Taiwanese-Style Popcorn “Chicken” (Vegan Recipe)

5 from 1 vote

This is one of those finger foods that I can never get enough of. These Taiwanese-Style Popcorn “Chicken” are served with fried basil. These are inspired by the popcorn chicken I grew up enjoying from local bubble tea shops. There’s really something about the pieces of chicken fried to a crisp and seasoned with an aromatic blend of salt, white pepper, and Chinese 5 spice. For this vegan version, I used soy chunks that I simply rehydrated and squeezed the excess liquid from before marinating in some soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, salt, and 5 spice powder.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Total Time 30

Course Appetizer, Finger Food, Main Course, Snack, Snacks

Cuisine Asian, Chinese, Taiwanese

Servings

Calories 346 kcal

Ingredients

“Chicken” or Soy Chunks

90 g dry soy chunks makes 280g rehydrated

Marinade

1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1/4 tsp salt

Coating

1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1/2 cup corn starch or potato starch

For Frying

Neutral Oil
Handful of fresh thai or sweet basil leaves optional but highly recommended!

To Serve

Pinch Chinese 5 spice powder
Pinch onion salt or sea salt, to taste
Pinch white pepper or ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Soy Chunks

Rehydrate the pieces of soy chunks. You can do this my leaving it to soak in room temperature overnight.
If you’re pressed for time, you can leave it to soak in hot water for 20 to 25 minutes or until doubled in size.

Marinade

Squeeze out the water from each piece of soy chunk then transfer into a large bowl.
While mixing, add in the soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. Sprinkle on the 5 spice powder and salt. Mix to coat well. Leave to marinate fro 10 minutes.

Coating and Frying

Before coating the chunks, preheat a large wok or pan. Add enough neutral oil to submerge at least half of the soy chunks. Leave the oil to get very hot.
Meanwhile, add in the corn or potato starch, salt, and chinese five spice in a bowl. Mix together.
Add half of the starch mix to the soy chunks.
When the pieces have absorbed some of the starch, you can the remainng starch mixture to make sure they’re coated very well. The coating is really important to get really crisp pieces of “chicken” after frying. Mix everything well to evenly coat. The chunks should be white from the starch.
By this time, you can check your oil if it’s hot enough. There will be small bubbles and you can test the heat of the oil by placing a small piece. If it immediately bubbles when you place it, the oil is hot enough.
Carefully place the soy pieces n the oil. Make sure the pan is not overcrowded. If you’re using a large pan, you can cook everything in one batch. If using a smaller pan, you can cook this in 2-3 batches.
Leave the pieces to fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown throughout. You can move around and flip the pieces (if your oil doesn’t completely submerge the pieces) to evenly crisp and cook each side until golden brown.
Once the pieces are golden brown, remove them from the oil and place in a strainer to drain out the excess oil.
While the pieces are still hot, sprinkle over some of the salt, 5 spice powder, and pepper, to taste. Mix this and add more if needed.
If using basil, add these into the oil and leave to crisp for 4-5 minutes. They’ll turn translucent when crisp.
Be careful when frying basil since they tend to splatter when placed in the oil. Also be sure your basil has no water droplets because they can splash even more when placed in the oil to fry.

To Store and Reuse Oil

You can strain out some of the starch pieces that are left in the oil and leave the oil to cool. I have this oil container with a strainer on top that I use to store my oil. Since these soy chunks are very neutral, I can still use this for another 1-2 times.

NUTRITIONAL INFO

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