Taiwanese Fried Chicken might be the best fried chicken you will put in your mouth!!
When I was traveling to Taiwan, I had to try all different kinds of street food. Taiwan is street food heaven!! One of the foods that caught my eyes was this fried chicken. One, because of the delicious frying chicken smell, and two, the refreshing basil in the chicken!
The only thing I didn’t like about it is it was NOT a boneless chicken nugget… So I MUST retreat this recipe for myself at home with boneless chicken! lol
Are you ready? This recipe is so addictive. Get ready!!! Let’s get started!
First, let’s marinate the chicken. One of the critical ingredients for this Taiwanese fried chicken is fermented bean curd. That’s where the funky, delicious flavor is coming from!!
Smash down fermented bean curd in a large mixing bowl with a spatula.
Add oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, white pepper, and garlic, then mix all the sauce. Add the chicken and mix well. Cover and let it marinate for 2 hours overnight.
Heat frying oil to 350°F.
Add sweet potato flour and coat the marinated chicken evenly.
Thick sweet potato flour is the secret ingredient for this Taiwanese fried chicken! It is super crispy and gives a unique Taiwanese fried food look.
Carefully drop the chicken one by one in the frying oil. Do 2 to 3 batches to not to crowd the pot. If you crowd the pot too much, the oil temperature will drop too fast and too much. The chicken won’t turn out as crispy as it should be. Fry the chicken for 3 to 4 minutes or until it’s floating on the surface of the oil and fully cooked. When the chicken is done cooking, remove it from oil and place it on a baking pan lined with a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining chicken.
Now, increase the oil temperature to 375°F.
Mix salt, Sichuan peppercorn, white pepper, and paprika (or cayenne for a kick!) in a small mixing bowl.
Add half of the first batch of the fried chicken and fry them for 30 seconds. Now, get ready a lid on your hand that is big enough to cover the frying pot and add a handful of basil into frying oil and immediately close the lid. Count 5 seconds and uncover. Remove fried chicken and basil from the oil. Repeat with the remaining chicken and basil.
Sprinkle dry salt mixture on top of the fried chicken.
Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
Taiwanese Fried Chicken
Description
The BEST Crispy Taiwanese Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 small cube fermented bean curd
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp shaoxing wine
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1” cubes
- frying oil
- 3/4 cup sweet potato flour
- Handful thai basil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sichuan peppercorn, toasted and grind
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/4 tsp paprika or cayenne
Get Recipe Ingredients
Instructions
- Smash down fermented bean curd in a large mixing bowl with a spatula. Now add oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, white pepper and garlic then mix all the sauce together. Add the chicken and mix well. Cover and let it marinate for 2 hours to over night.
- Heat frying oil to 350°F.
Add sweet potato starch and coat the marinated chicken evenly. - Carefully drop the chicken one by one in the frying oil. Do 2 to 3 batches to not to crowd the pot. If you crowd the pot too much, the oil temperature will drop to fast and too much. The chicken won’t turn out as crispy as it should be. Fry the chicken 3 to 4 minutes or until it’s floating on the surface of the oil and fully cooked. When the chicken is done cooking, remove from oil and place on a baking pan lined with cooling rack. Repeat with remaining chicken.
- Now, increase the oil temperature to 375°F.
Mix salt, Sichuan pepper corn, white pepper and paprika in a small mixing bowl. - Add half of the first batch of the fried chicken and fry them for 30 seconds. Now, get ready a lid on your hand that is big enough to cover the frying pot and add handful of basil into frying oil and immediately close the lid. Count 5 seconds and uncover. Remove fried chicken and basil from the oil. Repeat with the remaining chicken and basil.
- Sprinkle dry salt mixture on top of the fried chicken. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
45 comments
This looks amaaaaaazingggg! Thank you for sharing the recipe, so want to try this!!!
I was curious – in the emailed recipe, you say to clean the oil in between batches, and I have struggled with this in previous fried chicken recipes.
How do you recommend cleaning oil mid-cooking?
Thank you!!
Thank you! I use a skimmer in between frying to keep the oil clean.
I can’t wait to try this!!! I hope I can get that fermented bean curd here in the Philippines!
best of luck to you!
You can buy them at Chinese store in Cartimar, Libertad or in Binondo. That’s where I get my chinese cooking basic condiments. Even the shaoxing wine you can buy them there.
I made this recipe today and it was AMAZING! The only thing was I wasn’t able to find a thick sweet potato flour. I found a sweet potato starch which you said was okay to use but it was finer which resulted in 3/4 cups being too much! But thank you so much for the recipe!
This looks soooo delicious! Definitely including in this week’s rotation 🙂 Would you be able to use an air fryer for this recipe?
