Tebasaki: Nagoya's Fried Chicken Wings, and the Two Ways to Make Them

If you order fried chicken wings in Japan, you're eating a Nagoya dish.

Tebasaki as people know it now started at Furaibo in Nagoya in 1963, and the city has been the center of it ever since. It's one of those regional foods that took over the whole country without ever really leaving home.

The Two Schools

There are two styles, and the argument between them is mostly about flour.

Furaibo style is the original. The wings go into the oil bare — su-age, fried with no coating at all — then get a sweeter glaze, white pepper, and toasted sesame. Furaibo also trims the wing down to the middle joint only.

Yamachan style came later, in the 1980s. Those wings get dusted in potato starch before frying, keep the tip on, take a drier and less sweet glaze, and then get buried in a pepper blend the shop won't disclose. No sesame. Considerably more heat.

Both double fry. That part isn't up for debate.

Why Frying Twice Matters

The first fry cooks the chicken and drives moisture out of the skin. The wings come out, rest, and the heat inside pushes more moisture to the surface.

The second fry, hotter, takes that off and sets the skin. It's the same principle behind double-fried potatoes, and it's why a properly fried wing stays crisp under a wet glaze instead of going soft in a minute.

How We Make Ours

We follow the older school. No flour, no batter, no starch, just the wing, fried twice.

That's the part people notice. Without a coating there's nothing between you and the skin, so the crunch is the chicken's own skin rendered hard rather than a crust sitting on top of it. Then it gets a sweet and salty glaze that goes on while they're hot.

It's a different texture from karaage, which we also make. Karaage is a crust. This is skin.

One of Our Quieter Dishes

Tebasaki is not one of our better-known menu items. It sits between things people already come here for, and it gets ordered less than it should.

If you've worked through the yakitori and the karaage and want the thing regulars order that nobody talks about, this is it.

Try It at Juraku

Tebasaki is on the menu at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Order extra napkins.

See the rest of the menu.