Tuesday, September 4, 2012

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 


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.





25 comments:

  1. Yummy! I would love to have it with lots of rice. Totally irresistible!

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  2. My boy is very inspired by the Masterchef juniors :D These kids are really amazing and I think that they are better than me in term of cooking :p

    Dani is one of the season 3 contestants that cook a lot of Asian-Aussie fusion dish. She is very creative cooking these yummy chilli pop corn chicken... Is your hubby happy eating these with a glass of cold beer? :D

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  3. What an appetizing dish!
    Wel done for the kids.

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  4. Joyce, I was just eyeing this recipe that day but decided on another chicken recipe in the end... yours looks so good!

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  5. Used to follow Masterchef Au religiously until I move to KL. I shall dig all all these recipes I want to cook soon! I love how Dani always makes something quite Asian. Your version looks fantastic!

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  6. So happy to have you on board with us! Yay!!
    I m a masterchef addict :D. Although they start the series a couple of months after its aired on tv in Australia and although we can always get the results from net (as we are a couple of months behind) still we follow the series with bated breath.
    Your chilli chicken popcorn looks fantastic. I want to pop one in my mouth. Infact I m salivating seeing all these beautiful colourful chillies and garlic in there. Yum yum!!

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  7. Sounds like a nice cocktail dish to me. Joyce, junior masterchefs is fun to watch & the kids can cook better than the adults

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  8. Popcorn chicken is something KFC has in their menu no? My kids' favorite lol! Your version looks delicious and something that would be my fav! Am not familiar with this popular show either..let's see if I got The time to copy some recipes from here!

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  9. sounds like a delicious dish with all that seasoning. Thousand island and lime mayonnaise both sound good to me too. I'm more jakun than you, i never watched a single episode of masterchef!

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  10. Sometimes i am so tempted to subscribe to astro just to watch these cooking shows! Thanks for this recipe, you r right, sounds like the perfect beer food, cant wait to try this out.

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  11. wwah..nampak sedap..boleh buat lagi kasi sikit.

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  12. What a great twist on popcorn chicken!

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  13. I'm drooling over this fabulous popcorn chicken! Looks & sounds so amazingly delicious! Guess what, I've never watch any MasterChef (France or any country)episode at all. Lack of time with my boys homework & all! LOL

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  14. Oh Joyce, this chicken looks delicious, like the idea of lemongrass and chili...yum!
    Thanks for sharing this recipe and hope you are having a wonderful week :)

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  15. love the red chili and lemongrass in this chicken! LOVE IT! As in I am drooling and my stomach is growling! The pictures are gorgeous too!

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  16. Gosh!
    We really love the way you shot Chilli Popcorn Chicken
    You are really not just a food blogger, we think that you are a professional food photographer.

    As a food photography site, we're always looking for best food pictures to feature on our site http://www.foodporn.net/

    Why don't you submit yours and make other people hungry.
    You know it’s fun to make others hungry. Especially when they are so hungry they finally want to create your recipe. :)
    It is worth the try. :)
    Thanks!

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  17. Woah, what a unique recipe. You must know by now I love asian flavours but I have actually not heard of 'popcorn chicken' before...with chilli I know it would be delish

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  18. Eileen, Hundred Eighty DegreesWednesday, September 05, 2012

    Joyce, this looks so delicious. Normally I will take 3tbsp rice for dinner, but I m sure to tampa rice if you treat me with this dish: )

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  19. Joyce, I've been eyeing the Junior Masterchef's recipes as well ! :D From what I've seen from the 1st season , those kids are amazing and I bet way better cook than me ! lol

    The combination of flavors in this dish is truly delectable ! Your dish looks finger lickin' good ! And my mouth is watering NOW ! ;D

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  20. Wow....you are a master chef now! Your dish looks very delicious. Love the ingredients. I will surely eat a lot more rice with it :D

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  21. Hi Joyce, thanks so much for joining us in Cook Like a MasterChef. Your dish looks delicious - I guess the sauce taste a little like Thai chilli sauce, judging from yr description?

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  22. I LOVE Popcorn Chicken Joyce and I especially like the combination of flavors in this recipe. I've been using more and more lemon grass and 5 star in my cooking lately since Marion has such an aversion to garlic. I've been pleased with it too. I'll be saving this recipe along with so many of the other recipes I have saved of yours.

    I'm not very familiar with Masterchef shows on TV either. Who has time for TV these days anyway!!!

    Thank you so much for sharing...I will now be going to sleep dreaming about your Popcorn Chicken!!!

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  23. And a big thank you for following Carole's Chatter. cheers

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