Vietnamese Salt & Pepper Fried Chicken (Ga Rang Muoi)

If you've ever been to a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant, chances are you tried the salt and pepper chicken and fell in love with it. Who wouldn't? It's crunchy fried chicken coated in a seemingly boring yet flavorful salt and pepper mixture.

The star ingredient is obviously the salt. It's not any ordinary salt. The salt used in this recipe is toasted until golden brown. It's then sprinkled onto the fried chicken at the very end of the cooking process. This method of toasting salt is a Chinese cooking secret that brings out the salt hidden flavor. For the recipe below, I further enhanced the flavor by using sea salt instead of boring table salt. Why use mediocre salt when you can use the God of all salts?

Ingredients
Chicken Marinade

• 4 lbs bone-in chicken (I like using wings and drumettes)
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 2 teaspoons MSG
• 1/2 teaspoon 5 spice powder
• 1/2 teaspooon ground black pepper

Salt & Pepper Mixture

• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Frying

• 1 egg
• 1 cup corn starch
• Vegetable oil for deep frying
• 4 stalks scallions (slice into 1-inch segments)
• 4 cloves garlic (slice thin)
• 1 large shallot (slice thin)
• 4 red chili peppers (optional, slice thin)
• 2 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken with sea salt, MSG, 5 spice powder and black pepper for at least 30 minutes.
2. To make the salt and pepper mixture, heat up a small frying pan (no oil need) and add salt. On low heat, pan fry the salt for 10 minutes until golden brown. Set aside to cool. Once completely cooled, add sugar and black pepper. Mix well to combine.
3. .........................................

for full recipes please see : www.vickypham.com

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