Taiwanese Fried Chicken

I like making this because it is a quick marinade (only 30 minutes) and great for leftovers with rice.  Fried basil leaves is traditional, but I prefer not doing the extra work and not comfortable with the way it fries up.  If someone fried it for me, I'm sure I would eat it.

What makes this crispy is frying it twice!  This will make frying at home easier Deep Frying Tools / Helpful Hacks | Cooking with Aloha, Texas Style (cooking-with-aloha-texas-style.com)

Ingredients

  • 4 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch, bite size pieces
  • ½ C Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing wine) 
  • ¼ C shoyu
  • 4  t Chinese 5 spice powder
  • 2 t Sichuan Peppercorn ground (also called dried prickly ash in some Asian markets)
  • 2 t white pepper 
  • 2 cup potato starch
  • 4 t sea salt
  • Oil for frying

 

Instructions

  1. Marinate and batter the chicken:

In a mixing bowl, add the cut chicken thighs, Shaoxing cooking wine, shoyu, five spice powder, ground Sichuan peppercorn, and white pepper. Marinate 30 minutes.

  1. While the chicken is marinating, preheat cooking oil to 350°F or add about 2 to 3 inches of oil into a pot and preheat on medium heat the oil to 350°F. Adjust the heat to maintain the temperature as needed.  I use an infrared thermometer to monitor the heat temperature.
  2. Add the potato starch and salt to the chicken and mix well. It'll look like a dry batter with small clumps of sweet potato starch.
  3. For the first fry:

Keeping the oil at 350°F, carefully place each chicken pieces separately into the oil. Let the chicken pieces fry for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until the chicken pieces floats to the surface and feels kind of crispy. Remove the chicken pieces to a wire rack.

Fry the chicken in small batches. Overcrowding will lower the oil temperature too much and not fry the chicken properly. 

  1. For the second fry:

Increase the oil temperature to 400°F. Carefully add the Taiwanese fried chicken back into the oil and fry for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and completely crispy. 

Please note cornstarch does not brown the same as flour, where some bits may look a bit paler, and that is totally normal.

  1. Optional: To finish the Taiwanese fried chicken:

Mix together 1 teaspoon of salt with 1 teaspoon of white pepper.

Season the fried chicken pieces with the seasoning mix to your preference and toss to help evenly distribute.

  1. Serve:

Enjoy while hot! Reheats crispy in an air fryer for leftovers.