Versatile Basic Fried Chicken / Katsu Chicken Recipe

I love making this recipe. It is simple and I prefer to buy the Chicken Fillet parts in the supermarket.

I would make a batch, and laid it flat on the tray (I save the plastic tray packaging), freeze it and whenever I want it, I would take out the required portion, put it into my air fryer, drizzle some oil on it, bake it for 15-20 min in an air fryer at 200 Celsius. Viola I have my fried chicken in minutes! It is like making your own instant fried chicken.

Though the recipe is basic, it is still tasty and you could eat it by itself.

Below are my all time favorites~~
1) Chicken Burger patty - Sandwich between bread and put your favorite sauce and lettuce. You would have a Chicken Burger in minutes! This are one of my favorite choice when I bake the loaf bread.

2) Teriyaki Chicken - I just bought the Teriyaki sauce and drizzle some and eat together with rice and broccoli

3) Japanese Chicken Curry - I use the curry that was sold in a cube. I make the soup base using carrot and onion. Then add in the cube and cook till the curry thicken (which I use my happy call for the water to evaporate faster. You may use a shallow pan). Then I would match it with rice and the fried chicken.

The katsu chicken calls for panko crumbs which are bread crumbs thus I uses bread crumbs. The bread crumbs that I bought are pack in 500g.

There is no fix weighing measurement on the recipes. So far I still have leftover bread crumbs after I have done about 1.5kg of fillet. I will just store in the fridge for those unused bread crumbs.

Recipe:
A) Marinate
500g Chicken fillets
Salt (About 1/4 tsp or to taste)
Pepper

C) Dipping station
Put 2 tbsb Plain flour into a plastic bag
Beat an egg in a bowl
Put some bread crumb into a plastic bag. If not enough then add more bread crumb accordingly.

Steps
1) Season chicken with Salt and Pepper to taste, set it aside for about 20 min. Meanwhile prepare the dipping ingredients while the chicken marinate.
2) Put all the fillet into the flour bag. Shake the bag. The idea is to coat it lightly with flour.
3) Dip into the egg
4) Put the chicken into the bread crumb bag. Shake the bag to ensure the chicken is coated.
5) You may fry it, air fry it for 15min at 200 celcius or you could lay the raw fried chicken on a flat plastic tray that was line in plastic bag, bag it and freeze it for future use.

How to make Frozen Chicken Recipe

Since the day that I bought my Pensonic Air Fryer, I have toyed with the idea/fantasy of making fried chicken from scratch! The motivation in making the fried chicken is that air fryer uses less oil compare to conventional method and that I could make "instant" chicken (when i freeze the leftover uncook chicken) in minutes! Further the price of frozen food is getting more expensive and we never know what they put into the frozen chicken. I also love this recipe as I could also include in my electric lunch box plans whereby i just air fry in the morning and I pack it straight to work.

Once I have tried successfully, there is no going back to store bought frozen fried chicken anymore! I have made this recipe 3 times within a few weeks, it is that addictive! The chicken came out moist in the inside and crispy on the outside. As I am heavy on the seasoning, the chicken is pack with great flavors.

For the Flour mixture I have adapted from Sonya recipes with variations while I come out with my own seasoning methods which works! I have initially tried the original recipe from Sonya however i may have miss something as the texture of the chicken was not what I was looking for.

I use the buttermilk and let the chicken rest for about half hour for the buttermilk to absorb the flour. This is a crucial steps.

Did I also confess that I love to collect herbs? I could locate most of the herbs under Sing Long Food Products Sdn Bhd which I have bought from Mercato (Pavillion) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This brand is also commonly found in other supermarkets. The prices are more affordable compared to the imported herbs. Aside to Sing Long, I was able to locate herbs in Bake with Yen with very reasonable prices.

I will scope out the necessary amount of flour mixture to another bowl during the dipping.  So that I could store the extra unused flour mixture for another fried chicken projects! Thus I could save time by just prepare chicken season and I could skip the extra steps of preparing the flour mixture.

