Shio Koji Karaage Bento 塩麹唐揚げ弁当

Of all the different versions of karaage I’ve made so far, I love the one marinated in Shio Koji.  My kids love it when they see these golden crispy chicken in their bento box.  These karaage taste wonderful even at the room temperature.  Pack a few more dishes in the bento box to make a healthy balanced lunch for yourself or your family!

On previous day, dinner was: Shio Koji Karaage.
Yep… the best karaage everrrrr!

Lunch Next Day:

• Karaage Bento
• Fruits

In the bento box, I also packed:

• Quick & Easy Tamagoyaki
• Leftover Spinach Gomaae from previous dinner

I often get questioned from readers: “Do deep fried foods taste good at room temperature?”  As I grew up eating bento and they were always served at room temperature, I am used to the taste.  When you are in Japan, you will notice that most bentos are served at room temperature, even when they include foods that are typically served warm or hot in restaurants or at home.
There are a few tricks to make room temperature food more tasty and appealing.  Food at room temperature tastes better when the food has more flavor.  Use extra seasoning for bento portion or make the sauce more concentrated.  For me, I enjoy eating food out of a colorful, pretty and nutritious bento box.  One of the events I look forward to the most when I take Shinkansen (a bullet train), is to browse all the bento shops and pick what I want to enjoy on the train ride.  Sometimes visually appealing bentos make you even forget that you are eating room temperature food.  

Shio Koji Karaage Bento

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

15 mins

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: 1 Bento

Ingredients

• Steamed rice
• Shio Koji Karaage
• Grape tomatoes
• Quick & Easy Tamagoyaki
• Spinach Gomaae
• Furikake (rice seasonings)

Instructions

1. Pack steamed rice in ½ of bento box and let it cool.
2. Reheat Shio Koji Karaage in the oven toaster till crispy outside and heated through inside.
3. Meanwhile, make Quick & Easy Tamagoyaki and let it cool.
4. When Karaage and Tamagoyaki cools down, pack them in bento box along with grape tomatoes and Spinach Gomaae.
5. Sprinkle furikake on top of rice.
6. Cool down completely before closing the bento box.

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.