Malay Spiced Fried Chicken

Recipe: Malay Spiced Fried Chicken马来香料炸鸡

Serves: 2 - 3

Ingredients

400g boneless chicken (cut into fillets) or bone-in chicken (cut into small pieces) enough oil for deep-frying Ingredients A ¼ tsp. salt ¾ tsp. turmeric powder Spice Ingredients B 40g / 8 cloves garlic 30g fresh ginger root (peeled) 80g shallots or red onion (peeled)

Seasoning Ingredients C 2½ TBSP meat curry powder (I used Adabi) ½ tsp. chili powder *optional ½ tsp. white pepper ¼ tsp. + 1/8 tsp. salt ¾ tsp. sugar ½ TBSP corn starch or tapioca starch 1 TBSP light soy sauce Coating Flour Mix Ingredients D 4 TBSP rice flour or all-purpose flour 1½ TBSP corn starch or tapioca starch pinch of salt pinch of white pepper

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Put all ingredients B in a blender.	2. Blend ingredients B until fine. You may want to puree them into a paste but I prefer the ingredients to be just finely chopped. Set aside blended ingredients.	3. Clean and pat dry chicken. Put chicken fillet in a large bowl. Add ingredients A. Rub ingredients A evenly on each piece of chicken.
4. Add ingredients C to the chicken. Rub ingredients C evenly all over the chicken pieces.	5. Finally, add blended ingredients in step 2 to the chicken. Rub evenly. Continue to "massage" the chicken pieces for about 2 to 3 minutes.	6. Cover chicken with cling wrap. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. For better result, marinate chicken overnight for 6 to 8 hours, turning the chicken pieces twice in between.
7. Heat up oil in deep-fryer. Meanwhile, mix coating flour ingredients in a medium bowl. Take a piece of marinated chicken, remove all the big bits of blended ingredients from the chicken. Coat chicken in the flour mixture. Shake off any excess flour and set aside. Repeat process for the remaining chicken pieces.	8. When oil is hot enough. Gently drop the coated chicken pieces in hot oil and deep-fry until golden brown, or until chicken is cooked. Drain chicken on paper towels.

Notes

To test oil temperature, drop a pinch of flour into the oil. Flour will float and sizzle on hot oil. Otherwise, flour will sink to bottom of pan and disperse. Overheated oil will cause insides of the chicken to be uncooked even though outer layer is cooked. My suggestion is to use med-high heat for 1 to 2 minutes once chicken pieces are dropped into the hot oil; then reduce heat to med or med-low (if chicken browns too fast) and continue to deep-fry until chicken is cooked. Bone-in chicken requires longer time to marinate and to cook.