1. This is how it looks like after seasoning the chicken for few hours in the fridge

 

2. Preparing my dredging stations! I have put the chicken on the wire rack to drain out any excess liquid before dredging starts. The top right corner is the buttermilk substitute made by milk and vinegar

3. I have dredge the chicken and put on the wire wrack on clockwise direction. Notice in the picture some of chicken is white powdery and some are orange color? I need the chicken to look like the orange color version which mans the chicken's flour is "soak" with the buttermilk. Roughly about half an hour or faster

4. I have line the pan with wax baking paper, and pour the leftover flour before putting the chicken on top. Note that I try to ensure that the chicken doesnt touch each other. This is so that it is easier for me to repack once the chicken are frozen solid.

 Recipes:
A) Seasoning the chicken
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1-3 tsp Korean cili powder
some water to let the paste come together

B) Flour mixture - can store the leftovers
300g flour
2 tst mixed herbs
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder

C) Homemade buttermilk recipe- If you don't have the real thing

1 cup hot milk (full cream)

1-2 tbsp vinegar

(mix all together, sieve and you will have buttermilk)

Steps

1. Season the chicken for 2 hours or overnight. If the paste is too thick, then feel free to add water
2. Put together the flour mixture and buttermilk. For the buttermilk, I use the full cream milk powder and mix with hot water before pouring the vinegar. You may use fresh milk but you need to heat it as I notice the vinegar reaction slowed down when using the cold milk.

2. Remove excess seasoning by letting the chicken sit on a wire rack before dipping into the buttermilk, followed by flour mixture and let it rest for half hour on a wire rack.
3. Cook in the air fryer for 180 degree C for 20 min followed by 200degree C for 5 min OR you may store the excess chicken by putting the chicken on a tray line with wax paper. Once frozen, then you may keep in together in a bag.


For Pensonic air fryer, I notice that I need to pour some oil on the chicken to cook successfully. Please try and do let me know how yours turn out!

Making Indian style Dry Curry Chicken

Dry Curry Chicken Indian style. Learn from my Sifu in Seremban Aunty Marie~!

While in Seremban I manage to learn a new dish thought by Aunty Marie! I was ecstatic as she is a great cook and I am happy to learn a few tricks and dishes from her. During this trip she thought me to make Dry Curry Chicken and Chocolate Cake. I would attempt the chocolate cake on my own and post it soon.

Aunty Marie version while i was cooking with her in Seremban. Looks like I have a long way to go to cook it her way

Serving Aunty Marie dry curry chicken with Panneer rice and vege.

When i learn this dish from her there wasnt any measurement of ingredients. So below is a rough estimate of the ingredient required. On my next attempt I would add in more water and cook the chicken longer at stage C before proceed to dump in the powder and tomato. That way it will shorten the time to cook the curry part and chicken wont burn and dry.

Ingredients:

How to cook Indian style Dry Curry Chicken

A)
Cinnamon - 1
Star anise - 1
Cintan putih - a pinch
Cardammon pods - 3
Clove - 4
2 pandan leaf
2 curry leaf
4-5 medium size onion cut into slices

B)
1 small chicken or half a big chicken. Chop into pieces
3 big potato peeled and cut into cube

C) Dice below with food processor
8 clove garlic
2 inch of ginger
2 small tomato or 1 big tomato

D) This are rough estimate. Season to taste
Meat curry powder - 3 - 4 teaspoon
Tumeric powder - 1 - 2 teaspoon
Cili powder - 1 - 2 teaspoon
Cintan putih in powder form. 1 - 2 teaspoon
Salt season to taste - roughly about 1 teaspoon

E)
2 small tomato or 1 big one cut into cube

F)
A handfull of coriander leaf (I use a type of fragrant leaf in my garden)

1. Stir fry (A) till onion become brown
2. Put in (B) and stir fry for few minutes. Add in (C) and stir fry. Cover the kuali for 5 -10 minutes and let the juice soak into the chicken. Check intermediate and stir fry to make sure it wont burn. (Note to self: Best to make sure the chicken are half cook at this stage as curry powder can burn easily)
3. Stir fry (D) and (E). After a few minutes add in some water otherwise chicken will dry up. Amount of water depends on individual.
4. When potato has soften add in 2/3 of coriander leaf and add in the rest when serving the chicken.

