My adventure in learning to make yummy Japanese food bento boxes take me to recipe #6, Chicken Kara-age Bento, in Makiko Itoh’s Just Bento cook book. Who doesn’t love fried chicken! The green onion sauce she puts on this kara-age is just delicious and I didn’t need to have any tonkatsu sauce to dip my chicken in. Chicken recipes are are a dime a dozen, but I have always loved this Japanese fried chicken meal. Now due to Itoh’s book I know how to make it fresh from scratch! My husband jumped for joy when I put this bento box in front of him.
Chicken Kara-age pg. 35
My changes:
1. Brown Rice instead of white rice
2. I had a tone of kale in the fridge so I opted for kale with sesame sauce instead of spinach.
3. I poached my sweet peppers in dashi stock in the microwave to cut down on cleaning pots!
4. I used arrowroot instead of cornstarch to batter my chicken thigh pieces.
Tip: Organic chicken thighs from Whole Foods and Costco are really good prices. Buying boneless without the skin cuts down the fat easy to buy.
