Taiwanese popcorn chicken 盐酥鸡 is a famous street food that is extraordinarily crispy and sprinkled with sharp and biting spice seasoning. The unusual spice mix leaves a slight numbing feeling on your tongue!

Even the basil leaves accompanying the dish are uniquely deep-fried, adding a delightful texture that will shatter like paper-thin glass. 

If that is enough to make you drool profusely, here is the detailed recipe to guide you through making it home. 

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🛒Ingredients needed for the Popcorn Chicken

This popcorn chicken tastes quite different from other versions, such as KFC and other chain outlets. The main difference is that it is marinated with a Chinese marinade and then coated with a mixture of spices, including Sichuan peppercorns and chili. Below are the key ingredients used to make the popcorn chicken:

• Chicken. The recipe requires chicken breast or thigh meat without bone and skin. The meat should be cut into small pieces, about 1 inch in length, to ensure it can be coated with lots of cornstarch and seasoned properly with the spice mix.
• Spice mix. The spice mix consists of normal white peppercorns, salt, chili powder, and the unique ingredient, Sichuan peppercorn. The Sichuan peppercorns will give your tongue a numbing effect, which is unique to this recipe.
• Marinade. The marinade for the chicken consists of light soy sauce, Chinese wine, ginger, garlic, and Chinese 5-spice powder. If you are familiar with Chinese cooking, you will notice that these are common ingredients in an ordinary home’s kitchen pantry.
• Basil. The basil leaves are deep-fried and mixed with the chicken, providing a unique flavor.

👉 How to cook the Popcorn Chicken?

The list of ingredients in the recipe seems lengthy, but the cooking process is quite straightforward.

1. First, cut the skinless, boneless chicken meat into small one-inch pieces to absorb the marinade and be bite-size.

2. Mix light soy sauce, salt, garlic, ginger, five-spice powder, and Shaoxing wine to marinate the chicken. Once the chicken is well-mixed with these ingredients, add the egg white and regular flour to coat the chicken. Keep it in the refrigerator for half an hour before proceeding to coat it with the cornstarch. It is harmless if you set it aside longer or even overnight. 

3. Coat the marinated chicken with starch in a large bowl in small batches to allow the starch to be absorbed by the chicken thoroughly. Set aside for 15 minutes before deep frying. 

4. Heat the oil to 150°C/300°F. Drop the chicken into the oil in small batches. If you crowd the oil with too many chicken pieces, they will stick together and not be deep-fried evenly. Deep-fry the first round at a lower temperature of 150°C/300°F until the chicken turns pale yellow, which will take approximately 3 minutes. The popcorn chicken will become dry if you fry it for too long. Remove the chicken from the oil and let it cool in a wire mesh strainer. Meanwhile, continue frying the remaining batches of the chicken. 

5. Let the chicken cool for a few minutes after the first round of deep frying to allow the moisture to evaporate from the chicken. Then, continue with the second round of frying. Now crank up the heat to 190°C/375°F. Deep-fry the chicken until it turns golden brown, which will take one to two minutes. Remove the chicken immediately and drain on a colander or wire mesh strainer. 

6. Pluck, clean, and dry the basil leaves.  Deep-fry the leaves. The leaves will immediately crackle and cause the oil to splatter, so it is advisable to immediately cover the pan or the deep fryer to keep your kitchen away from the oil. It only needs about 20 seconds to turn the basil leaves crispy. 

7. Place the fried chicken in the large mixing bowl and combine it with the fried basil leaves and the spice mix.

🫙 How to prepare the salt and pepper spice mix

The spice mix is prepared with peppercorns, salt, and chili powder. First, grind the two types of peppercorns (white and Sichuan) with a spice grinder until fine. Then, put the mixture on a fine sieve to remove the large pieces. After that, add the fine salt and chili powder to mix well.

You can adjust the quantity of each ingredient according to your preference. For example, if you like it spicier, add more chili powder. I use cayenne pepper, but you can use paprika if you only want the beautiful red color. Besides, you can omit the Sichuan peppercorns if you don’t like the numbing effect on your tongue. 

You may also consider toasting the peppercorns in a frying pan before grinding them, as it can create more flavor, although it’s not a mandatory step. 

The amount of the peppercorn spice mix for the chicken is flexible and should match your preference. This recipe uses one teaspoon of spice mix for 350g of chicken meat. 

💡Tips and notes for the best popcorn chicken

• You can use chicken thigh or chicken breast meat to prepare popcorn chicken. I use chicken thigh meat because it is tender and juicier. Remove the skin if you want to use chicken thighs. Cut it into bite-size cubes about one inch in diameter, regardless of which you choose. 
• Each ingredient of the marinade has its function. Light soy sauce and wine are for the umami and saltiness. Garlic and ginger are perfect ingredients to enhance the flavor of the chicken.  Chinese five-spice powder (a mixture of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds) provides a broad flavor foundation to the chicken.  Egg white protects the chicken from the oil’s direct heat to keep it moist and tender. The flour holds the liquid seasoning to the chicken during marination. 
• Once you coat the chicken with cornstarch, set it aside for 15 minutes. Its moisture will absorb the cornstarch and hold it firmly on the surface. If you fry the chicken immediately after coating it with the starch, the loose starch on the surface will fall into the oil, making it murky and dirty. 
• Sweet potato starch is used in authentic Taiwanese recipes. Look for those with a coarse texture instead of finely ground. However, it can be hard to find if you are outside of Asia. A good alternative is to coat the chicken with cornstarch or wheat starch. 
• I used Thai basil in this easy popcorn chicken recipe, which is widely available in Asia. You can use other species of basil if they are not available.
• If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, you can check the temperature by dipping a wooden or bamboo chopstick into the oil. The oil is hot enough when bubbles rise slowly from the surface of the chopstick for the first round of frying and vigorously for the second round of frying.
• Note: If you do not intend to deep-fry the chicken, you can air fry the popcorn chicken for a healthier version. The final texture of the chicken will be less crispy but healthier.