How to cook Panneer Rice
After serving the chicken, there will be some curry juice in the kuali.
Scoop up a few cup of rice and stir fry the rice. I have switch off the gas at this point as the rice is still warm. You will get delicious yummy rice that goes really well with the curry chicken!

Picture for illustration in making the curry chicken

Slicing the onion

After dicing with food processor the tomato, garlic and ginger

3 Russet potato dice and put into water to prevent the potato from changing colour

Onion and tomato

I use half a large chicken

Rempah: Cinnamon, Clove, Cintan putih, Star anise and Cardamon pods

Dumping into kuali and Stir fry A

Cook till onion has brown

Add in the chicken. Stir fry and pour C inside and cont stir fry. Let it cook for about 5-10 mins

Add D and E. Stir fry for few minutes then add some water.

Super easy and quick fried rice recipe

While waiting for my Oreo Cheese cake to bake for an hour, I was hungry and I haven't had my dinner. I have white rice but I do not have any side dishes to go with it. Now I am still wondering why my mum cook white rice only...well...While baking I could clean the pot and dishes from baking, prepare and cook fried rice, eat fried rice, watch tv a while, wash some more, check the cake and the cake is still not ready yet.

I was hungry and decided to cook fried rice with simple ingredients.
Ingredients (1 person)
Rice
1 egg
1 onion - chop
2 garlic clove - chop
Sesame oil, cooking oil, light soya sauce salt to taste.
For the vege I use a handfull green peas.
Spring onion - chop

Steps:
1. Pour in some cooking oil and sesame oil
2. Saute the onion and garlic till fragrant (small fire)
3. Add in rice. Pour sesame oil, salt and light soya sauce.
4. Add in the green peas. You can use long bean also. Or you can be creative and use almost any vege that you have. Saute for about 1 minute.
5. Create a hole at the centre, pour in some oil. Break an egg. Put some light soya sauce on the egg. Wait for the egg to be semi cook. Then mix in the rice at the side.
6. Add in spring onion. Saute for 30 seconds and the rice is done.

I was so hungry that I ate finish my fried rice within minutes! Basically my fried rice only have egg, green peas and seasoning. Simple and yummy fried rice.

Tom Yam recipe

I made tom yam soup recipe. It taste awesome!! I followed the recipe from shiokfood with minor amendment. Sigh...isn't it beautiful?

WHAT YOU NEED

Good quality Chinese chicken stock - 2 cups (500 ml) (not the crap you get from stock cubes)

Fresh or frozen lemongrass (dried lemongrass sucks) - 1 fat stalk (or 2 thin ones)

Galangal - 1 tablespoon (fresh is preferable, dried will do in a pinch - soak dried in warm water prior to use)

Kaffir Lime Leaves - 2-3 (cut into slivers

(If you don't have any of the above, Amazon ships a package of all the fresh ingredients you need for the soup.)

Nam Prik Pao (Thai roasted chilli paste) - 1-2 tsp (depends on how hot your brand of paste is)

Thai bird's eye chillies (or Serrano chillies) - 4-5 (big slices so you can avoid them easily)

Fish sauce - 2 tbsp

Lime juice - 1 medium lime

Onion - 1/4 of a medium onion (sliced)

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Coriander (cilantro for you Americans) leaves - 4 tbsp

Boneless chicken breast - 50 gm (chopped)

Straw mushrooms (or regular button mushrooms) - 4 (sliced)

Spring/Green onions - 3 tbsp (sliced thin)
HOW TO MAKE IT

For the lemongrass, use only the bottom white part (about 6 inches) and discard the woody grass part of it. With the flat side of a cleaver or a heavy object, pound and bruise the lemongrass so it releases the flavour. Cut into 2 inch segments.

Put lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce and stock into a pot and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Uncover the pot and add the Kaffir lime leaves, chilies, onion, sugar and chicken pieces.

Simmer for 2-3 minutes, then add Nam Prik Pao and mushrooms. Simmer for yet another 2 minutes. Now add the spring onions and let it simmer for 30 seconds.

