Chinese Style Chicken Tempura

Ma Laoshi has taught us another recipe in our Chinese cooking class.

Ingredients:
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup flour
2 egg whites
cold water (you can even use use water with crushed ice)
2 chicken breasts
oil

Slice chicken breasts into slivers. You'll want to cut along the top of the chicken, shaving off slice by slice.

Then beat your egg whites until they are foamy white. Add in the potato starch, flour, and approximate 1/2-1 cup water. The mixture should be about as thick as cake batter, adjust starch, flour and water according to get to this thickness. Coat the chicken slices in the batter. You can let the chicken sit in the batter as you heat up oil in a wok or deep-sided frying pan. Heat up about 2-3 inches high worth of oil. When the oil starts crackling and popping, it is hot enough for you to carefully (using cooking chopsticks ideally) drop in coated chicken slices piece by piece. You want to be extremely careful during this step as you could get burned by stray cooking oil. Also use a spatula to scrape the chicken batter and pieces off the side of the wok so it doesn't stick. When the pieces fry to a LIGHT tan color, scoop them out and let them cool to a warm temperature--not burning hot anymore. Pour more oil into the cooking pan if it is no longer at 2-3 inches in height. Heat it up to a high heat until it begins to crackle and pop again. Carefully put the chicken pieces back into the oil to fry again until golden brown. Scoop them out and drain on paper towels or in a metal strainer. Serve. The absolute key to this recipe is to double fry, otherwise you won't get any of the crispiness you need, and the chicken might not even be fully cooked.

Ma Laoshi served our chicken tempura with a mixture of black pepper and salt on the side to dip it in. You can even sprinkle this mixture on top of the chicken if you think dipping is too much trouble, but sprinkle sparingly because it can easily become too salty. Also, I recommend serving this on a bed of green and red peppers or lettuce to add a sprinkle of color. If you really want to put in the extra work for a really tasty result, stir-fry the chicken with green and red pepper pieces, long dried pepper, and some chili oil for a spicy, tangy chicken dish. This recipe is a really good base for any coated chicken stir-fry, and you can even do this with other meats.

Best of luck to your eating with chopsticks adventures!