Fried ── Fried dishes
Zangi
Hokkaido-style marinated fried chicken
Chicken marinated in a soy-based sauce and deep-fried, said to have originated in Kushiro, Hokkaido, around 1955 at a chicken restaurant in the Suehiro district. Marinating well before frying is cited as its key difference from plain karaage.
- Origin: Hokkaido Kushiro
- About 900 km northeast of Tokyo
What it's made of
Chicken marinated in a soy-based sweet-savory sauce is dusted in flour and fried. Compared to karaage, the seasoning runs deeper, so a firm soy flavor spreads from the first bite of crumb. Garlic and ginger's scent survives the frying, and the dish is said to hold its flavor even once it cools.
How it's made
Bite-size chicken thigh is steeped for one hour to half a day in a marinade of sake, soy sauce, pepper, ginger, and garlic. Drained and lightly dusted in flour, it's fried slowly in medium-hot oil until the surface turns crisp. Some dip it once more in the marinade after frying to layer the flavor further.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that around 1955, a chicken restaurant in Kushiro's Suehiro entertainment district cut a whole bird into pieces and deep-fried it, giving the dish its start. One story has the owner adding an 'n' to zāchī, the Chinese fried chicken it was named after, for luck, calling it 'zangi' — and marinating the meat well before frying, unlike plain karaage, is still cited today as the difference between the two.
Before you go
Dishes in the same style
- Agemaki Yuba no NimonoFresh yuba sheets are layered, rolled into a log, sliced into rounds, and deep-fried before a slow simmer in a light broth — a Nikko dish built on the region's rippled yuba-making craft, served at New Year's and celebrations.
- Aji FryFilleted horse mackerel breaded in panko and fried. Chiba prefecture holds some of the richest mackerel fishing grounds in Japan, and frying is thought to have taken root as a quick way to eat regional brands like the oily 'golden aji' fresh.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Hokkaido
- Asahikawa RamenSoy-sauce broth built on seafood and pork bones, topped with lard so it stays hot. A response to the region's severe winters.
- Asahikawa HorumenA local dish that crosses Asahikawa's two soul foods — soy-sauce ramen and grilled pork offal. Pork offal, cleaned and prepped to remove its odor, sits on a soy-based broth. It was devised in Asahikawa in the 2010s.
- Gatatan RamenAshibetsu's local dish gatatan, turned into ramen: a salt broth thickened with potato starch, loaded with vegetables, meat and seafood, and finished with a stream of beaten egg.
- Bibai no TorimeshiChicken and onion are cooked into rice with soy sauce, sugar, and sake — said to trace back to a Meiji-era landowner in Bibai's Nakamura district who had tenant farmers raise chickens, then served them to guests.
- Bibai YakitoriOne skewer carries the whole bird — offal, skin and all.
- Biratori WagyuJapanese Black raised in Biratori, Hidaka, founded on breeding cattle brought from Shimane in 1962 — finished slowly through harsh winters, said to give the meat a notably deep flavor.