Chinese-inspired Jambalaya

A few months ago, I joined a Facebook group called Food Bloggers Central founded by the amazing Nagi of RecipeTin Eats and Megan of Culinary Hill. I was blown away by how supportive the bloggers are to one another. Food blogging is often a one-man team and having someone (or a group of like-minded people) who will have your back, when you're trying to figure out how to do the million things that's usually required to maintain a food blog, just helps a ton.

I had already befriended Nagi a while back before joining the group (I interviewed her just last year for my blog series Meet My Inspiration) So when she approached me about being a member of Food Bloggers Central, I immediately said yes.

Fast forward to last month, Nagi had initiated this project called Food Blog Hop. The idea is that each blogger who's interested in the project would be matched with two other bloggers, and we would basically cook each other's recipe.

Then maybe a week later, Nagi being her awesome ambitious self posted a spreedsheet of the big list of bloggers, and who each blogger was matched with. What a task! Bravo, Nagi! I quickly went down the list, and found my name next to Neli of Delicious Meets Healthy. I didn't know Neli before so I starting poking around her blog and spotted something I've been wanting to try - Jambalaya.

If you've been following my posts, you probably have noticed my growing love for Southern cuisine ever since I watched the first episode of A Chef's Life. I mean, I did go after Vivian's chicken and rice, and cooked it back to back for two weekends. Would I take a trip down to North Carolina and eat at Vivian Howard's restaurant, Chef & the Farmer? HECK YEAH, in a heartbeat I would. Did you know that A Chef's Life was just nominated for multiple James Beard Awards? I just love what Vivian is doing and the awesome stories that she's been sharing. It's so inspirational to me. My desire to learn about food and culture has been growing faster than I can keep up, and then when I saw Neli's jambalaya, my light bulb bursted into a shower of meat, vegetables, and rice (insert imagination).

Jambalaya reminds me a lot of Hong Kong style clay pot rice. Clay pot rice is such an iconic Hong Kong winter dish. When I was in the Kong 2 weeks ago, I was thrilled when Emily (who I met on Instagram and spent the day hiking the Dragon's Back with) suggested that we'd get clay pot rice for dinner in Yau Ma Tei.

And it was amazing.

Hong Kong style clay pot rice

I love the similarities between Jambalaya and clay pot rice. Both have meat and vegetables cooked in one pot, and it's so rich and savory, it will just shoot you to the moon and back.

So without having much knowledge about this iconic Southern dish, I went off to find out all kinds of things about the Jambalaya.

Jambalaya is a Louisianan dish that has a lot of French and Spanish influences, and it's made differently depending on the region you're in. Many debate over rather the jambalaya was evolved from the Spanish paella or French Jamalaia, or perhaps both given the region's cultural history with Spanish and French settlers in the 18th Century.

Jambalaya is a lovely and rich stew that has four main ingredients: meats, vegetables, stock, and rice. The most common version is probably the red jambalaya, also known as the Creole jambalaya which is referred to as "city food". Creole jambalaya is more popular near New Orleans, on the Eastern part of Louisiana. The other kind of jambalaya is the brown jambalaya, also known as Cajun jambalaya which is referred to as "country food". And Cajun jambalaya is commonly found in Western and Central Louisiana.

So how the heck do you tell between a Creole and a Cajun jambalaya? The main difference is the use of tomatoes in the Creole jambalaya. And Cajun jambalaya is known as brown jambalaya because of the natural camelization of sugar in meats and veggies in the browning process, and it later gets incorporated into the stock.

After giving both styles some thoughts, I chose to do a Cajun jambalaya over the Creole jambalaya. The Cajun culture and their history reminds me a lot of my Hakka roots. Cajun food is rustic country food that is generally very well seasoned which shares a lot of common ground with Hakka cuisine. Based on the typical Cajun jambalaya recipes, I switched out some things like onion and smoked sausage with Chinese turnip (lor bak) and Chinese sausage (lap Cheong). I also added five-spiced pork belly, fresh ginger, hoisin sauce, garlic chili sauce, and scallion to kick this Chinese-inspired jambalaya into high gear.

I was ecstatic with this Chinese-inspired Jambalaya that's totally comforting with a touch of my Chinese heritage.

Chinese-inspired Jambalaya

Prep time: 35 mins  Cook time: 35 mins  Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb skinless and boneless chicken thighs
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/8 tsp white pepper powder
  • 1/2 lb pork belly, skinless
  • 1/4 tsp five spice powder
  • 2oz Chinese sausage (lap cheong)
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1 cup diced Chinese turnip (lor bak), about 1/2" dices
  • 1 cup diced bell peppers
  • 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
  • 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 2 tsp garlic chili sauce
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 lb medium or large shrimp, shelled and deveined
  • 3 stalks chopped scallion
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions

  1. Slice pork belly diagonally into 1/4" thick slices. Marinate with five spice powder for 30 minutes.
  2. Cut chicken into 1/2" cubes. Marinate with soy sauce and white pepper powder.
  3. Slice Chinese sausage into 1/8" slices. Set aside.
  4. Mince garlic and ginger, and dice turnip into 1/2" cubes. And dice bell peppers.
  5. Place a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, drizzle about 2 tablespoons of oil, and twirl the pan a couple times to spread oil evenly. Add pork belly, stir several times until meat is browned and caramelized, about 3 minutes. Remove from pan. Add chicken, and cook until it's no longer pink on the outside, about 2. Remove from pan. Add Chinese sausage and let it cook for 2 minutes. Remove from pan.
  6. Turn the heat down to medium, stir in garlic and ginger, cook for 30 seconds. Add turnip and bell peppers, and let it cook for 3 minutes, stir frequently.
  7. Stir pork belly, chicken, and Chinese sausage back into the pot. Add rice and stir. Add hoisin sauce, garlic chili sauce, thyme, oregano, and garlic powder, and stir one more time until everything is mixed well together. Throw in the bay leaves, then add chicken stock. Give it a quick stir, and turn the heat up. Once it boils, return the heat to low, cover and let it cook for 15 minutes.
  8. Sprinkle chopped scallion, and lay the shrimp on top, then drizzle with the lemon juice. Cover and let it cook for another 5 minutes, until shrimp has turn completely pink.
  9. Drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, then serve hot.

Chicken and Rice Soup with Choy Sum (菜心雞湯飯)

Guys. I'm obsessed. I don't use that word often but for today's post, I just think it's appropriate. Two things that I'm obsessed with for the past three months: A Chef's Life, and chicken and rice.

The PBS show A Chef's Life reminds me a ton of how I grew up in the countryside of Hong Kong. It also reminds me of how my mom used to run our family restaurant back when I was younger as I watched and helped her prep in the kitchen. By learning about the South from an agriculture and lifestyle perspective, I came to realize that the way of life of the Hakkas and people from the South share a lot of things in common. If you remember reading my Hakka heritage post a while back, I talked about the fact that many Hakka families, like mine, were raised around farming and the countryside. I think the South is beautiful and Southerners truly know how to appreciate food because they understand the work that goes into each grain of rice and each slice of meat.

The Hakka cuisine is also very similar to Southern cuisine with lots of fresh, seasonal, hearty, rustic, and flavorful meals. And it is, too, very regional. I've never lived in the South or know all that much about Southern cuisine other than what I've learned on A Chef's Life and Mind of a Chef with Sean Brock so I can't say that the typical ingredients found in Southern cooking are the ingredients used in Hakka cooking but basics are there. I was delighted to learn that many Southern dishes also celebrate pork as much as the Hakka cuisine does.