🍳Why double-fried chicken is so crispy

I use the double-fry method to create an incredibly crispy popcorn chicken. Here is how it works:

The first round of frying is to cook the chicken and remove most of the moisture on the chicken’s surface. As such, it requires a lower temperature and a slightly longer duration. After the first frying, rest the chicken until it cools down, and allow sufficient time for the moisture to migrate from the inner part to the surface. Now, the surface becomes wet again. Finally, deep-fry the second round over high heat for a short duration to remove all the moisture on the surface, turning it into a crispy crust without overcooking the chicken. 

⚖️Deep fryer versus frying with a pan

The electric deep fryer is undoubtedly the best equipment because the chicken pieces are suspended in the frying basket. Therefore, they are free from debris that will sink to the bottom. The cooking is evener, and the temperature can be controlled with its built-in thermometer.

However, it may not be practical to do it at home, as you need a large amount of oil. Therefore, I use a pan to deep-fry the chicken in this recipe. The downside is that you must manually control the temperature and continuously stir the chicken to avoid sticking together, particularly during the first minute.

💡 The origin of the name Popcorn Chicken

The term “popcorn chicken” comes from the small, bite-sized chicken pieces that are breaded and fried, resembling popped corn kernels. This makes them easy to eat and enjoy, much like traditional popcorn snacks. The concept of popcorn chicken originated in the early 1990s and was first test-marketed by KFC in the U.S. in March 1992 before being rolled out nationwide in September of that year. Food technologist Gene Gagliardi created the dish, which has since become a popular menu item at KFC and other fast-food outlets worldwide. In essence, the name “popcorn chicken” effectively captures the bite-sized nature of the chicken pieces, visually linking them to the familiar snack of popcorn.

The Taiwanese version differs from the KFC version as its taste resembles the street food Taiwanese chicken steak.

📜  Here are some other related recipes if you like popcorn chicken 

If you like this Taiwanese popcorn chicken or other Asian chicken recipes, you will be interested in checking out the following recipe recipes:

• Taiwanese chicken steak: You will be fascinated by its insane size, which the locals describe as comparing it to the dimension of the face. It is a thin, large, look-alike schnitzel snack with a crumbly, crispy coating.
• Taiwanese pineapple cake is a favorite bakery delicacy all year round. It is a crumbly, nearly melt-in-the-mouth pastry with pineapple jam as the filling encased inside.
• Three cups chicken is prepared by a cup of rice wine, lard, and soy sauce, hence the name ‘three cups.’ Eventually, it became the de facto national dish of Taiwan.

Continue to Content

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

Yield: 3 portions

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Two unique features make Taiwanese popcorn chicken one of the most famous street foods- extraordinarily crunchiness and the unique spice seasoning. 

How crispy is it? It is still crackling crunchy when you bite into it after frying for one hour. 

Print

Ingredients

Ingredients A (Chinese salt and pepper)

• 2 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn
• 1 tbsp of white peppercorn
• 2 tbsp of salt
• 1 tsp chili powder

Ingredients B (marinade & chicken)

• 350g of chicken thigh or breast meat, cut into one-inch cubes
• 2 tsp of light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp of ginger, chopped
• 1/2 tsp of five-spice powder
• 1/2 egg white
• 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine

Ingredients C (Others)

• 1 cup of cornstarch
• A handful of basil leaves
• OIl for deep frying

Instructions

The spice mix:

1. Toast the Szechuan peppercorns and white peppercorns in a frying pan over low heat until they become aromatic. 
2. Ground the peppercorns with the spice grinder. 
3. Sieve the ground peppercorns to remove any large pieces.
4. Combine the ground peppercorns with salt and chili powder. 

The chicken:

1. Cut the chicken meat, skinless, into bite-size.
2. Combine with all the ingredients in B.
3. Marinate for at least one hour.
4. Coat the marinated chicken with plenty of cornstarch.
5. Remove the excess and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Heat the oil to 150°C/300°F.
7. Drop the chicken into the oil in small batches until pale yellow, which will take approximately 4 minutes. 
8. Remove the chicken, let it cool in a wire mesh strainer.
9. Now increase the heat to 190°C/375°F.
10. Deep-fry fry the chicken (the second time) until golden, which will take between one to two minutes. 
11. Throw a handful of basil leaves into the oil. Cover the pan with a lid to prevent the oil from splattering.
12. After ten seconds, remove the basil and the chicken immediately and drain on a colander or wire mesh strainer. 
13. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of the spice mix A and mix well.  Serve.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 3 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 568Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 184mgSodium: 1264mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 40g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 1/12/2021