Sticky & Crispy Chinese Chicken

Sticky and Crispy Chinese Chicken

I have not done proper recipe posts in a very long time, so today I do two. (See post below as well) This is a recipe of my own devising. I do not know how ‘Chinese’ this actually is, but it is really very good.

You will need: 4 Chicken breasts (without bones & skin) cut into long thin strips Chinese 5 spice mix (The Cape Herb & Spice Company does a very good one) 750 ml cooking oil salt ½ cup flour ½ cup cornflour (maizena) 1 cup ice water with extra ice 1 egg 125 ml hoisin sauce 125 ml sweet & sour sauce. stirfry vegegables 2 cups (uncooked) basmati rice Sprinkle a modest sprinkling of Chinese Five Spice Mix and salt over the raw chicken strips. Cook the rice as per instructions. Slice vegetables in very thin strips Heat the oil in a large pot. Make a tempura batter by whisking together the ice water, extra ice, flour, cornflour and egg. (The cornflour makes it extra crispy. Once the oil is very hot, dip small batches of the chicken strips in the batter and quickly fry in the very hot oil. The batter coating must be a very light brown, and the chicken strips must be tender and juicy inside. If you overcook, the chicken becomes dry, tough and stringy. Drain on kitchen towelling paper and stick the finished batches into a warm oven. As you do the last batch, flash-fry the vegetables in a very hot pan with a few drops of oil. At the same time put the hoisin sauce and the sweet and sour sauce in a small saucepan and boil together till it becomes thick & sticky. Put half the chicken strips in the sticky sauce and stir till all the pieces are coated. Mix the rice and vegetables. To dish up – put rice & vegetables in bowls, arrange 1st some of the sticky strips and then some crispy strips on top of the rice. Garnish with spring onion and enjoy! I desperately need to read up on how to take better food photos. Lamb did the table setting for the photo, but it does not come out as nice on the photo as it actually looked.