Korean Chicken Popcorn

Whip out your chicken wares and get ready to try easy-to-make recipe of Korean Chicken Popcorn

Ingredients

• Chicken thigh fillets: 500g, cut into bite sized pieces
• Rice wine: 1 tbsp
• Ginger powder: 2 tsp
• Sea salt: 1/2 tsp (fine)
• Ground black pepper: 1/4 tsp
• Potato starch or cornstarch: 1 cup
• Cooking oil for deep frying

For sauce

• Tomato sauce/ketchup: 5 tbsp
• Korean chilli paste: 1 & 1/2 tbsp
• Honey: 2 tbsp
• Dark brown sugar:
• Soy sauce: 1 tbsp
• Sesame oil: 2 tsp
• Minced garlic: 1/2 tsp

Method

• Place chicken pieces into a large mixing bowl. Add the rice wine, ginger powder, salt, and ground black pepper and mix them well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate the chicken for 30 mins in the fridge.
• Coat each chicken piece with the starch powder thoroughly. (It’s best doing this in 4 to 5 batches so that they are well covered with the starch powder.)
• Pour some cooking oil into a deep saucepan/ wok and heat until it reaches 175 C/ 347 F (or boiling). Deep fry the battered chicken pieces in batches until golden and cooked through (2 to 3 mins). Take them out and set aside onto kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil. Repeat this with the remaining chicken.
• To make the chicken extra crunchy, double fry them one more time. Set aside.
• Pour the sauce into a heated skillet. Bring it to boil on medium heat until the sauce thickens a little bit (1 to 2 mins). Stir constantly.
• Add the fried chicken and rice cakes then coat with the sauce quickly and thoroughly. Garnish with your choice of toppings (e.g. crushed nuts, seeds and green onion).
• Garnish with crushed nuts, sesame seeds and finely chopped green onions. Serve.

From the January 2021 issue of FHM India.