Turn off the heat, add lime juice and garnish with coriander leaves. Test for saltiness and sourness. If required, adjust with more fish sauce (salt) and lemon juice (sour).

This makes a medium-hot bowl. Some prefer to have it spicier. Find your own comfort level. Remove the lemongrass and galangal before serving if you like. They're not particularly edible. Good for colds, good for a whole lotta things. Your grandma's chicken soup can't hold a candle up to this one. :)

How to make chicken stock?

Chicken Ponteh Recipe (Peranakan Food)

Conversation with my Peranakan friend from Malacca:
Baba: Peranakan food is not easy to make. Even though i help my mum also I don't know how to make Peranakan food.
It really piqued my curiosity instead of acting as a deterrent. He repeated this statement a few times when we talk about Peranakan food. Curiosity won over.

Yvonne: Reeeaaaallly so hard meh? Ok what is the Peranakan food that you like? Name me a few!

Baba: Ponteh, Sambal udang and Itik tim

Yvonne: Ok i will go try them out!

Baba: Really?? You will try?? But its really hard wor!!

Yvonne: Yeah why not (brave bravado)!!

Baba: Ok after you tried, you let me taste k!

Yvonne: Sure! The best way to master Peranakan food is to get a Baba to test right?

Baba: You are right!

Nothing beats mastering a difficult challenge. After my first try I wanted to learn more!

At the same time I told him that I have also eaten great tasting Peranakan food in Malacca in which my friend responded, "cheh that is not original also!" Which is why I decided to venture into Peranakan food and see how far I can master the Perankan food.

I googled and cross check with Baba on the ingredient. My first venture was Chicken Ponteh and Sambal Udang. The Ponteh turn out delicious. The Sambal Udang turn out really "cacat". The Sambal Udang could have failed because I use lesser udang and that i could not use my kuali. Sambal Udang need tamarind sauce which is acidic on the kuali/steel. So i have to think outside the box in cooking the Sambal Udang. Next time I will use non-stick pan. The challenging part about Sambal Udang is in making the sambal! When i cook the sambal, it burn really easily! I dont mind pounding the ingredient but not the part where the sambal splash into my eyes, face and burn my hand! Much much later I learn that I could blend the whole sambal.... Well back to Chicken Ponteh. Below are the recipe.

Taken from Elsewhere website with minor alteration:

INGREDIENTS

1kg chicken
2 tablespoon sweet bean paste (sweet tau-chu)
300gm shallots
150gms garlic
300gm potatoes
30gms black mushrooms
2 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
50gms sugar
30gms palm sugar (gula melaka)
160mls cooking oil
1.5 litre water
Pinch of salt

METHOD

Clean and chop the whole chicken. Soak black mushrooms in hot water until soft (about 15 minutes), drain and clean properly under running water then set aside.

Wash and cut potatoes into small pieces. Grind the shallots, garlic and bean paste separately into fine pastes.

Heat oil in wok and fry the finely ground shallot paste and garlic paste until brownish and fragrant. Add ground bean paste and fry until fragrant. Add chicken, black mushrooms and potatoes.

Mix well and fry for about five minutes. Pour in water and stir.

Tip:water just enough to cover the chicken. I poured too much water. It still taste nice but next time will reduce the water.

Add light and dark soya sauce, sugar, palm sugar and salt to taste.

Simmer until chicken and potatoes are cooked.

Serve with steamed rice and sambal belacan.

Tips: If the taste is slightly bitter as a result of overcooked garlic and shallots, add a little sugar to taste. Ayam Pongteh can be kept in the fridge for a few days and actually tastes better. Chef Bong says it can also be served with toast for breakfast. I believe her.

--------------------

I will definitely try this recipe again. As I was making this dish the interesting part is that I wasnt sure what to expect in the end. Sure I have some vague memories of trying Ponteh before in Malacca but I didnt quite like it. However now i am totally loving it!

A challenge that I soon realize in making this dish is to deal with the shallots. I was semi crying while cleaning, peeling and blending the ingredient. I get a second round of tears in the Sambal Udang dish also. I guess that its one of the perils in mastering Peranakan food.

