Chicken Karaage

I didn't take a picture of tonight's disaster. Ugh.

Chicken Karaage is Japanese style fried chicken -- it's sort of sweet and has a soy sauce base. I found a recipe on justJENN's blog and tried it out. Made the marinade last night, put the chicken in the fridge, and fried it up when I got home.

The one thing I have NEVER been able to make is fried chicken. I can bake a "fried" chicken okay, but actually fry it in oil? Forget it. And of course, one of Damon's favorites is...what else? Fried damn chicken. -___-

The marinade was fine (1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 10 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, garlic, and pepper). It even smelled good (since when do marinades smell good?)

The problem is always the frying. I used drumsticks, heated up the oil, and popped those suckers in. Within two minutes they were verging on dark brown to black. The first two I left in there longer than I should have and they were...uh...crispy. The next two I pulled out as soon as they were a nice golden brown color, but when I cut them open they were RAW like sushi. DisGUSTING.

I microwaved them all for another 15 minutes to "save" dinner. That was pure crap. (But the parts that weren't burned were yummy).

I need to use smaller pieces of chicken so that I don't burn them. But how do other people make fried chicken without burning it?

Bobby Flay is doing a fried-chicken competition as we speak. I will watch and hopefully learn.