We've got another episode of

"Bento-making for Beginners" here on BENTO EXPO,

and today we're making "kara-age," or Japanese fried chicken.

A motion like this...

- For kara-age?
- Yup!

I'll be showing you all of my tricks for making easy and "oishii" kara-age.

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 8-10)

Let's start with a look at some of the delightful bentos

submitted through the BENTO EXPO website.

First, an international bento from a Canadian bento maker

with roots in Central America.

I'm a huge fan of carrying boxed lunches everywhere.

Very excited to show you,

so here we go!

Hector has Honduran roots

and loves packing his bento with foods from around the world.

For his first dish, he uses Japanese soba noodles.

He stir-fries them with lots of garlic,

and mixes them with garlic mayo to make an original dish.

I love garlic here, so no vampires are coming in our house.

Well, that'll chase them away! So what's next?

This is Malaysian chili paste.

Hector uses this home-made chili paste to make an omelet.

I really like it spicy.

He stuffs it with a slab of cheese,

and I bet this is a great combo!

Fantastic. The cheese is nice and melty.

Looks good!

Next, Hector is off to the Middle East,

and he blends chickpeas with fried onions to make his version of hummus.

He packs it with lemon slices,

and he's also made a mixed rice dish with crabstick and "nori,"

as well as red beans and lentils.

It's a bento packed with international flavors

and he's going to share it with his mom today.

- Good, eh?
- Delicious.

We love bento!

Next, from a Ghanaian family living in Japan,

it's a bento that beats the heat.

Hi, guys. Today we are going to cook for you

a Ghana number-one Jollof rice, and I know that you will love it, right?

Yes, you'll love it!

Let's go!

Pop came to Japan 30 years ago as an exchange student.

Now he broadcasts to Ghana through social media.

Tokyo is so hot. It's so hot.

His solution to beat the heat is a bento box full of Jollof rice.

It's a spicy tomato-flavored rice,

so they start by adding lots of chili powder

to a base of tomato paste and onions.

Aaaand, guess what this is.

A blend of 10 tomatoes.

Then...

This is goat meat.

A secret ingredient!

Goat meat cooked in salted water is the secret ingredient

to add richness to the broth for the rice.

Add rice and cook it for about 40 minutes and...

Wow, smells good.

The Jollof rice is ready!

How is it, Phobe?

Hot!

It looks like it, but I bet it's delicious!

Mackerel gets deep-fried to go with the rice,

which is a popular combination.

Phobe makes Ghanaian-style banana fritters,

and chili powder and garlic are added to the batter for a flavorful kick.

They look nice and puffy!

These go onto the Jollof rice along with a colorful assortment of peppers.

I added bell peppers shaped like stars and hearts.

Pop's sister joins for a summer picnic.

Obento!

Ghana Jollof is great!

Spicy and flavorful!

We love bento!

Today we have another episode of "Bento-making for Beginners,"

and I'm joined by Arisa Adams!

Hi everyone, it's your bento beginner.

And I'm here today to make another easy and "oishii" bento!

And we're going to be making a classic bento staple.

It's a fried chicken called...

- Kara-age!
- Exactly!

I love kara-age. I mean, who doesn't, really?

It's so crispy and juicy and light.

So I'm so excited to make it.

Well, it's not that difficult,

but we just need to get our hands warmed up with a motion like this.

- For kara-age?
- Yup.

Really?

Chicken kara-age is a comfort food staple in Japan,

and it's my favorite dish.

The bite-sized pieces of soy sauce marinated chicken

are coated and fried until they're potato chip crisp

on the outside and juicy in the center.

It also tastes great at room temperature,

which makes it the perfect bento item.

Today I'm going to show you all of my secrets to make great kara-age.

First, let's cut a boneless chicken leg into bite-sized pieces.

I like using leg meat for kara-age

because it stays moist and tender even after it's cooled down.

Be sure to cut the chicken evenly by weight and not by size.

- The key is to have the skin on it.
- Okay.

And that skin is going to get nice and crispy

while it's protecting the meat and keeping it from getting dried out.

And it'll stay crispy in your bento.

Crispy skin. That's exactly what I want.

I made sure to leave the skin on each piece of chicken.

- They're about the same weight, right?
- Yeah, it feels about the same.

- Perfect. Let's get these marinated.
- Yes, let's do it!

Ginger is an indispensable ingredient in the marinade,

and we start by grating some up.

What's so special about ginger?

So, it's going to give it a ton of flavor.

You've got that fragrance of the ginger.

Ginger also contains a proteolytic enzyme called zingibain

which is going to help break down the proteins in the chicken

and make it much more tender.

- Really?
- Yup!

That's super cool!

It smells so amazing.

To finish our classic kara-age marinade,

we add soy sauce and umami-rich sake to the ginger and stir it together.

Then we pour this over the chicken.

Gently mix it together with your hand,

being careful not to separate the skin from the meat.

Yeah, so as I'm mixing it,

I can tell that if I just put a little bit of pressure on it,

the skin's going to come right off.

It wants to slide off.

Then you want to let this marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes,

or better yet, overnight.

This ensures the chicken is seasoned to the core.

Look at that color! It's a lot more browned.

Yup. And we're ready to dust this and shape it into little kara-age balls.

So, I'm just going to go ahead and grab a piece of chicken here.

