I noticed the drying effect on the bare flesh when frying using chicken thighs (the skin did not adhere to the flesh) and it became obvious that battering them first would be required, whereas both wings and drumsticks fried perfectly without batter. In considering chicken breast meat I wanted to have excellent seasoning of the meat before battering so the result would be crispy fried chicken nuggets that were both well flavored and moist inside. I was very pleased with the results. Now you can be too. I was surprised to find these nuggets are delicious either hot, or later cold, for the flavors are excellent.
Note that commercial chicken nuggets often appear to be made from some mixture of formed, ground/processed chicken, and they are relatively tasteless, which is why they are commonly sold with accompanying dipping sauces. The chicken strips in this recipe vary a lot in size and shape, but they are very high quality chicken and the different shapes/sizes do not affect the results.
That is enough explanatory descriptions ... Let's get busy!
Ingredients: (four to five generous servings)
2 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut approximately into 3/4" wide x 1" thick, 2"to 3" long strips, crosswise
2 to 3 quarts of peanut oil (for frying)
Any dipping sauce or sauces of your choice (or eat the fried chicken nuggets without using a dipping sauce)
Marinade: (Thanks to the folks at Woks Of Life® website for this great marinade recipe!)
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine
2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil
2 extra large eggs
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
Batter:
1/2 cup of rice flour
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
2 extra large eggs
1 cup or more of water to produce a thin batter
1 cup (or more) of cornstarch for dredging the marinated chicken strips before battering them
Directions:
Wash the chicken breast halves and pat them dry with paper towels. Note that when you cut them into strips there will be numerous smaller pieces and that is fine.
First make the marinade and then marinate the cut chicken strips for two hours at room temperature or for four hours refrigerated, as follows:
Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl, then add the black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, sea salt, sugar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil.
Whisk the contents of the mixing bowl, then add the chicken strips to the bowl, coating each piece completely with the marinade mixture.
Mix everything until all of the wings are well-coated, then sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and the 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour evenly over the tops of the strips, then mix again by hand until the cornstarch and flour are incorporated and the strips are evenly coated.
Put the coated chicken strips into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag and expel the air, seal the bag, and flatten the contents so the strips are not on top of each other. Alternatively, you can vacuum seal the coated strips in a large 10" x 12" vacuum seal bag and then flatten the contents.
Let the strips marinate for 2 hours at room temperature, turning the bag over every 30 minutes, or put them into the refrigerator for four hours, turning the bag over hourly. (If you refrigerate the strips, be sure to let them come to room temperature later before frying them).
Make the batter, then dredge the marinated chicken strips, then batter dip them and fry them, as follows:
Whisk the eggs in a small bowl, then add the rest of the batter ingredients (except the cup of cornstarch to be used for dredging) and whisk until everything is well combined. Refrigerate the batter, covered, for 30 minutes.
At this point you should prepare other foods you plan to serve with the fried chicken Nuggets, for you want the fried chicken Nuggets to be crisp and hot when you serve them.
Dredge each piece of the marinated chicken strips in the bowl of cornstarch, individually, and put them onto a sheet of wax paper or onto a sheet of parchment paper, in one layer, not touching each other. Put additional cornstarch into the bowl if needed during dredging.
Fill a one gallon pot about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up with the peanut oil, and heat it to 325 degrees F. Vary the heat during frying to maintain the oil temperature close to but not above 325 degrees F. Use an instant read thermometer and check the temperature often and adjust the heat as necessary.
Whisk the chilled batter, then check it for thickness. If needed, add a small additional amount of water and whisk again. The point is you want the batter on a piece of marinated, dredged chicken strip to be only about 1/16" thick before frying, so batter thickness can be adjusted as necessary.
Put the dredged chicken strips into the batter, one at a time, then use tongs to hold each above the batter for about ten seconds to let excess batter run back into the bowl. Then add that battered strip to the hot oil.
Fry the strips in multiple batches of four or five strips each, for 5 or 4 minutes (depending on whether you are doing double or triple frying), then remove the strips with tongs individually, let excess oil fall off, and put them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet. I recommend using a kitchen timer to keep the frying times accurate, but you don't need to adjust the frying time for the first few strips of a given batch.
After all strips are fried and cooled for the first time, return them in batches of four or five strips to the hot oil and fry them again for 5 or 4 minutes.
If you are triple frying the strips then repeat the cooling and frying steps one more time.
You now have Chinese Fried Chicken Nuggets ... very delicious fried chicken nuggets, crisp outside and moist and tender inside.
Drain the chicken nuggets on the cooling rack for a minute or two after the final frying. If you aren't serving them immediately then put them into a bowl and keep them briefly in a 180 degrees F warming oven.
Serve the Chinese Fried Chicken Nuggets hot, along with whatever other foods you prepared for the meal, including one or more dipping sauces if you decided to use them. We found the taste to be so good due to the marinating step that no dipping sauce was needed.
Cold beer is a fine beverage to serve with hot fried chicken nuggets, or serve other carbonated beverages to young guests.
Enjoy!