Spicy Soybean Chicken

Methods and Directions

• Keep the freshly fried crispy chicken aside, but keep warm.
• Fry the French fries and season well with the seaweed salt. Set aside, but keep warm.
• Using a suitable sauté pan or wok on medium-high heat, add the soybean glaze and bring to a simmer.
• Add all of the chicken and toss well. Allow the sauce to reduce and form a glaze over the chicken pieces, being careful not to burn the sauce.
• Add the almond, black sesame seed, white sesame seed and lychee. Toss well to combine thoroughly.
• Plate the chicken by presenting 10 x 150 g per portion on top of the bamboo leaf.
• Sprinkle with the additional lychee, sesame seeds, toasted almond and fresh coriander leaf.
• Serve together with the seaweed french fries and side salad.

• Prepare the chicken thighs by cutting each piece into 8 pieces, or 3 cm square pieces.
• Season well with salt and set aside in the chiller until just before frying.
• Prepare a tempura batter using a prepared tempura flour mix. Use cold water and adjust the consistency of the batter to resemble that of heavy cream. The final batter will be more liquid than a traditional tempura batter.
• Remove the chicken from the chiller and drain any excess liquid that may have been drawn from the chicken pieces.
• Dredge the pieces in flour and dust off the excess.
• Cover with the light tempura batter. Use as much as necessary to cover each piece well.
• Fry each piece in a deep fryer set at 180C, ensuring that each piece is separate. Fry until fully cooked and the batter is golden brown and very crispy.
• Season to taste with salt.
• Keep warm until ready to use.

• Place a suitable sautior on medium heat. When hot, add the vegetable oil.
• Add the garlic and sweat for 3 minutes, until aromatic.
• Add the garlic and continue to sweat for an additional 3 minutes.
• Add the onion and the spring onion and continue to sweat for an additional 5 minutes.
• Add the sake and allow the alcohol to burn off. Reduce by half.
• Add the tea syrup and reduce by half.
• Finally, add the gochujang and soy sauce. Mix well and transfer to a suitable container.
• Cool the mixture down as per SFSMS and hold under refrigeration until ready to use.

• Add the water to a suitable sauce pot. Bring to a simmer and remove from the heat. Add the tea and stir well. Cover.
• Allow the tea to steep for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and stir again.
• Replace the cover and continue to steep for an additional 2 minutes.
• Strain well and push lightly on the solids to extract more infused liquid.
• Weigh out the resulting tea infusion. Multiply the final weight by 0.75, and add this amount in sugar to achieve a mixture with 75% sugar.
  example:
  • 675g tea infusion
  • 500g sugar
• Transfer to a suitable container.
• Cool the mixture down as per SFSMS and hold under refrigeration until ready to use.

• Prepare a dry tray large enough to hold the french fries in one layer. Do not line with paper towels.
• Fry the french fries and allow then to drain of most of the oil, but not all.
• Transfer the french fries to the tray and immediately sprinkle liberally with the seaweed salt to coat each french fry.
• This must be done while the french fries are hot, and contain still a bit of oil. If this step is not followed, the seaweed will not adhere to the french fries well.
• Divide into 10 x 60 g portions.
• Keep warm until ready to use.

• Tear the nori into small pieces, roughly 3 cm squares.
• Add them to a food processor or Robot Coup.
• Add the sesame seed, salt and sugar and pulse the mixture until the seaweed in broken down to smaller pieces, roughly 3-4 mm.
• Do not process too fine, as the final mixture should have a coarse texture.
• Taste and adjust with salt and sugar as necessary.
• Transfer to a suitable container and reserve for use later.