Hello readers. I’ve been travelling to spread my love of fried chicken with my newest cookbook, Kung Pao & Beyond – Fried Chicken Recipes from East and Southeast Asia (Published by Quadrille), which was published in most of the world in April, and then in North America in May. You might think that I’d be tired of fried chicken after eating it at least once a day for three months while testing the 60 recipes for the book. You are wrong. I still love fried chicken and I love how it can be made in so many ways, at different price points.
View this post on Instagram
My favourite fast food fried chicken is Jollibee “Chicken Joy” – the Philippines-based brand that has more than 20 branches in Hong Kong. The skin is crisp, the meat is moist, and it doesn’t cost that much. While you’re there, don’t forget to pick up one of the peach-mango pies. If you’re greedy like me, you’ll want two (they’re very small).
Hong Kong is spoiled for choice for lovers of KFC – Korean Fried Chicken (you didn’t think I meant the other KFC, did you?). I have a special fondness for Chicken Hof & Soju, probably because it’s the first KFC place where I learned to appreciate fried chicken not just as a meal, but as a great, rather tipsy, night out with friends. The K-pop blasts on video screens overhead while we munch on plates piled high with not just the spicy KFC that most people know of, but also other flavours such as soy sauce fried chicken or spring onion fried chicken. They’ve expanded the menu from when I first started going there, and now serve a variety of noodles, rice cakes and soups. Wash it all down with beer or soju, of course.
View this post on Instagram
For a more subdued and elegant KFC experience, order the version at Hansik Goo. I first started eating Hansik Goo’s fried chicken during the pandemic, when the restaurant sold it on the take-away menu. Now, you can order it as an additional course to the tasting menu, and it is truly excellent, with wonderfully crisp skin and flavourful meat enhanced by a sweet-tangy yuja (yuzu) glaze.
When I want Malay-style fried chicken – with the bone-in pieces fried for a bit longer than usual, so the meat is slightly dry but more intensely flavoured – I head to Cafe Malacca. The chicken is available either on its own, or with the restaurant’s nasi lemak, where it’s served with coconut rice, ikan bilis (tiny fried fish) and an egg. Either way you have it, also order Cafe Malacca’s stir fried bean sprouts, which are the short, fat type from Ipoh, a city in Malaysia that is famous for its delicious bean sprouts.
View this post on Instagram
I have a very low tolerance for alcohol, but I love to go to bars that serve great food. The Diplomat serves one of Hong Kong’s best burgers and a great Cubano, but also fried chicken, either in the shape of nuggets or as a sandwich. Both are good, but I prefer the latter, because it’s dark meat, while the nuggets are made of chicken breast.
Another bar I like for the food is The Last Resort. I’ve not tried either of their two versions of the chicken sandwich but I do love their fried chicken. It’s made with Three Yellow Chicken, and comes in original or hot. You can – if you dare – order the nuclear heat level. I haven’t tried it because I want my taste buds to remain intact.
View this post on Instagram
And finally, I tasted a dish of chicken karaage that I desperately wish I had included in Kung Pao & Beyond. It was one of the many delicious dishes I ate at Uza by Nikushou, a restaurant so new it doesn’t even have a listed phone number. Uza specialises in eel (the chopstick rests are in the shape of grilled unagi), but like other izakaya, has a wide range of dishes, such as smoked egg potato salad, deep-fried glass shrimp, oden (various ingredients simmered in dashi), sashimi and tempura. Uza’s chicken karaage has unusually large chunks of chicken that are fried at a low temperature to cook the meat, then fried again to crisp up the skin, before being sliced into manageable pieces. What makes this version so special is the roughly textured mala chicken liver sauce served on the side – the spicy, numbing sauce goes so well with the succulent meat. I did give a recipe for chicken karaage in my book, but it’s more traditional, and served with Kewpie mayonnaise. Uza’s mala chicken liver sauce was creative and delicious, and took the chicken to another level.
I am not sure when I will get the chance to write my next book, but if I can have it my way , it will probably be the segue to more chicken recipes!
Editor
Susan JungCredit
Lead image: @quadrillebooks via Instagram