Credit line: Excerpted from MADE IN TAIWAN: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation. Copyright @ 2023 by Clarissa Wei. Photography Copyright © 2023 by Yen Wei and Ryan Chen. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, and imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.
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This recipe for popcorn chicken, adapted from Clarissa Wei’s debut cookbook Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation, was a staple of the country’s night market culture in the 1970s, around the same time that American fried chicken was gaining in popularity in Taiwan. What makes this a distinctly Taiwanese dish is its double-fried crunch, produced by a batter of thick sweet potato starch, and its finishing seasoning of chili powder, ground white pepper, and shards of fried Thai basil. (You can find thick sweet potato starch and Taiwanese rice wine at many Asian grocery stores or via online retailers.) Whether eaten at a food stall or in the comfort of your home kitchen, this irresistible dish perfectly embodies the Taiwanese wok-frying tradition. (Note: To minimize oil splatter when frying the Thai basil, make sure the leaves are completely dry before frying.)
Yield: 3
