Crispy Skin Chicken
A traditional Cantonese dish prepared by simmering chicken in white brine, glazing with sugar syrup, air-drying, then deep-frying to create bright red, crisp skin and juicy, bone-fragrant meat.
Story
This iconic Cantonese crispy chicken has been a staple of family feasts and festive banquets for generations, prized for its striking ruby-red, shatteringly crisp exterior and succulent, aromatic meat, a product of time-honored regional culinary techniques.
Ingredients
fat chicken (slaughtered and cleaned, with eyeballs and chicken lungs removed)
1250g
dried shrimp slices
15g
garlic puree
1.5g
minced fine scallion
1.5g
chili mince
1.5g
sweet and sour sauce
100g
sugar syrup
100g
white brine (boiled)
2500g
wet starch
25g
peanut oil
1500g
Instructions
1
Cleaning and Preparation
Slaughter the chicken and clean it thoroughly, remove the eyeballs, scoop out all the chicken lungs, immerse in a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute, then take out and wash off floating oil, fine feathers, and dirt.
2
Braising in Spiced Liquid
Place the chicken in a basin of boiling white braising liquid, cook over very low heat until it is 60% cooked, then remove it, pull both wings outward away from the chicken body, place it back into the basin to cook until just done, then take out and pour boiling water evenly over the entire chicken to wash away the salty flavor.
3
Coating with Sugar Syrup and Air Drying
Hook the chicken's eyes with an iron hook, use a ladle to pour sugar syrup evenly over the chicken body so the chicken skin is uniformly coated with the syrup, then hang it in a cool, ventilated place to air dry for about 2 to 3 hours. When the chicken body is completely dry, it is ready for deep-frying.
4
Deep-frying Chicken Heads and Shrimp Chips
First cut off the chicken head together with the neck. Heat the wok over high heat, add frying oil and heat to 50% of full heat, put in the chicken head, deep-fry until golden brown, then pour in the shrimp chips to fry together. When the shrimp chips float up and the chicken head turns deep red, remove them from the oil.
5
Deep-frying the Chicken Body
Move the wok away from the heat source, place the chicken breast-side up in a skimmer, set the wok back on the heat. When the oil heats up to 40% of full heat, hold the chicken with the skimmer, deep-fry while shaking the skimmer continuously.
6
Making the Dipping Sauce
Add minced garlic, scallions, chili, sweet and sour sauce, mix with diluted cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce, and serve in two small saucers.
7
Slicing and Plating
Once the chicken is fried, cut it into pieces immediately: first cut the chicken head, then cut the chicken body, arrange the pieces on a plate to form the original shape of the whole chicken, and place the fried shrimp chips around the edge of the plate. Serve with sweet and sour sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and Huai salt on the side when eating.
