Night Market Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken with Fried Basil

⏱ 50 min · Serves 4

Crunchy sweet-potato-starch craggy edges, juicy marinated thigh meat, and a shower of white pepper and five-spice — plus a handful of basil leaves flash-fried until they crackle. Tastes like a paper cup from a Taipei night market.

Per serving: 625 kcal · 36.0g protein · 45.0g carbs · 33.0g fat

Ingredients

• 700g boneless chicken thighs, skin on, cut into 3cm chunks
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 180g coarse sweet potato starch (or tapioca starch)
• 1 litre neutral oil, for frying
• 1 large handful Thai basil leaves, dry
• 1 tsp fine sea salt mixed with 1 tsp white pepper and 1/2 tsp five-spice, to finish
• Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. In a bowl, mix chicken with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, garlic, five-spice, white pepper and cinnamon. Cover and marinate 30 minutes at room temperature (or overnight in the fridge).
2. Stir the beaten egg through the marinated chicken so every piece is slick.
3. Tip the sweet potato starch into a wide dish. Press each chicken piece into the starch, pressing firmly so lumpy crags form. Rest the coated pieces on a rack for 5 minutes so the coating hydrates.
4. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 160C. Fry the chicken in 3 batches for 4-5 minutes each, until pale gold and cooked through. Drain on a rack.
5. Raise the oil to 190C. Return all the chicken and fry 60-90 seconds until deep golden and crackling. Lift out and drain.
6. Turn off the heat, wait 30 seconds, then drop the dry basil leaves into the oil — stand back, they spit. Fry 10-15 seconds until translucent and crisp, then scoop out.
7. Toss the hot chicken with the salt, pepper and five-spice mix and the fried basil. Serve at once with lemon wedges.