Lately, I've been taking Vivian's mom Scarlett's chicken and rice recipe and adapting it into a tong faan (湯飯), which means rice soup in Cantonese. When I used to live with my mom, we would have tong faan often because it's just so damn simple and it's so comforting on those cold winter nights. She would save the pot liquid from boiling choy sum (a leafy green in the mustard family), and we'd fill our bowls with rice then pour the hot vegetable broth into the bowls. It's really that simple. And, of course, dinner would be served with a few other dishes as usual. Tong faan isn't something you'd actually get at a restaurant but it's a comfort food that you'd enjoy at home. And don't mistake the Tong faan with congee or rice porridge (jook) which is much thicker and creamier and often eaten as breakfast in many Asian cultures.

Chicken and Rice Soup with Choy Sum (菜心雞湯飯)

Prep time: 30 mins  Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins  Total time: 2 hours

You'll need:

  • 1 organic whole chicken, about 4lbs
  • 3 sprigs thyme
  • 3 bay leaf
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
  • 1/2 bulk garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
  • 1 1/2 cups white rice
  • 1/2 lb chopped [i]Choy Sum[/i]
  • 3 stalks chopped scallion

Approach:

  1. In a large stock pot, put in the chicken, bay leaf, thyme, salt, and white pepper. Fill water up to one inch above the top of the bird. Cook on medium heat for about 1 hour or until the meat has started to fall off the bone. Turn off the heat and let the bird sit in the broth for another 30 minutes. Remove the whole chicken, and discard bay leaf and thyme.
  2. Debone the chicken and tear the meat into small pieces.
  3. Bring the broth back on medium heat, and add the chopped onion and rice. Let it cook for 8 minutes then add the chicken back in the pot along with the chopped choy sum and scallion. Let it all cook for 5 more minutes until the rice has cooked through but not broken. Stir and check the rice frequently.
  4. Serve immediately.

Notes:

Resist rinsing of the rice as the starch will make the soup richer.

Adapted from Scarlett's Chicken and Rice.

Soy-glazed Black Pepper Chicken

THIS. This chicken dish will knock your socks off! It's Hakka recipe #2 I'm sharing with you this year and you're gonna LOVE it. You should already know by now that I adoreThe Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan. This soy-glazed black pepper chicken recipe is what I'll be keeping for the rest of my life, and I'm not kidding here. It's one of the simplest chicken dishes you'll ever cook and it's got a big punch of flavors.

Linda had learned this chicken dish from a man named Ying Hsien who's father is a Hakka. Ying Hsien grew up in Northern India, and had moved to Toronto after the Sino-Indian war in the 60's because jobs became harder to find for the Chinese living in India. This soy-glazed black pepper chicken is what Ying Hsien learned from his mother in India, and I simply just can't believe that all it takes are four ingredients to produce such a distinct taste.

Don't let the color fool you! The chicken might look really really dark but it's not because the chicken is burnt. It's dark because of the use of dark soy sauce. I added water to the original recipe but if you're looking for a thicker, stickier sauce, adding less water to the pot will do the trick. The sauce will thicken up and reduce a bit as it cooks. I also deviated from the original cooking instructions and decided to sear the meat before braising which in my option makes a more tender bite. Searing will also change the overall texture by reducing fat from the chicken skin. And if you want to master this dish, use freshly cracked black pepper. It'll take you a few extra minutes of cranking on a black pepper mill but it'll enhance the spiciness of the dish by a mile.

Another tip when making this dish? Use a non-stick frying or saute pan. I love my Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick, and I don't think I can live without it. I've tried using my Lodge Dutch oven and another pan that wasn't non-stick, and the whole thing became a mess once the chicken and sauce started getting stuck to the bottom. It was not pretty and the sauce wasn't able to stick to the chicken as well as it could because it was mostly stuck on the pan. So I highly recommend using a non-stick!

And what's better to go with a super flavorful hunk of meat? WHITE RICE!

JUST LOOK AT THIS.

The outside is incredibly savory and aromatic while the inside is moist and tender. This is a dish I can devour everyday, hands down!