And you can see this one's kind of an irregular shape.

But we just want to make sure that the skin is on the outside.

And then we're just going to kind of round it up into a little ball here.

So, this is potato starch.

And this is what gives it the nice crispy coating on the outside,

kind of like a potato chip.

And then we're just going to use a little finger motion.

- Oh! All right, now it comes into place. Okay.
- Exactly.

So that motion is really sort of the key to make that round shape.

Yup. And as you can see...

That's a perfect little ball.

This lets you create uniform pieces of kara-age

from chicken that's an uneven thickness.

Just round it up into a ball while coating it with starch.

So you see how you're getting like little flanges of chicken out there?

If you round up your fingers a little bit more like this,

you can turn it into a nice ball.

- So, sort of get your fingers to really dig in.
- Yeah, kind of like a claw.

You want to, yeah, dig in underneath.

And look at that! They all match!

Yay! They're little siblings.

Once the kara-age balls are ready, let's deep-fry them in preheated oil.

Oh, it bubbles immediately!

Wow, you can see it really puff up.

Yeah, the moisture in the coating is going to evaporate,

and that sort of creates the puffy crust on the outside.

Gotcha!

Wait until the coating solidifies, and then flip the kara-age over.

All right, just giving it a little turn.

And, wow, it's already becoming so much firmer.

Wow, look at how it's browning already.

Wow, I can't believe that I'm actually making kara-age. This is so exciting.

Once they're cooked through, drain them on paper towels.

Wow, that color is so beautiful!

Yeah. And you know how we got that skin on the outside?

That's crisped up along with the potato starch,

and it's going to keep our kara-age nice and crispy in the bento.

And listen to this!

- Oh my gosh! And that looks
- Nice and crispy.

so juicy!

I made it all by myself!

Itadakimasu!

Oh, that's so tender.

And the chicken is so meaty, but then the skin is nice and crispy as well.

And you can taste the soy sauce,

and the ginger has a really nice kick to it, too.

It's pretty restaurant-quality if you ask me.

Go impress your friends.

Yes, I will.

I packed the kara-age with fried "shishito" peppers,

"tamagoyaki" and some veggies for a pop of color.

I also like to pack some lemon into my kara-age bento

to offset the richness of the chicken.

Now it's Arisa's turn.

Just like that.

It sort of reminds me of barbecue.

Ta-dah! What do you think? Super fun, right?

And then I have some little rice balls right here.

Ta-dah!

Oh, wow, it's so cool.

Yeah, that's perfect for a picnic.

Yeah, I wanted to make something that I could share with friends and family

and it wouldn't be too much of a mess.

You did a great job. Kara-age is one of my favorite foods.

Mine, too. And it was easy...

and oishii!

Bento Topics.

Today from Niigata, a major port city on the Sea of Japan.

The Niigata Festival is a three-day event

held to pray for the prosperity of the port and its fisheries.

It dates back over three centuries.

The highlight is a parade along the Shinano River,

which flows into the Sea of Japan.

A parade of boats carries a portable shrine.

The rich fishing grounds provide Niigata with fish year-round.

What makes them so tasty?

The swift current makes the meat firm.

It's no surprise that today's specialty bento features seafood.

This group will be taking part in the traditional dance parade.

They've ordered some bento to fill up beforehand.

What's this?

Not what I expected!

It's covered with tamagoyaki.

Where's the seafood?

Here's the eel.

There's some squid, too.

Four kinds of seafood are hidden underneath.

It's a mixed sushi bento!

The bento was devised by the president of a bento company 20 years ago.

I wanted a surprise element. So I hid the fish underneath.

The seasonings are a surprise, too.

Sweetly simmered "kanpyo" is mixed into the sushi rice

for added flavor and texture.

This is then covered with a marbled sheet.

It's "tororo konbu," shaved kelp softened in vinegar and dried.

Rich in umami, it brings out the flavor of the seafood.

And finally, the seafood.

The plump grilled eel is glazed with a sweet and savory sauce.

The steamed shrimp and pickled "kohada"

are dipped in wasabi soy sauce.

This squid is a specialty of Sado Island,

which is part of Niigata Prefecture.

It's sun-dried overnight to concentrate the umami flavor.

The bento offers a range of tastes, from sweet to sour.

Here's the tamagoyaki that covers the seafood.

It's shaped like gold coins from the Edo period as a sign of good fortune.

Sweet and savory minced shrimp top off the bento.

Open it up, and treasure awaits beneath.

These dancers dig in right before the parade.

It's kohada!

Shrimp.

- Dried squid.
- It's full of Niigata specialties.

Yum!

I'm ready to go!

A procession of dancers parades through the streets.

The parade was put on hold for several years due to the pandemic.

But this year, it's back, and everyone is dancing along.

They're going to work up an appetite!

We love bento!

- It's bento time!
- Yes!

And I'm so happy that I'm able to make

one of my favorite foods, kara-age, now.

Yeah, you've mastered another bento staple.

Absolutely!

As always, we're looking forward to seeing your bentos on our website,

so visit the link below and send them in.

I hope this episode of "Bento-making for Beginners" has been helpful.

And we'll see you again here soon on BENTO EXPO.

- Shall we eat?
- Yes, let's dig in!

Itadakimasu!