30th Dish Yangnyeom Tongdak from South Korea

We called it KFC, Korean Fried Chicken!

This was a great way to finish my challenge, an easy recipe that all the family loved. The hardest thing I found was getting all the ingredients together but once I had all that the rest was easy. 

Ingredients (for 3-4 servings):

3 pounds (about 1.5 kg) of chicken chunks,

salt,

ground black pepper,

potato starch powder,

flour,

sweet rice flour,

egg,

baking soda,

canola oil (or vegetable oil),

garlic,

ketchup, 

hot pepper paste,

rice syrup,

apple vinegar.

Directions:

Rinse chunks of chicken in cold water. Drain.
Add 1 ts ground black pepper and 1 ts kosher salt.

Add ½ cup potato starch powder, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ¼ cup sweet rice flour, 1 ts baking soda, and 1 egg.

Mix well by hand and completely coat the chicken.

Put 6-7 cups of canola oil in a wok or frying pan and heat it up.

After it’s heated for about 7-8 minutes, test if the oil is ready by dipping a sample chunk of chicken into the oil. If the oil bubbles, it’s the right temperature to start frying.

Fry the chicken chunks for 10 minutes over high heat.

Take them out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer. Let them sit for a few minutes.

Fry them again for another 10 minutes until all pieces look golden brown and are crunchy outside.
*tip: If your skillet is not large enough to fry all the chicken at once, divide it into batches like I do in the video.

While you are frying, you can make the sauce:

Put 1 tbs canola oil and 4 cloves of minced garlic into a heated pan,

Add 1/3 cup tomato ketchup, 1/3 cup rice syrup, ¼ cup hot pepper paste, 1 tbs apple vinegar and simmer the mixture for about about 7 minutes. Keep your heat low and be sure not to burn the sauce.

Turn off the heat and wait until the chicken is done.

Chicken is done? Then coat your chicken with the sauce:

Reheat the sauce.

Put the freshly fried chicken into the sauce and gently mix it up with a wooden spoon.

Sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds over top and serve hot or warm.

The only negative I have about this is that the hot oil splashes everywhere and there’s a lot of mess to clean up afterwards. But that’s a very small price to pay for such a delicious dish. 

We gave it 10 out of 10. (I know I was there’s no such thing as perfect but trust me this comes pretty close.)

Ammo

29th Dish Ayam Masak Habang from Indonesia.

Don’t try this at home, unless you like you’re food extra spicy hot! I had trouble with one bit of the ingredients and that was the red chillies; the recipe asked for 150gr but I wasn’t sure what “gr” meant so I added about 15 red chillies. Trust me that was more than enough, obviously you can use less if you don’t like too much heat. 

Ingredients:

2.4 lbs Chicken
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Tamarind Water
500 ml Water
2 tbsp Sweet soy sauce ( "Kecap Manis" )
3 Tomatoes chopped
2 tsp Javanese palm sugar ( "Gula Merah" )
Cooking oil

Spices:

l50 gr Red chillies
12 Shallots
6 cloves Garlic
2 tsp Shrimp paste
2 cm Ginger
2 cm Lesser galangal
2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken into 8 - 10 pieces, then smear it with salt and Javanese Tamarind Water.
2. Knead the chicken and leave it for 10 minutes to let it absorbs the seasonings.
3. Heat the cooking oil in a wok or skillet, fry the chicken until yellowish.
4. Remove and drain.

5. Heat 5 tbsp of cooking oil, saute (stir-fry) spices until fragrant.
6. Add the fried chicken, stir, and pour water.
7. Add sweet soy sauce, sugar, tomatoes and palm sugar.
8. Continue to cook over low heat until the chicken is cooked well and the sauce thickens.






 
I gave this a 8.5 out of 10, and I’m sure this will become a family favourite once I use less chillies.

Ammo
 

28th Dish Polynesian Chicken from French Polynesia.

I wasn’t too sure about this dish. I’ve never cooked with pineapple before and I really don’t like Celery. So I was very apprehensive about this, and to be honest I tried to change to another recipe at the very last minute. However my wife said I should stick to my original plans (maybe cause the other recipe was crap stew), I’m so glad she persuaded me to stick with this as it was delicious. 

Ingredients

6 Chicken Breast (skin and bones)

½ cup vegetable oil

1 large onion, cut in half and sliced very thin

4 stalks celery, sliced thin on an angle

1 tablespoon mild curry powder

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple

Salt to taste

Freshly cracked pepper to taste

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 (14 ½ ounce) can chicken broth

Instructions

Fry chicken breasts in a large pan with oil until cooked, about 30 minutes.

Remove from pan and remove all but 2 tablespoons of the oil.

Add the curry powder to the oil and cook for 1 minute on medium heat.

Add onions and celery, cooking until the celery is soft.

Add pineapple, broth and a small amount of salt and pepper, if desired.

Simmer for 2 minutes and add chicken back into the pan.

Cook, simmering for 35-45 minutes with pan covered.

Remove chicken.

Make a loose paste with cornstarch and a small amount of water.

Add to ingredients in pan, simmering on high heat for a few minutes until sauce is a bit thicker.

Pour over chicken.

 

A couple of things, firstly I was expecting the pineapple to be very sweet, but it wasn’t, it added more of a tang (not sour) taste to the entire dish. And secondly we couldn’t taste the celery this is always a plus in my eyes.

Will be cooking this again and as a family we gave it a 8.5 out of 10

Ammo