Soy-glazed Black Pepper Chicken

Prep time: 5 mins  Cook time: 50 mins  Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 2-3

You'll need:

  • 2 lbs bone-in chicken thighs with skin, about 6 pieces
  • 1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp water
  • chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish
  • white rice, optional

Approach:

  1. Trim excess fat off the chicken.
  2. Set a deep frying pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil and twirl the pan to spread. Sear each side of the chicken tights for 5 minutes. Remove most of the oil/fat except 1-2 tablespoons. Add freshly cracked black pepper, dark soy sauce, and water. Twirl the pan a few times to incorporate all the ingredients together. Once the sauce starts to boil, turn down the heat to medium-low. Let chicken to cook for 20 minutes, then flip them and cook the other side for an additional 20 minutes.
  3. Remove chicken from the pan or dutch oven, serve hot over white rice, garnish with cilantro.

Notes:

Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup with Watercress

Ahhh. Soup. I seriously cannot live without it in the winter! (Did anyone enjoy this week's arctic blast here in NY?... didn't think so.) Chicken noodle soup is one of my favorite things to eat especially during these cold, dark winter days. I wanted to do something a little different and unexpected so I put a Chinese spin on this classic soup!

You know, growing up, soup was served almost every night along with dinner. Although, Chinese soups tend to be much more brothy and are eaten as health supplement rather than full-on meals so it never seems "heavy". After all, Chinese dinners are all about having a well-balanced diet, and soup completes a meal quite nicely.

This chicken meatball noodle soup with watercress has pretty much everything a healthy meal could offer. And why not get an upgrade from a traditional chicken noodle soup when you can have it all?! Watercress (西洋菜) is a very common ingredient in Chinese soups and it's got some really great health values (apparently it's really good for the flu or cough!). Besides soups though, I really haven't cooked anything else with watercress before. Do you like watercress? What are some of the things that you like to make with it?

To make this soup, you'll learn how to roll/form meatballs with spoons. And trust me, it's not rocket science, just needs a bit of patience and time! Is it technical? Naaah. You've got this - it's actually quite fun! And just to add some more texture, I added egg-drop-soup-style eggs! Now, here's to a complete meal - cheers! (or should I say.. Slurp!)

Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup with Watercress

Prep time: 30 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 4

You'll need:

  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 4 cups water
  • 1-2 cups chopped watercress
  • 2 cups wide egg noodles
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • Meatballs:
  • 1/2 cup yellow onion, grated
  • 1/2 cup chopped watercress
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Approach:

  1. Rinse and drain watercress thoroughly. Chop it by hand or use a food processor.
  2. Bring the chicken broth and water in a stock pot until it starts to boil, then turn the heat to low.
  3. In a bowl, mix the first seven meatball ingredients together. Add chicken then breadcrumbs.
  4. Once the chicken broth is ready, use 2 small tea spoons to form meatballs by first scooping a small lump of the meat with 1 spoon, then passing it back and forth between spoons a few times. Try to make them as round as possible but doesn't need to be perfect. Carefully drop each one into the stock pot until all the meatballs are in. (Meatballs will sink to bottom at first but will raise as they're done being cooked, and will float up top.)
  5. Add the other chopped watercress and salt, and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. Beat the 2 eggs, then stream them into the soup slowly while stirring with a ladle.
  7. Add the egg noodles last, about 10 minutes before serving, to make sure they don't get overcooked.
  8. Top with oyster or saltine crackers (optional).

Chicken and Broccoli Baked Rice Hong Kong Style

As a former British colony, Hong Kong cafes or Cha Chaan Tengs have adapted many western ingredients such as cheese, milk, spaghetti, and tomato sauce. That's really how many iconic Hong Kong dishes were born. (Remember that Spaghetti Bolognese I made a while back?) Well today, I'm sending your way another popular dish (made with own my twist) that's fairly common in the Hong Kongese diet. I've been wanting to make a Hong Kong style "baked rice" with cream sauce for a long time but couldn't get pass the idea that I'd have to use cream soup that comes in a can. Until, earlier this week, I discovered how to make it from scratch and decided that it is time to tackle what I though was complicated but turned out to be untrue!

