Trader Joe’s Chicken Karaage is a Japanese-inspired frozen dish of “crispy seasoned dark chicken meat with a sweet & savory dipping sauce.”
An 18.97-oz bag was $6.49.
The bag includes instructions to cook the chicken either in the conventional oven or air fryer. I went with the air fryer and the chicken turned out crispy with an oddly light but thick crust on it. The crust was fairly smooth for fried chicken but sported a finely granular texture. It was dry in a way that sucked the moisture from my mouth as I ate.
There was quite a bit of variance in size for the pieces–some were barely enough to chew on and some were almost a mouthful. The chicken inside was juicy but the irregular size and shape of it sometimes resulted in pieces with a lot of batter that filled in the nooks. The batter that filled the gaps was moist and spongy since it didn’t get any topside exposure.
Flavorwise, both the chicken and the batter were rather plain. Typically, chicken karaage is marinated in a soy sauce-based marinade. According to the ingredients, the chicken here was marinated in that fashion but the flavor got lost somewhere in the process.
The sauce was a flavored mayo that required thawing in a warm water bath. Despite the description on the bag, it wasn’t very sweet but offered an extra tomato-y tang on top of the savory creamy mayo base.
Taken altogether, Trader Joe’s Chicken Karaage was a miss for me. It just didn’t have much flavor and the dryness of the crust was offputting.
Nutritional Info – Trader Joe’s Chicken Karaage
Serving Size – 1/4 package – chicken + sauce (135g)
Calories – 340
Fat – 20g (Saturated Fat – 3g)
Sodium – 730mg
Carbs – 25g (Sugar – 3g)
Protein – 15g
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