Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken With Fried Basil Food

TAIWANESE POPCORN CHICKEN

Steps:

• In a bowl, marinate the chicken in the garlic, soy sauce, five spice, garlic powder, white pepper, and salt for 30 minutes. If you are air frying or baking, add a 1/2 tablespoon oil to the marinade.
• Lightly pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Place the cornstarch and potato starch in a bowl and, working in batches, toss and coat several pieces of chicken, making sure they are well coated. Alternatively, put the cornstarch and potato starch in a bag or container, add the chicken, and shake to coat. The chicken should be well coated and look fairly dry.

THE BEST POPCORN CHICKEN WITH SWEET BASIL (POPULAR TAIWANESE STR

Steps:

• Combine all the ingredients, except the chicken, in a dish or bowl. Mix wel.
• Cut Chicken into bite size pieces.
• Combine the mixture and the chicken together.
• Marinade overnight. (this can keep in the fridge for a few days).
• TO Fry: Heat oil to 390 degrees (anywhere from 375-390 should be fine).
• Thoroughly, coat the chicken with Potato Starch.
• Deep fry in small batches until medium golden brown. (about 1.5 mins ).
• Toss with Fresh Basil. You could also add the fresh basil into the oil, with the chicken, for the last 3 secs of frying, but the basil will lose some of its flavor. Be careful of the hot oil splattering when you add in basil.
• Finally, you can sprinkle some extra pepper, salt, and 5 spice onto the chicken if you'd like.
• Enjoy!

TAIWANESE POPCORN CHICKEN WITH FRIED BASIL

Steps:

• In a large bowl, season chicken thighs with soy sauce, sugar, five-spice powder, white pepper and 2 teaspoons salt. Set aside to marinate about 1 hour at room temperature, or refrigerate it overnight.
• When ready to cook, fit a medium pot with a cooking thermometer and heat vegetable oil over medium to 350 degrees. Coarsely grind the peppercorns in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and mix with the remaining 2 teaspoons kosher salt. Set aside.
• Wet your hands and toss marinated chicken with tapioca flour and about 1 tablespoon water until the tapioca flour looks like small beads and clings to the chicken. (Adding a little moisture to your chicken helps the tapioca flour form small beads that will also stick to the chicken and give it a very crunchy crust.)
• Working in batches, add the battered chicken to the hot oil and fry until golden brown and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon or spider, transfer fried chicken to a paper towel-lined plate and season each batch with peppercorn mixture.
• Fry basil leaves until translucent and crisp, 1 to 2 minutes, then scatter over the fried chicken. Serve with leftover peppercorn mixture for sprinkling to taste.