I grew up eating what people of Hong Kong often refer to it as "baked rice" (焗飯) which is kind of like a casserole or a gratin. See, the rice doesn't actually get cooked in the oven like you think it would judging by the name. Lost in translation perhaps?? What it really consists of are simple: meat or seafood on a bed of rice or spaghetti, topped with either tomato sauce or cream sauce, and a layer of cheese on top. You pop it in the oven until the cheese has melted to golden brown. Not feeling plain white rice? Many places would let you substitute it with a simple egg fried rice. And that's what a Hong Kong style "baked rice" is all about!

On one hand, the baked pork chop with rice (焗豬扒飯) is probably the most well-known in the baked rice arena which my friend over at The Missing Lokness had posted a recipe if you're ever interested in making an iconic Hong Kong dish. While the baked pork chop with rice is made with tomatoes and tomato sauce, I'll be sharing with you another kind of baked rice dish today that is made with a cream sauce!

Say hello to this Chicken and Broccoli Baked Rice. Perfect to make for dinner for two! Remember earlier I said the cream sauce is actually really easy to make? Well, get some chicken stock, heavy cream, a dab of butter mixed with flour, and a little white wine in a sauce pan! And don't forget a dash of salt and pep!

Baked rice with cream sauce in Hong Kong is often served with a seafood medley but considering that seafood is not always available to everyone, I thought using chicken and broccoli would be the perfect substitute! And the best part about this dish? It can be versatile so you can ditch the rice and go with pasta if you like!

So go cream that sauce and melt some cheese for dinner!

Chicken and Broccoli Baked Rice Hong Kong Style

Prep time: 25 mins  Cook time: 10 mins  Total time: 35 mins

You'll need:

  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 cups broccoli florets
  • ½ lb chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
  • ½ tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 cups of cooked white rice
  • 6 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 tbsp dried basil
  • Sauce:
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ¼ white wine
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter, soften
  • 1½ tbsp flour
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Approach:

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. In a sauce pan, add chicken stock, heavy cream, and white wine. Cook on medium heat until it starts to boil then turn the heat on low.
  3. Heat another sauce pan with 3 cups of water (for blanching the broccoli in the next steps).
  4. Mix butter and flour together to form a paste. Stir it into the sauce until the big lumps have melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Leave sauce cooking on low for 10 minutes while it reduces and thickens.
  6. Blanch the broccoli for a few minutes, then drain.
  7. In a heated skillet, add olive oil and minced garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add chicken and cook for 4 minutes, then toss in broccoli and cook for another 6 minutes.
  8. To assemble each of the two dishes, brush the melted butter on the bottom of the gratin dish, add 1 cup of rice, half of the chicken and broccoli, 4 tbsp of cream sauce, and 3 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese.
  9. Put both gratin dishes on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, until cheese has melted and turn golden brown.
  10. Garnish with a sprinkle of dried basil on top.

Ginger Sriracha Chicken Wings (薑汁雞翼)

When I was younger and still living in Hong Kong, my whole family would get together about once a month at my house to have something called a dai sik wui which is pretty much like a potluck turned giant feast. It's always someone's birthday or graduation, an aunt or uncle returning from the UK for vacation or just because it's summer and everyone is itchy for summery food and playing mahjong indoors with the air con blasting. Amongst all the goodies on the table, sometimes I'd spot a dish of Coca-Cola chicken wings. Yes. That's chicken wings cooked with Coca-Cola.

For the longest time, I thought only Cantonese and people from Hong Kong would make this odd-sounding dish. Then after some browsing around, I learned that Coca-Cola chicken wings are actually quite common in mainland China, as well as other Asian counties where Coke is the king of all soda pop.

