About a month ago, at a regular gathering with the other foreigners in this area, we went to a Chinese restaurant. We usually order sweet and sour pork as a main meal to share and individuals order small meals like fried rice or Jajangmyun. Then two of the adventurous Canadian couple suggested we have something different than sweet and sour pork, and they suggested we have deep fried chicken in garlic sauce instead. They said it was really delicious. Michael and I didn’t mind, but others were a bit iffy.
The dish was served and it looked so glorious. I hadn’t had it for a long time, so I almost forgot what it tasted like. The chicken had golden fried skin, very crispy texture, and slightly sweet - sour and spicy - garlicky taste. Everyone totally loved it, except one person.
Then a couple of days ago, I really craved that dish and I tried to make it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right amount of starch powder, so I had to change the method a little bit. Sadly it turned out that it wasn’t as crispy as what I had at the Chinese restaurant, but it was still delicious in a sour, garlicky, morish way. I still have some ingredients left over and bought a new pack of starch powder, so I am going to make one more dish, hopefully improved, this week sometime.
Ingredients for 2 people (If you are having other small meals as well, then you can share between 3 people)
(Expected prep time - 15 minutes, Cooking time - 30 minutes ; You can reduce the time if you have a big frying machine and bigger kitchen)
Meat and extras
- Chicken breast 500 g
- 1/2 a red capsicum
- 1/2 a green capsicum
- 1/2 an onion
- 1 green chili (spicy)
- 1/2 a lemon
- Olive oil - 1 tbsp
- Some vegetable oil for deep frying
Marinade Chicken (mix these together in a bowl)
- Refined rice wine - 1 tbsp
- Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
- Pepper 3 sprinkles
- Salt 3 sprinkles
Batter
- Starch powder (I used potato starch) - 3 tbsp
- White flour (I used all purpose flour) - 3 tbsp
- Curry powder - 1 tsp
- Water - 5 tbsp
- 1 egg, beaten
Garlic sauce (mix these together in a bowl)
- Vinegar (I used apple vinegar) - 2 tbsp
- Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
- Oyster sauce - 2 tbsp
- Honey - 2 tbsp
- Refined rice wine - 2 tbsp
- Minced garlic - 1 tbsp
- Ginger powder - 1 tsp
- Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
- Lemon liquid - 1 tsp
Prep
- Rinse the chicken in cold water.
- Cut the chicken into bit size pieces, add the marinade sauce then soak it for 15 minutes.
- Cut the capsicum and onion into small cubes.
- Take the seeds out from the chili and thin slice it diagonally.
- Thin slice the lemon.
- Make the batter. (Sieve the powders and flour first, then add the water and egg, and mix them well in a big bowl)
- Put the chicken into the batter bowl, mix it well.
Cooking (you will need two woks)
- Pre heat the wok (a) for 20 seconds.
- Put the vegetable oil into the wok and when it starts to boil, add one battered chicken piece.
- When it floats, add more chicken and fry all the chicken.
- Put the fried chicken onto some kitchen paper to soak some oil off.
- Put the olive oil into the wok (b), add the chili, stir fry it briefly, then take out the chili. (It was for flavour. so you can throw it away.)
- Add the capsicum and onion, stir fry it.
- Add the garlic sauce and stir it well. (making the garlic sauce is done here)
- Deep fry all the chicken once more (in wok (a) ), for a crispy texture.
- Soak some oil off with kitchen paper then serve the chicken on the plate.
- Add the garlic sauce onto the chicken and add the lemon for topping.
I hope you like it, we certainly did!
Related Posts
Sweet and Sour Chicken (Tangsuyuk in Korean)
Korean Black Bean Paste Noodles (Jajangmyun in Korean)
Deep Fried Chicken, Eggs and Poultry, Garlic Sauce, Korean Chinese
mm, garlic chicken, this sounds really good!
The ingredients of the garlic sauce itself already speaks power! Chicken must be good!
I love Gganpunggi! I hate that it’s always on the expensive side of the Chinese menus and not in the 5,000 won lunch sets.
A recommendation that I got from Nobu’s cookbook is that when doing a batter for deep frying, use something highly carbonated like soda water or (my preference) beer. To keep fried things crispy, I give time for the oil to heat back up after each batch, and I keep the already fried bits in a warm oven on a rack.
That does it. I’m making fried chicken today. Thanks.
Another great exotic idea for me! This sauce must be a MUST
hey! thanks for the comment.. i’m absolutely in love with my sassy girl!.. i mean the movie.. not the girl :p anyways, i LOVEE your blog!! i’m such a foodie that i’m already lovin’ your posts! keep up the great work!
Looks like chicken nuggets
Don’t be afraid of garlic sauce everyone. It is not as strong as you think.
I am 100% sure that as long as the chicken is crispy, you will totally love it. I am making it today again, I hope it is crispy. I don’t have soda nor beer, so I will that some other time.
Kat - Thanks, it is one of my favourites.
tigerfish - Your comments are always funny. Thanks.
Zenkimchi - Thanks for the tip. I hope it turns out well for both of us.
bea - Thanks for stopping by, I am huge fan of your blog.
Deborah - I love “my sassy girl” too, and I am a sassy girl by myself.
simcooks - I thought the same thing. They do look like nuggets.
His Sue,
I’m coming back again to visit your blog. This dish is my favourite. yummy
Upppssss sorry, I was too excited.. I wrote His sue, it’s supposed to be “Hii Sue”, my bad I’m sorry
Hi Pepy,
Long time no see. Good to see you again.
Your mistake is fine.
Do you realise the link to your site is typed wrong?
You keep typing htpp, instead of http.
really? i didn’t realize it :D. thanks sue for letting me know
I visit your site every few days to see what’s new and you never disappoint. The problem is I get so hungry for the different things you’ve posted that I want everything at once.
Hi Gil,
Thanks for your compliments. That was my aim
Hi Sue,
How come my chicken is not crispy at all? do need to use only egg white?
Yoo, my chicken was fairly crispy before I added the sauce. You have to make sure you fry it twice. I used the whole egg (yolk and white), but if you just use the white only it should be crispier.
Once you add the sauce, the chicken goes soft very quickly (that’s how I serve and eat it). The more sauce you add, the more for the chicken to soak up.
This recipe is still a work in progress, if I make an improvement, I will post it too.
Hi ya, I came across this blog and I love the food you present on here.
For this dish I normally make the batter with cornstarch and the result was pretty close to what they serve in the restaurant. Basically you need to sift the cornstarch, salt and pepper into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and put in 1 egg yolk and water. Beat slowly and lightly until smooth and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Then whisk the egg white until it is stiff and fold it into the flour mixture, making a thick batter.
Try it and let me know the result. It works fine with me so hopefully it’ll be ok with you as well.
I absolutely love your site!! and i come here everyday and find great things!! finally i got the recipe for dumplings i tasted abroad( i live in DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)
Well, i am a big fan ok Korea, its dramas, food, language i just love it, and this chicken is going to be my sunday meal!
Thanks!!