28 minute Spicy Popcorn Chicken

i got a little hankering for crispy bite-sized pieces of fried chicken or colloquially popcorn chicken so i asked myself how would i make them as fast as possible with basic ingredients i always have and a simple cleanup well this batch of popcorn chicken took just 28 minutes and i made them spicy too [Music] hey everyone i'm ethan a home cooking nerd who likes to find better ways to cook and share them with all of you so this popcorn chicken is slightly inspired by nashville hot chicken so if you see me sweating in a couple minutes during the taste test you know i did it right let's dive in to start chop the boneless skinless chicken thighs into bite size pieces now you could also use breasts here if you would like but i do generally prefer the thighs for their taste and texture also as an aside whenever i am done cutting raw meat i like to immediately wash my cutting board and knife with hot soapy water to prevent any potential cross contamination plus it's just easier to clean when there aren't any dried chicken juices on there get out a large mixing bowl and add the chopped chicken along with 5 grams of salt 113 grams of milk the juice from one half of a lemon and 10 grams of your favorite louisiana style hot sauce roughly mix the chicken and milk mixture together and this is what's going to help flavor the chicken but also provide the flour dredge something to stick to meanwhile at the stove set a flat bottom wok over medium heat and add enough peanut oil to fry the chicken pieces probably about two inches high and this is where saving our peanut oil from you know last time we fried is a huge benefit because i didn't have to use any or buy any more peanut oil because i saved it from last time which you should do this time well that comes to temperature place a large baking sheet over top of a scale and add 50 grams of flour 25 grams of corn starch 20 cranks of black pepper some cayenne powder some smoked paprika and garlic powder together and just lightly mix everything together the cornstarch is going to help prevent gluten development resulting in a crisper crust for our chicken pieces then take the milk mixture and pour a little bit into the dredge and mix it in this is going to create clumps that will stick to the chicken resulting in more texture and surface area to get fried and crisp move the chicken pieces to the flour mixture and roll them around until the exterior is well coated and really press the flour into the chicken hunk so that layer sticks on there and gets it nice and crisp when we fry them now at the stove use a thermometer and verify the temperature of the oil is around 325 to 350 degrees fahrenheit gently shake off any excess flour from the chicken hunks and slowly drop them into the oil now i got a little bold and kind of crowded the pan here to fit everything in here so you should probably do this in two patches unlike i did because this will lower the temperature of the oil and does increase the fry time but in total you want to fry the chicken for about five to seven minutes until it is nice and golden brown now slightly agitate them during frying maybe every minute or so but meanwhile you can put stuff in the dishwasher wash the dredge tray wipe down any cooking surfaces and place a paper towel inside of a large metal bowl back at the wok this is kind of what i want the chicken to look like nice and deep golden brown it's clearly got some nice crispy edges and texture so once it looks like this move the pieces to that metal bowl to dab off the excess oil we have crunchy juicy bits of chicken that are killer as is if you do just want to eat them this way but today i wanted to work up a little bit of sweat so for pierced resistance in a heat-safe bowl add a little bit of the leftover fry oil about half a tablespoon of butter a small pinch of salt a bunch more hot sauce and some cayenne pepper then just stir the sauce together and the butternut is going to give it a touch of creaminess to help round out the heat drizzle this hot oil over the chicken and then just toss everything into a bowl slide them out onto a plate maybe add a pickled onion or two and there we have spicy crunchy and juicy popcorn chicken in less than 30 minutes let's taste it the perfect accoutrement to some spicy popcorn chicken let's give these a taste that's nice and crispy horseradish mayo mustard simple all i got to say is don't leave yourself alone with a full plate of these or else you're probably going to eat all of them it's nice and crispy and craggly from that dredge with the cornstarch and also making sure we added the milk in to get those you know those nice like flaky pieces that come off of here is pretty critical to get it nice and crispy i mean you guys can you guys can hear they're they're crunchy these have been sitting here and then adding in our spices from the you know the milk mixture with the lemon juice and the hot sauce then into the dredge itself and then at the end using that hot oil to help coat the outside and get it nice and spicy and speaking of spicy i've got like a you know tiny little sweat going on but it's nothing over the top at all i mean you could throw this in a sandwich you could throw this in like a snack wrap or something make a burrito out of it just eat it as is like i'm doing with a little bit of dip dipping sauce with some mustard mayo and horseradish you're gonna be in for something quite quite delicious so hopefully you guys try out this recipe it will be up on the website if you do want to try it out i will catch you all in the next one peace [Music] you

Channel: Ethan Chlebowski

Views: 568,029

Keywords: Ethan Chlebowski, Spicy popcorn chicken, popcorn chicken, fried popcorn chicken, how to make popcorn chicken, spicy fried chicken, fried chicken recipe, popcorn chicken recipe, popcorn chicken deep fryer

Id: Egv9OtEr_dw

Length: 6min 32sec (392 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020