And i will need to do more research to make the Sambal Udang work next round. Wish that I can learn under an expert though. That way i can learn faster and know more recipe!

Nasi Putih Ayam Kunyit Recipe

While working night shift I suddenly feel inspired to cook my favorite Malay food. I chatted with my colleague Hidayah and apparently its actually pretty easy to prepare (Though the conversation was more like marinate with kunyit powder and put in anything u like lah). So on my off day the next day after making my cake in the afternoon, I felt hungry and the next thing i know i was online flipping the web for a good ayam kunyit recipe. I came across a mouth watering blog call Foodilicious (click for the original recipe) and was instantly inspired to cook the recipe in the blog. I have most of the ingredient except cili padi, the fish sauce and bird eye cilli. So i made some changes and cook it with the ingredient I had in hand. Outcome is that I can taste the Ayam Kunyit with a tinge of Cili spiciness in it. The lemon grass and lime leafs enhance the taste of the dish.

I am glad that I finally started cooking my favourite Malay food. The fun part is that I can eat as much chicken as I want and I do not have to ration it when I eat at Malay stall! The Malay stall usually give a few pieces and always leave me craving for more.

Originally the recipe is callled Spicy Turmeric Chicken (Ayam Goreng Kunyit Pedas) Recipe but since I do not have most of the cilli ingredient, my version would lean more towards the usual Ayam Kunyit recipe. Once I get hold of the cili I will try out the original recipe from Foodilicious.

Ayam Kunyit Recipe: Serves 3
Marinate and leave aside
-Half a chicken (debone and cut up the chicken meat into pieces)
-1 teaspoon turmeric powder
-1 teaspoon light soya sauce
-1 teaspoon oyster sauce
-1 to 2 teaspoon home made cilli (its actually blended cili padi)
(Above is just an estimate. In practice its season to taste)

1/2 big onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, roughtly chopped
1 small lemongrass, slices

4 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
1/4 carrot, julienned
4 long grean bean

1 teaspoon light soya sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1-2 teaspoon home made cilli (its actually blended cili padi)

After marinating the chicken. Heat up a frying pan with about a tablespoon of cooking oil.

When the pan is heated well, fry the sliced onion, garlic, lemongrass. When it soften, add in the marinated chicken and stir, until chicken is cooked. Add in carrots, bean and finely sliced lime leaves. Serve with warm rice.

Curry Chicken recipe to compliment the Thosai (Part 2)

Making Chicken Curry

I wanted to make the curry to compliment my thosai. I decided to make the curry and thosai spontaneously when i found that no one cook for dinner. As it was spontaneous I tried to make do with the ingredients that I have on hand. I am not expert in making curry but the curry ended up taste great and the spices I use really enchance the flavour. Though my curry is successful it can further improve since my dad's curry taste even better than mine.

I wanted to prepare for 3 ppl. Therefore I wont be using a whole chicken. I cut down on the proportion:
-3/4 of half a chicken
4 tomato
3 potato
4 small onion and 1 big onion
2 pandan leaf/ 2 stalk of curry leaf/ fragrant leaf (not sure of exact name but its a replacement for corriander leaf according to my mum) / serai
Cilli powder/ Baba's Meat Curry Powder /
2 teaspoon of Santan and 2 teaspoon of MilkI also add 2 clove of garlic and ginger
4 Clove (Bunga Cengkih)
1 Star anise
3 Cardamon pods
1 Cinnamon

2 teaspoon of santan and 2 teaspoon of milk

The making of curry

Prepare:

-Cut the potato and tomato into quarters
-Chop the garlic, ginger, small and big onion into pcs - blend in food chopper
-Clean the pandan leaf, fragrant leaf, curry leaf and serai
-Flatten the serai. Put on the chopping board and use something hard to flatten the serai
-Once that the curry is almost ready. Lastly mix the santan and milk in a bowl and add some water

