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Taiwan, Asia

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken (Yan Su Ji)

Garlic-soy marinated chicken thigh in a craggy sweet potato starch crust, fried twice and tossed with crisp basil and pepper salt: Taiwan's night-market favourite.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time40 min
Marinating+ 30 min
DifficultyMedium
About servingsKeep raw chicken away from other foods and always cook it right through.

Method

  1. Trim off any large lumps of fat and cut the chicken into 3 cm pieces. In a bowl, add the grated garlic, light soy, rice wine, sugar, five-spice and white pepper and massage with your hands for at least 30 seconds so the marinade soaks in. Cover and refrigerate for . Wash your hands and the board straight after handling raw chicken.

    Add in this stepBoneless chicken thighs 300 gGarlic cloves 3Light soy sauce 2 tbspTaiwanese rice wine or Shaoxing wine 1 tbspSugar 1 tspFive-spice powder ½ tspGround white pepper (marinade) ½ tsp

  2. Mix the salt, white pepper and chilli powder in a small bowl to make the seasoning salt. Pick the basil leaves and pat them completely dry with kitchen paper; any water left on them makes hot oil spit violently.

    Add in this stepSalt ½ tspGround white pepper (seasoning) ½ tspChilli powder (optional) to taste

  3. Shake off excess marinade and press each piece firmly into the starch, rolling it to coat thickly. Spread them on a plate and leave for : the starch absorbs some marinade and turns damp in patches, which keeps the coating on and gives that knobbly crunch.

    Add in this stepCoarse sweet potato starch (or potato starch) 90 g

  4. Pour oil into a deep 20 cm pot, no more than one third full, and heat on medium heat for to 160 °C. Without a thermometer, dip in a dry wooden chopstick: steady small bubbles mean it's ready. Turn the pot handle inwards, keep a lid nearby and keep water well away from the oil.

    Add in this stepNeutral oil, for deep-frying 0.8 L

    medium heat

  5. Slide the chicken pieces in one at a time near the edge and fry on medium heat in 2 batches, per batch. Overcrowding drops the oil temperature and makes the coating greasy. When pale golden and cooked through, lift them onto a rack and leave for about 1 minute; the residual heat finishes the inside and dries the surface so the second fry crisps it better.

    medium heat

  6. Turn the heat up to high heat to bring the oil to 180 °C, then return the chicken and fry for in total, in the same batches if they don't all fit. It is done when deep golden and it rattles crisply when you shake the strainer. Cut the biggest piece: the meat should be white with clear juices (75 °C in the centre).

    high heat

  7. Turn off the heat, add the dried basil to the oil and fry for just 5 to 10 seconds. It spits hard, so stand back as you drop it in, and lift it out as soon as the leaves turn translucent. Put the chicken and basil in a bowl, sprinkle over the seasoning salt and toss while hot.

    Add in this stepBasil leaves (Taiwanese or Thai basil) 10 g

Cook's tip

Coarse sweet potato starch, rather than flour or fine starch, gives the bumpy night-market crunch. Chicken breast works too; cut 30 seconds off the first fry. Once cool, strain the oil and you can reuse it once or twice.

Cooking it at camp

Deep-frying with lots of oil is risky at camp and hard to clean up. Instead shallow-fry in 1 cm of oil in a cast-iron pan, turning the pieces, or fry at home and re-crisp in a pan on the grill. Only cook on flat, stable ground so the pot can't tip.