Each piece of Chicken Wingettes Karaage is made from halved wingettes. It is a tiny lollipop chicken, which is perfect as finger food. Unlike my Karaage Chicken and Karaage Chicken Lollipops, I don’t marinate the chicken pieces before deep-frying. You eat the chicken with a garlicky soy-flavoured dipping sauce. Watch the video.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 10 chicken wingettes (note 1)
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 1½ tbsp corn flour/cornstarch
- 1½ tbsp flour
- Oil to deep-fry
- Cabbage cut into large bite-size pieces(optional)
-
Put all the Dipping Sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, mix well.
-
Bring it to a boil and cook for about 5 seconds, then remove from the heat.
-
Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl.
-
Take a wingette and start from the end that was attached to the drumette (note 3).
-
Make an incision between the two bones and separate the bones.
-
Starting from the incision, cut the wingette straight through between the two bones to the other end. You might have to find the gap between the two bones to separate the two halves.
-
Remove the flesh and tendons around the wing tip end of the halved wingettes and expose about 1cm/⅜” of the bone.
-
Repeat for the rest of the wingette. You should have 20 chicken pieces.
-
Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken pieces.
-
Mix flour and corn flour/corn starch and coat the chicken pieces thoroughly with the flour mixture.
-
Put oil in a deep frying pan or a pot to 2cm/¾” deep and heat it to 180°C/356°F.
-
Gently place the chicken pieces in the oil. You need to fry them in batches so that the oil is not overcrowded.
-
Fry for 1½ minutes. Turn them over and cook further 1-1½ minutes (note 4).
-
Transfer the chicken to a tray layered with a mesh tray, or a couple of sheets of kitchen paper.
-
Place cabbage pieces on the side of the serving plate.
-
Place Karaage chicken pieces leaning against the cabbage, pointing the bone end upwards.
-
Serve with a bowl of dipping sauce.
1. My wingettes weighted 416g/0.9lb in total. I couldn’t find a shop that sells just the wingette portion of chicken, so I bought a pack of chicken nibbles at a supermarket. The pack contained 10 wingettes and 10 drumettes. I used the drumettes in other dishes, such as Simmered Winter Melon with Chicken Drumettes and Simmered Chicken Drumettes in Sweet and Sour Sauce.
2. I used a Japanese brand broth paste called ‘shantan‘ (シャンタン). You can also use the Lee Kum Kee brand powder that you can buy from supermarket.
3. One end of the wingette is connected to the wing tip and the other end is connected to the drumette. The drumette side of the wingette bones are thicker and you can see two bones clearly (see the video).
4. Depending on the size of the chicken piece, the cooking time varies slightly. When the chicken is cooked through, you will feel its light weight when you pick it up, compared to the uncooked chicken.