In the process of coming up with a recipe that reminds me of my family's potluck, I thought I'd do something different here. So instead of using Coca-Cola, I turned to my favorite kind of ginger ale by Bruce Cost (the jasmine flavor is incredible by the way), and made some ginger sriracha chicken wings with a mass of minced ginger, ginger ale, sriracha, and a touch of ginger juice by The Ginger People!

The best part about these wings? They are cooked in the oven rather than braised like you would for the typical Coca-Cola wings. The dry heat from the oven does it's magic to make them less fatty, and it just produces "snackier" wings without the guilt of frying!

Once they've cooked 'til golden brown, garnish with sesame seeds and chopped scallion.

Got a grill? You know what to do!

Ginger Sriracha Chicken Wings (薑汁雞翼)

Prep time: 8 hours 10 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 8 hours 50 mins

You'll need:

  • 2 lbs chicken wings (mid sections if preferred)
  • 4 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
  • 2 tbsp ginger juice by The Ginger People
  • 1 tbsp sriracha
  • 2 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp sesame oil
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • ¼ white pepper powder
  • 6oz (half bottle) original ginger ale by Bruce Cost
  • Garnish:
  • 2 stalks scallions, chopped
  • 1 tbsp Sesame seeds

Approach:

  1. Peel, then chop fresh ginger finely using a food processor. Remove ginger and place it in a medium mixing bowl. Add ginger juice, sriracha, salt, sesame oil, garlic powder, white pepper powder, and mix well. Then stir in ginger ale. Add chicken wings to the mix and give it a stir. Cover with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge overnight.
  2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a half sheet pan with tin foil, then place a cooling rack on top, brush with butter or canola oil lightly.
  3. Place chicken wings on the rack and make sure they don't overlap.
  4. Bake each side of the wings at 425°F for 15 minutes (total of 30 mins). Then adjust the temperature to 475°F, and bake for an additional 10 minutes, until golden brown.
  5. Let the wings rest for 5 minutes, then garnish with sesame seeds and chopped scallion.

Notes:

Ginger juice by The Ginger People
Original ginger ale by Bruce Cost
Classic Nonstick Jellyroll Pans and Cooling Grid, Set of 3, by Sur La Table®

Sweet and Sour Chicken Sliders

Helloooo summer! What have you done so far to celebrate the return of summer? Have you jumped into the water yet? Gone on any road trips? Had any picnics at the park with friends? Speaking of picnics, I've got an idea for you the next time you're needing to make something to bring to a picnic. For the next couple weeks, I'll be rolling out four Cantonese-inspired sliders recipes. I'm taking inspiration from some classic Cantonese dishes and turning them into a bao form! Are you ready to find out more about the first one in the series?

If you liked my sweet and sour pork (咕嚕肉) last time, you'll love these sweet and sour chicken sliders even more! Why? Because it‘s made with fried chicken wings! Yes... you heard it correctly. There's something so satisfying about fried chicken wings. Agree? It's the super crispy and crunchy skin that keeps winning every single time. I used my go-to fried chicken recipe (heavily adapted from Kenji's), and was again blown away by the result. Thank you Kenji! After frying the wings, I let them cool down for a few minutes before deboning them. Give them a rough chop on the cutting board and now they're almost ready to go on the bun.

To complete the full sweet and sour chicken experience, how can we forget the pineapple, bell peppers, and homemade sweet and sour sauce?

Voilà.

Take a bite of this classic Cantonese dish with a twist. And don't forget to come back later this week for the Cantonese-inspired sliders series no.2!

