Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

Directions

1. Add all the chicken marinade ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

2. Refrigerate the marinated chicken overnight.

3. Add eggs into the chicken and mix well. The egg will help the starch stick to the chicken.

4. Add sweet potato starch into a large bowl. 

5. Evenly coat each piece of chicken with sweet potato starch.

6. Let the coated chicken rest at room temp for 5 minutes to let the starch stick to the chicken.

7. Heat up a pot of oil to highest heat.

8. Turn the heat down to medium, then fry each piece of chicken for 3 minutes on each side.

9. After the chicken is done frying,  dry and then fry the Thai basil. Fry until the moisture is completely removed from the Thai basil. It should taste crispy when it's cooled. You can also fry the basil at the same time with the chicken to infuse the chicken with basil flavor. However, this might reduce the crispiness of the chicken. 

10. Mix the fried chicken with the fried basil. 

The leftover oil can be used to make stir-fry. You can also use it to make chili oil. 

Personal Connection

This and stinky tofu are my two favorite foods in Taiwan. When I was a kid, you could buy a large bag of this popcorn chicken at the night market with about 100 NTD (~$3). I loved just eating this with a bowl of rice, and I still love doing that now.