Yes! You must remember to spray oil on the chicken beforehand.
Loved this dish. I cooked this for my extended family’s Sunday Family Dinner along with drunken noodles and a variation of the grilled chicken salad (used grilled tuna instead). The popcorn chicken was a real hit. It was easy to make. I could not find the fermented bean curd in Raleigh NC. I used bean paste. I will continue to search for the bean curd. None the less, the chicken and Thai basil was the excellent. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful cuisine.
Im glad everyone enjoyed!
Sabrina, I live in Raleigh. You can find fermented bean curd at H mart or Grand Asia.
Great recipe! It was so tasty! My husband and I loved it 🙂
Glad to hear it!
Very tasty, I enjoy your recipes for its simplicity to follow. For the sweet potato flour, I couldn’t find that one, so I used sweet potato starch instead, but perhaps my chicken was too wet? Either way, nice strong flavour, and the spiciness was a nice kick at the end. Looking forward trying more dishes from you!
Thank you so much for your support! I Hope you find all my other recipes just as helpful and useful!
I made this recipe two days in a row, my family couldn’t get enough of it on the first day. I minced my garlic instead of chopping it and the garlic absorbed the chicken much better. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
What’s a good substitue for the sweet potato starch?
Regular potato starch, or corn starch should work, but it just won’t be as crispy.
Amazing webste and delicious recipes
My husband and I like to go to this one Taiwanese restaurant just for their fried chicken. I’ve been meaning to give this recipe a try as soon as I saw you upload the video for it. I finally gave it a try today and OMG this recipe is SPOT ON. I made this today and my husband ate the majority of the batch himself. It’s a winner in our book!
I’m glad you guys found one of my recipes both useful and helpful! I hope my other recipes do the same!
Do you have any plans on making a cookbook?
Can I use something to subistute the wine?
You can find shaoxing wine at your local Asian/Chinese grocery store. If you can’t find it, you can use dry sherry. But if you can’t eat/drink alcohol, then you can substitute to water. hope this helped!
This tastes so much like the fried chicken in Taiwan! You just made my family so so happy.
Thank you! I got the inspiration from when I was visiting Taiwan last year!
Love this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing. It was a huge hit with my family & friends.
I want to try it in an air fryer this time – any tips on how long and what temp? (I just got the Ninja foodi so still a beginner.) thank you!
This was super tasty. The taste was similar to the ones I pick up from local Taiwanese snack shop. Since COVID-19 has taken over, I am glad I can satisfy my cravings while staying home. Thank you for this!
Thank you! For trying out my recipes! Make sure next time you take a picture and share it on instagram so I can re-share!
Hello, is there any difference in flavour if I substitute sweet potato flour with regular potato flour? Also what if I don’t use basil leaves? Do they add flavour to the chicken? Thanks
It would won’t alter the texture just a tiny bit, basil does add a little flavor but can be subbed out as well. Hope this helped (:
I can’t beleive it! I followed your recipe and it tasted JUST like the chicken that I order at Tawainese snack bars! Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!
That is exactly what I am here for! Glad you enjoyed my recipe(:
Can I use tapioca starch instead of sweet potato starch? Thx!
That should be fine.
Honestly, this was the best fried chicken we’ve ever had! Savory and with depth of flavor. The chicken thighs were perfect for this. It was juicy and the crispness was fantastic. The pepper dry mix was wonderful ( we’re using it on other things. ) its great on eggs too! The basil added a great finishing touch. Thank you for sharing this recipe. We love it!
Can I substitute sweet basil for Thai basil?
My husband said, ‘I thought I had a pretty cush life…good job, nice house, loving wife…then she puts this in front of me, and I have a new reason to wake up in the morning.’ ????? high praise from a former French chef! Thank you!!
OMG!! Thats so funny! So glad you guys enjoy my content (:
Hello. May I ask what brand of Sweet Potato Flour did you use? ? Thanks!
I can’t find sweet potato flour. Grocery store has sweet potato starch and potato flour. Which one should I get for this recipe?
I love your videos and recipes. Great to see the step by step process.
The sweet potato starch should work just fine for this recipe! Hope this helped (:
Hello! What frying oil do you recommend? Vegetable? Peanut? Canola? Olive? Avocado?
My mouth is watering..
So much flavor!! Surprisingly I had most the ingredients in my kitchen. Except for basil and sweet potato starch. We normally fried with cornstarch.. I would have, but was so tempted by the extra crunchiness you promised with sweet potato starch and wanted it all. So extra trips to the Chinese market for Thai basil and the starch.
This was as much fun to make as it was delicious to eat!
My family fought over everything.. even the crumbs.
New family favorite ?
Thank you Seonkyoung!!