Sweet and Sour Chicken Sliders

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 6

You'll need:

Approach:

  1. Slice pineapple and bell peppers. Make sweet and sour sauce. Set aside.
  2. Fry chicken wings by following the direction on my fried chicken recipe. After frying, let chicken cool down for a few minutes then debone and chop up roughly.
  3. Toast 6 buns in the toaster oven (butter lightly if you like).
  4. Toss the chopped up fried chicken along with sliced bell peppers in a medium mixing bowl. Drizzle with sweet and sour sauce, and combine well.
  5. To assemble, lay pineapple ring on each bun, and top with sweet and sour fried chicken.
  6. Serve immediately.

Kenji's Crispy Crunchy Fried Chicken

I know you love fried chicken. You know you love fried chicken. Deep frying anything at home can be a pain in the butt, and handling boiling hot oil can be intimidating. So if you are ever going for the task of frying up some chicken at home, might as well do it the right way to make sure what ends up on your plate will be truly rewarding – crispy and crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside! And here's how you do it. I do have to say, Kenji from Serious Eats really taught me everything about deep frying chicken which involves a lot of science that I was sucked into reading. I appreciate so much of how far he had gotten in finding out the best way to fry chicken, and sharing the knowledge with the world. Therefore, 95% of the credit of the recipe goes to Kenji (I just heavily adapted it to my liking). What his recipe produces is a thin crackling skin that's super crispy. With that being the goal, here are the steps to follow:

1) Pre-treat the chicken. Why? Because fatty chicken skin simply will not stick to the batter. But what do you treat it with exactly? WRITE THIS DOWN. Corn starch + salt + baking powder. After coating all the pieces, you let them air-dry for about 20 minutes.

2. Mix some batter just before you're ready to fry. If you've deep-fried things before, you know the batter requires flour. That's true. But it also requires corn starch. Too much flour will create too much gluten, and too much gluten means "tough or leathery crusts". On the other hand, too much corn starch will make a powdery coating, and creates little browning. Therefore, a 50/50 mix is what you're looking for. Now, we're not done just yet. To make a lighter, crispier, and crunchier coating, you need to add baking powder which will help with the browning as well. But don't go crazy on it, just a touch is needed.

3. The secret weapon. VODKA. What it does is pure magic (okay, maybe not quite magic since it's science that can be proofed). Alcohol limits gluten development while the battered chicken is swimming in hot oil. Secondly, by adding vodka, you're creating a "drier" batter which will aid with evaporation and dehydration tremendously when frying, resulting in a bubbly surface and a crunchier texture of the chicken.

Regular batter mixed purely with water forms gluten as it sits. This batter mixed with vodka limits gluten development so it's got a longer shelf life, which means you don't need to keep an eye on it every minute.

So there you have it. Perfect bubbly, crispy, crunchy fried chicken.

Thank you, Kenji!

Kenji's Crispy Crunchy Fried Chicken

Prep time: 35 mins  Cook time: 30 mins  Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 20 wings

You'll need:

  • 5-6 cups canola oil (or peanut oil)
  • Pre-treatment:
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¼ cup corn starch
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 2 lbs chicken wings, about 20 mid-section wings
  • Batter:
  • ½ cups corn starch
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ cup cold water
  • ½ cup vodka

Approach:

  1. Mix together the pre-treatment ingredients. Pat dry the chicken wings with paper towels then coat each piece with the pre-treatment mixture, shake off excess coating. Lay them on a wire rack, uncovered, and air-dry for about 20 minutes.
  2. When you're ready to fry, set up your deep-fry thermometer, preheat oil to 350°F in a wok, sauce pan, cast iron pan or Dutch oven.
  3. While waiting for the oil to heat up, get the batter ready by mixing the dry ingredients first, then whisk in water and vodka.
  4. Coat 4-5 wings with the batter at a time. Using a pair of chopsticks, lift each piece one at a time and gently shake off excess batter. Carefully lower it into the oil. Fry each batch for about 6 minutes until golden brown. Use another clean pair of chopsticks to remove chicken from the hot oil, and set them on a paper towel-lined plate to cool off.

Notes:

Recipe adapted from SeriousEats.