Chilli Popcorn Chicken

It's time again for Cook Like A Star! organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, together with this month's co-hosts, Anuja from Simple Baking and Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out. The celebrity chef for this month is "Masterchef", come and join Zoe, Anuja and Baby Sumo in this blog hop, just cook or bake from any of the Masterchefs' recipes and link it up for the whole month of September.

I am not very familiar with Masterchef shows on TV. I've only watched a few eposides, and that happens to be the final part, where the Masterchef  of the year was chosen!  Another episode was the Junior Masterchef, I was really impressed with the talents 9-12 year old, it is almost unbelievable that kids of that age could produce restaurant-class dishes!  

This Chilli Popcorn Chicken recipe is taken from Masterchef, Australia's website, and it is from a Contestant by the name of Dani Venn. I have no idea who she is, as I did not watch the show. I read about her from the website and found that she is now very active performing cooking demonstrations all over Australia and even appears on the breakfast show in Melbourne.

This dish is a mixture of Chinese and Thai cooking, at least to me it is. Chicken meat is coated with potato flour, five-spice powder and salt, and then deep-fried till cooked. Chopped lemon grass, red chilli, garlic and ginger are then sauteed till fragrant, add in the pre-mixed sauce of oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. The chicken pieces are then added in, and stir until the they are sticky and coated with the sauce. Dani has made a dressing to spoon over the chicken for serving. I made the dressing, but did not like it, so I simply did not use it. And she has made a Lime Mayonnaise to serve with the chicken. I did the easy and lazy way, I use Thousand Island Dressing instead, haha! And lastly, she has salted roasted peanuts scattered over, I omit that as well, as I did not have any.

Lovely dish, salty and sweet. I think that this would be great with some salted peanuts sprinkled over, and would be wonderful with a  glass of cold Beer! Perfect for a get-together or a party. For the original recipe complete with the Dressing and Lime Mayonnaise, get it here.





This is linked to Cook Like A Star blog hop, Celebrity Chef for the month September is "Masterchef", hosted by Zoe with co-hosts Anuja and Baby Sumo. Click on the link below to view other delicious yummies!

I'm sharing this too with 

Food On Friday hosted by Carole's Chatter

Chilli Popcorn Chicken
(source : Masterchef, Australia : Contestant : Dani Venn)
500gm skinless chicken thigh fillets
3/4 cup potato flour
sea salt flakes, to season
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
vegetable oil, for deep-frying
4 tablespoons finely chopped lemon grass
4 tablespoons finely chopped red chilli
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons caster sugar

1. Cut the chicken thigh into 5cm pieces and pat dry with paper towel. Combine flour, five spice and salt on a plate then coat chicken evenly in spiced flour mixture. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 180C and deep fry the chicken in batches for about 5 minutes until golden and cooked through.
2. Heat wok over high heat until hot, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil then add lemongrass, chili, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds until aromatic. Add oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar, then add the chicken and stir-fry 1-2 minutes until thick and sticky.
3. To serve : Pile lettuce onto serving plate. Top with chicken. Serve with homemade mayonnaise.