Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken
A typical Taiwanese street food and one of my favorite snacks! Perfect for sharing at a picnic and wowing your friends with the juiciness of your chicken and the delicious flavor of the five spice.
Ingredients
- ½ lb boneless chicken thighs, cubed
For marinade
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or whole grain flour
For coating
- Extra cornstarch or whole grain flour
- (optional) extra salt, sugar, white pepper, chili powder, and Chinese five spice powder
Directions
- In a bowl mix together the ingredients for the marinade.
- Cube chicken thighs into desired sizes. Toss chicken into the marinade and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Make sure every piece of chicken is coated.
- Once the chicken is done marinating, preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The next step is for the coating. You can simply use cornstarch, but adding an extra mix of salt, sugar, five spice, chili powder, and/or white pepper to the cornstarch will add extra flavor to your nuggets.
- Put about 4 tbsp of the cornstarch mixture into a clean bowl and fully coat the marinated chicken. The chicken should look fairly dry. If not, add a bit more cornstarch, but don't over do it! The cornstarch coating should look like a light, thin coating but dry to the touch.
- Place the chicken on a wire baking rack inside of a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on the size of your chicken pieces. You can also deep-fry or air fry these for extra crunchiness!
- Once done, enjoy on top of some rice or on its own as a yummy snack!