I dredged half the strips in potato starch and half in cornstarch and then fried each batch in a Dutch oven filled with 4 cups of 325-degree vegetable oil. I marinated the chicken for 30 minutes before moving to a head-to-head starch test: potato (the traditional choice) versus corn (a common alternative). You don’t even have to temp the pieces once they’re golden and crispy, they’re done. Plus, thanks to the thighs’ abundant fat and collagen, there’s no risk that the meat will dry out during frying. Because the pieces are small, you need only a few cups of oil to submerge them, and the frying time is fast. To make it, you debone bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs cut the meat into small chunks marinate them in a soy-and-sake-based mixture that’s seasoned with garlic, ginger, and sometimes salt or sugar dredge them in potato starch and fry them until they’re brown and crispy. Happily for me, a Japanese style of fried chicken called karaage not only traditionally uses chicken thighs but also happens to be very easy to prepare.

And when you bite through that crust, you’re met with juicy, rich dark meat. The crunch is big because thighs are thin and tapered, so there’s a high ratio of crispy crust to chicken.

I’ve never met a bite of fried chicken that I didn’t like, but my favorite is the first bite of a fried chicken thigh.

Dredge chicken in cornstarch