Kung Pao & Beyond by Susan Jung COOKBOOK CHALLENGE

Editor Keith Kendrick indulges his love of fried chicken with this celebration of the whole bird

“

Is there any omnivore out there who doesn’t like fried chicken?” is one of the greatest opening sentences to a cookbook I’ve ever read. It’s posed by Susan Jung – former food & drink editor for the South China Morning Post – at the start of her wonderful homage to every cut of the bird. I thought I’d tried every possible variation of fried chicken, from Korean to Japanese karaage. Good Food columnist Melissa Thompson has even filmed a series about it – The Stories Behind Fried Chicken. But, Kung Pao & Beyond takes it above and, well, beyond.

Susan’s challenge was to deliver dozens of original fried chicken recipes without being repetitious, so she drew inspiration from friends living in East and South-east Asia, discovering myriad ways to flavour, joint, brine and marinate. The majority of Susan’s dishes are easy, but you might need to seek out ingredients at specialist shops. For instance, don’t hesitate to try the Japanese chicken nuggets (right) made with furikake, available in larger supermarkets. But, I wanted a challenge – and there was no bigger challenge than the nor mai gai (sticky rice chicken). Susan writes, “This is by far the most difficult recipe in the book. It’s not for the squeamish.” And she isn’t kidding.

The recipe is six pages long, and involves boning a whole chicken and stuffing it. The day before cooking, I set to work digging and scraping, desperately trying not to tear the skin. After an hour, I wished I’d taken the bloomin’ bird to a butcher. But, I got there in the end, creating what looked like a chicken-shaped onesie. Even trickier work was to come: cooking rice, stuffing the bird, skewering, steaming, drying it in the fridge for eight hours, frying, then frying again. The occasion needs to be very special for this amount of effort. It was beyond a labour of love – something I had to explain to my hungry family. Their verdict? “Delicious. Can we have it again next week?” Er, no.

Try It Yourself

Japanese chicken nuggets

SERVES 4-6 PREP 10 mins plus 2 hrs 30 mins marinating

COOK 10 mins EASY

800g boneless chicken breasts

4 garlic cloves, grated

1 lemon, zested and juiced

½ tsp white pepper

100g potato flour (or combine 50g rice flour and 50g cornflour)

2 eggs

150g panko breadcrumbs

25g furikake

1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)

4 tsp black and white sesame seeds

750ml vegetable oil sticky rice and your favourite condiments and veg, to serve

1 First, butterfly the chicken breasts, then cut into 4cm chunks and put in a large bowl. Add about 12g salt, mix well and chill for 30 mins.

2 Stir in the garlic, along with the lemon zest and juice and the white pepper. Set aside to marinate for no longer than 2 hrs at room temperature.

3 Tip the potato flour into a shallow dish. Whisk the eggs and put in another shallow dish. In a third, mix the panko with the furikake, gochugaru and sesame. Dredge the chicken in the flour, then dip in the egg. Dredge in the panko, pressing firmly so the breadcrumbs stick. Lay the pieces on a rack over a tray.

4 Pour the oil into a wok or frying pan, ensuring it is no more than two-thirds full, and bring to 160C over a medium heat. If you don’t have a thermometer, test the oil is ready by dropping in a little panko

– it should brown within 1 min. Fry the chicken in four batches for about 2 mins until golden, then drain on a clean rack. Serve with sticky rice, condiments and veg, if you like.

PER SERVING (6) 433 kcals fat 15g saturates 1g carbs 32g • sugars 2g • fibre 3g • protein 40g • salt 2.7g