Taiwanese Salt And Pepper Chicken –Taipei Night Market Style
This simple , easy to follow, homemade recipe of the popular Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken will give you the unforgettable, tasty bite like when you have it in Taipei night market!! This bite-sized chicken is so yummy that you want to have another bite again and again.
A DELICIOUS AND MEANINGFUL TASTE OF TAIWANESE SALT AND PEPPER CHICKEN
Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken have a unique nickname “Popcorn Chicken” used by the people to call this special cuisine in Taiwan. These bite-sized pieces of chicken are addictive and are generally found in the night markets especially the ones in Taipei.
Many sellers of Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken offer and sell this popular street snacks not only to the Taiwanese but also to the foreign tourists. Now, more and more people can enjoy Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken because it is already a famous appetizer in many fast food chains or restaurants in many counties in Asia.
Of course, the main ingredients of this meal are salt and pepper, but some additional ingredients such as chili powder, basil leaves, and garlic are also used to make Taiwanese salt and Pepper Chicken become tastier in your mouth. Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken have a certain position in Taiwan street food.
When Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken firstly introduced to the people, it had only one additional ingredient, the chili powder that created three kinds of flavors, light spicy, medium spicy and extreme spicy of Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken.
As time goes by, Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken also use other ingredients or seasonings such as mustard powder, seaweed powder and allspice.
Other ingredients or seasonings are used to handle the competition in the market. So, by doing this people can have more options when they buy and enjoy Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken. And this strategy worked out well.
After that, many people outside Taiwan especially people from Hong Kong are attracted to come and enjoy Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken. Even now, Hong Kong with its international popularity has some well-known brands for selling Taiwanese Food in general, not only for the favorite Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken.
In Taiwan, the people or the sellers of Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken use two pots of oil to cook this meal. One pot is for the high temperature and the other one is for the low temperature. The reason why they are doing this is because they can maximize the flavor and the crispiness of The Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken.
Especially done by the sellers of Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken, they roast the pieces of chicken first, and then fry them to create a crispier Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken.
As mentioned earlier, they cooked using two pots oil. The first pot with high temperature is used to have the pieces of chickens gravy and the other pot with its low temperature is used to make it cooked right, not overcooked. Besides this cooking technique, some sellers also use the fat from the chicken for the oil to cook Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken.
HOW MANY CALORIES PER SERVING ?
This Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken have only 408 per serving.
WHAT MEALS TO SERVE WITH TAIWANESE SALT AND PEPPER CHICKEN?
Some other meals such as Honey Barbeque Sausage Bites, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, and also Honey Barbeque Chicken Wings can be served together with Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken for more complete weeknight dinner at home.
COURSE : APPETIZER
CUISINE : ASIAN (TAIWANESE)
KEYWORD : SALT AND PEPPER CHICKEN
PREP TIME : 15 MINUTES
COOK TIME : 20 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME : 35 MINUTES
SERVINGS : 2 PEOPLE
CALORIES : 408 CALORIES
INGREDIENTS :
FOR THE SALT AND PEPPER CHICKEN PIECES :
- 8 oz of cut into bite-sized cubes of chicken breast
- 1 cup of cornstarch
- 1cup of fresh basil leaves
- ¼ teaspoon or up to your taste of bottled salt and pepper
- 2 cups of oil for deep frying
FOR THE MARINADE :
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon of chopped finely of scallions
- 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoons of water
- 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of rice wine
- ¼ teaspoon of baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon of salt and pepper
- ½ teaspoon of chicken broth
INSTRUCTIONS :
- Prepare a large bowl. All the ingredients of the Marinade are mixed and stir well in the large bowl. The chicken pieces are put into the large bowl and for 30 minutes, they are marinated.
- Prepare a large frying pan and the cooking oil. And then the cooking oil is heated up for deep frying in the large frying pan. The pieces of chicken are coated with the cornstarch equally. The coated pieces of chicken are deep-fried until they become golden brown. The pieces of chicken are removed the oil. Put them aside.
- The cooking oil is poured out and the basil leaves are put into the large frying pan and the basil leaves are stirred for several times before the pieces of chicken are put back into the large frying pan. They are removed from the large frying pan. The salt and pepper are put into the large frying pan and the pieces of chicken with salt and pepper are thrown slowly and lightly up and down. Now, your Homemade Taiwanese Salt and Pepper Chicken are ready. Quickly serve your Homemade Taiwanese Salt and Pepper while it is still hot.