Cooking.
1. Pour some oil into kuali. Stir fry with small fire all the spices - Cinnamon, Star anise, Cardamon pods, Clove for few seconds.
2. Stir fry the mixture of onion/garlic/ginger/serai
3. Put in the fragrant leaf/ curry leaf
4. Put in the tomato, potato and chicken
5. Put in a very humble amt of cili powder - about half a teaspoon
6. Put in the curry powder. Make sure the curry powder cover the chicken adequately
Curry powder burn easily so make sure to control the fire. Overall I use medium to small fire.
7. Stir fry until its fragrant but dont burn the curry powder or the spices. If the spices burn then the curry will turn bitter
8. Transfer the whole mixture into a soup pot. Pour water till it covers the chicken. Dont pour too much else the curry will be too watery.

Cook about half hour - 45minutes. Check intermediary. Medium to small fire.

15 minutes before the chicken is ready put in the pandan leaf.

Once done put some salt to taste. Add in the santan/milk. Once we add the santan we cant cook for long as the santan can turn into oil if cook too long.

Voila~ done!

Related topics:
Making thosai the easy way (Part 1)
Tomato Chutney Recipe (Part 3)

Yummy Chicken Burger!! Just the way i like it!

I make Chicken Burger for Lunch. I love my burger with lots of lettuce/cheese/mayo and half cook egg!

Recipe: Potato chicken in oyster sauce

Ingredient
Chicken
Potato
Tomato sauce, Oyster sauce and a bit of Cili sauce
Light and dark soya sauce
brown sugar

1st
Chop the chicken into small pcs
Cut the potato into small pcs

2nd - Fry potato and chicken (fire: big - medium - big)
- Put oil in Kuali
- Fry the potato till yellow and take it out
- Fry the chicken for few minute.. till turn white then take it out
- take out the chicken and place it with the potato

3rd - Cook the sauce in kuali
- Put the following sauce in kuali and stir
oyster sauce (main ingredient so put more in proportion of other sauce)
tomato sauce (smaller proportion from oyster sauce)
cili sauce (put little bit)
black and light soya sauce
brown sugar - about 2 teaspoon

4th - put the chicken and potato back to kuali (together with sauce) and stir fry. take it out when sauce spread evenly.

Recipe: Curry chicken/pork

Picture: Curry Chicken/ Pork

Ingredient
6 Small onion - cut into tiny pcs
belacan from penang
Serai
3/4 Curry leaf
small amount Cintan manis + 3 pcs of cintan kayu (optional)
1 spoon Cili powder
Curry meat + chicken powder
Santan powder half pack
About 1 Chicken
4-6 Potato
Oil
2 spoon salt, very tiny amt of ajinamoto

Cooking: medium fire
- Put oil in kuali
- Put onion + belacan + curry leaf + serai + cintan manis + cintan kayu - stir fry
(if its pork curry - add garlic. if chicken - no garlic)
- Put the cili powder (small amount) - teaspoon
- Put the curry powder - few spoon full
it will burn quickly after put the powder. so off the fire first then dump the chicken and potato then on big fire again.
- Put the chicken + potato (stir fry. to make sure that the curry powder is enuf, make sure the chicken is a bit of curry powder color else add some more. if too much wont taste nice)

0r

- Put the pork (front leg near shoulder and back - chu chang rao - sell in kg) + potato. the rest same as above.

- mix the whole thing
- add in a bowl of water until it some wat cover the chicken. stir it then cover it

Cover the kuali for 20 min - 30 min
(till the potato is soft - can know by poking the potato with the senduk...if can poke thru then its soft)
-big/medium fire. after 10 minute interval check the result as different gas stove has different kind of fire.... if fire strong then maybe water will dry up fast. if not enuf water then add in water.

meanwhile mix 2 teaspoon of santan (about half a packet), 2 spoon milk powder into bowl of water.

After the 20 min - big fire
- open the cover.
- add some salt and very little ajinamoto.
- taste the mixture to see whether adequate salt

But the bowl of mix santan milk into kuali then stir until boiling - abt 2-3 min
(santan cannot cook too long as it will turn into coconut oil)

- taste to see taste ok. if not enuf salt can add.

take it out and transfer to pot and ready to eat!!