Salt & Pepper Taiwanese Fried Chicken

Name: Salt & Pepper Taiwanese Fried Chicken
Yield: 1 large bowl of fried chicken

May 11, 2020 · in Family Style

As a midwest boy, my love for fried chicken runs deep, with a heavy bias towards my favorite kind, Taiwanese salt and pepper fried chicken. This fried chicken is a night market staple in Taiwan, and what's unique about it is that is uses a sweet potato starch as batter and is double fried on low then high heat.

Yield

1 large bowl of fried chicken

Time

Marinate 1 hour overnight, Cook time 30 min

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken boneless skinless thighs

1 bag of sweet potato starch

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

2 tablespoons xiaoxing cooking wine, mirin or sake

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flour

1 egg white

Handful of fresh basil
2-3 cups of canola, vegetable oil or any oil with a high smoke point

Preparation

Prep chicken

Cut chicken thighs into halves for smaller pieces and thirds for large pieces so you have rough chunks. Place chicken in a large mixing bowl and mix in garlic, soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, flour, and egg white (sweet potato starch will be for coating later). Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight.

Marinating chicken — Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight.

Bread and fry chicken

Put sweet potato starch in a bowl. Then take your chicken out and with chopsticks or tongs, individually cover and bread each piece with sweet potato starch and set aside on a plate.

Once chicken all the chicken is breaded, set a large dutch oven or pot with 2-3 cups of oil and throw in a handful of basil. Turn the heat up to high to have temperature reach 350 degrees. You'll know the oil is ready when you start to see a light simmering of bubbles around the basil leaves. Take the basil out with a strainer and turn the heat to low-medium.

With the heat at low-medium, fry chicken in batches until lightly golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside on a tray with paper towels. Turn the heat up to high to get the oil to a hot temperature (but not smoking). For the final fry, place your chicken and basil back in the pot again to flash fry for about 30 seconds to minute until brown. Transfer to bowl with paper towels, Sprinkle salt and pepper. Serve fresh.