Shandong Fried Chicken

Chicken brined, dredged dry and fried twice, so the crust stays crisp as it cools.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

Brine

• 1 kg chicken pieces, bone in
• 1 litre water
• 60 g salt, for the brine, which is discarded
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 star anise

Coating

• 150 g cornflour
• 50 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

• 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying

Method

1. Dissolve the salt in the water, add the ginger and star anise, and cool it completely. Put the chicken in and refrigerate it for 4 hours. The brine is poured away afterwards and is not eaten; what it does is season the meat right through, which a surface rub cannot.
2. Lift the chicken out, rinse it, and dry every piece thoroughly. Any water left on the skin will turn the coating to paste.
3. Mix the cornflour, flour, five spice and pepper. Dredge each piece and press the coating on, then shake off the loose powder and leave the pieces on a rack for 10 minutes until the coating looks damp rather than dusty.
4. Heat the oil to 160C and fry the chicken in batches for 8 minutes. It will be pale and that is correct: this frying is cooking the meat, not colouring it.
5. Lift it out and rest it on a rack for at least 5 minutes. Steam escapes here that would otherwise soften the crust from the inside.
6. Bring the oil to 190C and fry each batch again for 90 seconds, until deep gold. The second fry is why this stays crisp after ten minutes on a plate.
7. Drain on a rack, not on paper, and salt it while it is hot.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes