The best vegan karaage! This Japanese fried chicken is perfectly crispy on the outside while still juicy and flavourful on the inside– just like the real thing.
If you’ve ever had fried chicken before, you know that theres texture in the actual meat portion. Tender in some and a little ‘firmer’ on the edges. To mimic the same effect, I’m using a combination of tofu AND TVP. When battering, it’ll stick the two together and makes for a texturized fried chicken!
PrintThe Best Vegan Karaage Chicken
Description
The best vegan karaage! This Japanese fried chicken is perfectly crispy on the outside while still juicy and flavourful on the inside– just like the real thing.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 lbs cotton / traditional tofu (450g)*
- 1 oz soy chunks (30g)
- 1 garlic clove, minced (1 tsp // 4g)
- slice of minced ginger (2 tsp // 6g)
- 2–3 tbsp soy sauce, to taste (30-45ml)
- 2–3 tbsp sake, to taste (30-45ml)
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar (23g)
- 6–8 tbsp potato starch (60-80g)
Instructions
Tofu Preparation
- Day 1: Drain the tofu and then dry with a kitchen cloth. Gently press to remove any excess water. Cover and store in the freezer.
- Day 2: Remove the tofu from the freezer and place into the fridge to let it thaw completely. Then press the tofu, removing as much liquid as you can without breaking it apart. Place into container and freeze again.
- Day 3: Remove the tofu from the freezer. Cover with a damp paper towel and microwave for 3 minutes. Flip and microwave for another 1-2 minutes or until thawed. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out any excess liquid. Now it’s ready to be used!
For the karaage:
- Add garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sake and sugar together. This is the marinade.
- Tear off chunks of tofu and place into the marinade. Add soy curls and toss with the marinade. Let it marinate for 10 minutes. a
- Add potato starch to the container and then shake it up. Let it sit for a few minutes– the potato starch should start firming up while sticking the soy chunks to the pieces of tofu. Before frying, add another thin coat of potato starch.
- Over medium heat, fry the karaage or until crispy golden brown (2-3 minutes). Place on a wire rack to allow excess oil to drip off. Fry in small batches until complete.
- Serve with vegan Japanese mayonnaise and lemon juice, and enjoy!
Notes
- *Cotton / traditional tofu has the texture between soft fresh tofu and medium firm tofu. This kind of tofu yields the best meat-y texture while still keeping it juicy– however, if you can not find traditional tofu soft fresh or medium firm (or really, any firmness of tofu) can be used.
- Leftovers can be stores in the fridge for up to 3 days.
This recipe is amazing! So crunchy and flavourful. These are one of the recipes that seriously mimic the real dish, but cruelty free.
Wow ! Try these as it sounded so good but prepared to whatever it could finally taste (as trying new stuff comes with good but also not so good suprises) and … it’s absolutely delicious ! We gonna have these so often. They’re the easiest and so crispy and indulging !
So yummy & crispy! I skipped the soy chunks but it was really good with just the tofu!
I’ve been looking for a really good plant-based karaage recipe forever, and this is the one!! Very clever use of the frozen tofu method, and it really gets all the flavor and texture of karaage in each bite. I made a big batch to have some leftover lunch for my partner and I the next day (and a whole lot of snacking here and there lolol), and a big plus was they never got soggy, and the texture and flavor somehow get better each day?!
I made sure to save all the little chunks of tofu that fell off while coating (fried after all the bigger chunks since they don’t take as long to cook), so that I could use them for the Karaage Yakimeshi later in the week, which turned out great as well (more in depth review on that recipe)! I also like mine with a bit of spice, so I tossed mine with some togarashi once it had a chance to rest and drip off the excess oil. Definitely going to make this again and again! Thank you!!
A new favourite! The only difficult part is planning three days ahead. BUT, it is worth the wait. If you want to make it part of your staple meals, you could keep twice frozen tofu in the freezer. Everything else is super easy. So far I have made it without the soy chunks, but I will try with them someday.
I’m so grateful for this recipe! I loved chicken karaage and now I can enjoy it again after eight years of being vegan. I tried it out with both silken and firm tofu. The mix of textures was nice. It’s very important to get as much liquid out as possible before marinating! I mixed the potato starch with black pepper, powdered ginger and garlic for extra flavor. So good with some veganaise, Japanese chili pepper and lemon.
I was SO afraid of cooking tofu but as a 6 month old vegan, I knew I had to start so that I could get enough protein to support my weight training. This was my first tofu attempt and holy smokes, I’m SO glad I stumbled across this recipe. I didn’t have soy curls, I don’t even know where to get them, so I just used tofu and it was so good. Not only did it satisfy my “meat” craving but the crunch was super satisfying. One of the best parts is that you get the crunch without needing gluten so my whole family can enjoy it! This will definitely be on rotation in my kitchen and I’m excited to experiment with different marinades and also maybe air frying!
I’m so glad I found this recipe! It was delicious and made me really popular in my household. Will definitely become a staple around here. For sure the double freezing steps make it seem way more involved than it is, but it was super easy and I definitely recommend it to any ex-Karaage lover who still gets those cravings from time to time. Really hit the spot! Thank you, Lisa! I’m obsessed with ALL your recipes.
So easy to make and so delicious! I didn’t have potato starch so I crushed up some potato flakes and added some corn starch. think I didn’t squeeze my tofu enough but it was still really good. Thank you!
i made this today for my partner and i and we both agree that this is the best vegan chicken karaage we’ve had! the recipe is so easy to follow (i watched the tik tok version) and the flavor is amazing. the crunchy/crispy exterior is so so good! i was on facetime with my mom when i was making it and she even said it looked really yummy! thank you so much for creating this amazing recipe!! <3