Taiwanese popcorn chicken with fried Thai basil
It's an ubiquitous street food of bite-sized pieces of chicken flavored with Asian spices and seasonings, coated in starch and deep fried until a crispy crust forms on the surface.
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
- 500 grams chicken fillets 1.1 pounds
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder divided
- 1 ½ tablespoons salt divided
- ½ teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns toasted and ground (measure after grinding), divided
- ½ teaspoon ground white pepper divided
- 1 egg white
- 6 tablespoons potato starch divided
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- cooking oil
- 1 generous handful Thai basil leaves
To garnish
- Chinese five-spice powder
- rock salt
- toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns
Instructions
- Wipe the chicken fillets dry with paper towels and cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the chicken in a bowl. Add the oyster sauce, rice wine, half of the five-spice powder, half of the salt, half of the Sichuan peppercorns and half of the ground white pepper. Mix well.
- Add the egg white and two tablespoons potato starch, and mix.
- Cover the bowl and leave the chicken to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- In a wok or frying pan, heat enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least three inches.
- In a small bowl, stir together the remaining five-spice powder, salt, Sichuan peppercorns, white pepper and baking powder.
- Take the chicken out of the fridge and toss with the remaining potato starch. Shake off the excess.
- Over medium heat (about 300F), fry the chicken for three to four minutes, or just until a crust pale forms on the surface.
- Scoop out the chicken, dump into a strainer (or spread on a rack) and allow to rest for a couple of minutes.
- Turn up the heat to high (350F) and fry the chicken a second time for about a minute.
- Add the Thai basil leaves to the chicken and continue frying for a minute or until the Thai basil leaves start to turn crisp.
- Scoop out the chicken and Thai basil and dump into a clean bowl.
- Sprinkle in a bit of five-spice powder, a few pinches of rock salt and Sichuan peppercorns over the chicken and Thai basil, and toss a few times.
- Transfer the Taiwanese popcorn chicken to a plate and serve at once.
