Fried Chicken ala Sunburst

Fried chicken is anyone's comfort food.  It looks very simple but why do KFC, Popeyes, Jollibee, Sunburst serve it better with tender juicy meat and crispy skin than any home cooked fried chicken.  I bumped into Skip to Malou's modern asian series on fried chicken ala Jollibee and tried it out.  My jollibee chicken turned out to be ala sunburst looking, my family thought we bought it from the local restaurant.  The technique was indeed successful but the taste needs a little tweaking.

Ingredients

8-10 pcs chicken parts

Marinade:

Lemon

2tsp rock salt

1tsp black pepper

1tsp garlic powder

1/2c all purpose flour

1/2c cornstarch

1tbsp garlic powder

1tbsp five spice powder (ngohiong powder)

2tsp salt

1tsp pepper

Procedure

1. Thaw chicken completely. Clean and drain excess water.

2. Toss chicken with lemon, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.  I once omitted this step and found it very bland.

3. Prepare the batter, whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder and five spice powder.

4. Heat oil in a deep wok, cast iron is best as it retains heat longer.

5. Dredge the chicken with the flour mixture. Coat it in between the skin and meat as well, this gives body and makes the skin crispy. Make sure all sections are properly coated and dried. Shake off excess flour mixture.

6. Drop a few flour mixture, if it immediately floats, the oil is hot enough.  Make sure it's not smoking otherwise you'll burn the chicken. Drop 5-6 pcs into the pan at a time.

7. Deep fry until golden brown for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat. Occasionally turn it around to prevent from burning if the bottom sticks to the pan.  Never under cook chicken, but overcooking makes it tough.

8. Remove from fire and drain excess oil.

9. Wait a minute to heat the oil again the cook the second batch.