History

Salt and pepper chicken is a Taipei night-market staple, the boneless cousin to Hot Star's larger fried-chicken cutlet. The dish came from 1980s Taipei street culture as cheap fried protein dusted with five-spice salt. Almost every night market in Taipei has multiple yan su ji counters; the Bib Gourmand-listed ones rotate through Tonghua and Shilin night markets.

Common allergens: Gluten, Egg

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 25 minTotal 1 hrDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 500g boneless chicken thigh, cut into 3cm pieces
  • 30ml light soy sauce
  • 30ml Shaoxing rice wine
  • 1 egg
  • 30g cornflour
  • 100g sweet-potato starch
  • Vegetable oil, for deep frying (1.5 litres)
  • 1 handful Thai basil leaves
  • Seasoning: 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons white pepper, 1 teaspoon five-spice, 1 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 teaspoon caster sugar

Method

  1. Marinate chicken in soy sauce, Shaoxing and egg for 30 minutes.
  2. Mix cornflour and sweet-potato starch on a plate.
  3. Coat each piece of chicken in the flour mix, pressing to adhere.
  4. Heat oil to 180C. Fry chicken in batches, 4 minutes per batch until golden brown.
  5. Toss basil leaves into the oil for 10 seconds at the end; they will crisp.
  6. Drain on paper towels. Combine seasoning ingredients; dust the chicken and basil generously.

Tip from the editors. Sweet-potato starch is what gives the crackly crust; cornflour alone gets too smooth. The basil is the night-market signal; don't skip it.

This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.

Where to eat salt and pepper chicken

Salt and pepper chicken in Taipei

More cities are in research. Want salt and pepper chicken covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.

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