 °F) for 3 minutes on each side.
- Turn up the heat to 190 °C (374 °F) and fry for 1 minute on each side.
- Transfer the chicken to a wire rack or absorbent kitchen towels to allow the excess oil to drip off.
- Serve and enjoy.
Lovely recipe. What can I use instead of Sake?
Thank you! You can either use white wine, dry sherry, or kombu dashi! You can omit it if you prefer too!