STORY BEHIND THE RECIPE
Shrimp Paste Chicken is a uniquely Singaporean way of cooking deep-fried chicken! Regular batter is replaced with a special shrimp paste batter, so that the wing packs a punch full of flavour.
My first taste of it was at the Loy Sum Juan Restaurant, located at Pearl’s Hill (Outram) years ago (a place that probably only old-timers would remember). Since then, Shrimp Paste Chicken has gone on to become one of Singapore’s most beloved homegrown dishes islandwide.
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TRICK OF THE TRADE
- Make sure the oil is very hot (but not smoking) when you put the chicken in. The fried batter will form a seal around the chicken, sealing the juices in while preventing too much oil from seeping in during deep frying.
- It’s very important to fry the chicken a second time at high heat because this helps to force the oil out from inside the chicken as well.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS DISH
- It is a uniquely Singaporean dish, having fried chicken our own way!
- The fried shrimp paste batter packs a punch, with a burst of umami flavour when you bite into it.
HOW TO MAKE SHRIMP PASTE CHICKEN?
INGREDIENTS (serves 6)
- 2 kg Chicken Mid-Wings and Drumlets
- 250 ml Oil For deep frying
- 1 bundle Parsley
Marinade Ingredients
- 6 tbsp Plain Flour
- 4 tbsp Potato Flour
- 3 tbsp Rice Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 4 tbsp Shrimp Paste
- 2 tsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 Egg
- 1 dash Pepper
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 3 tbsp Chinese Wine (Hua Tiao Chiew / Shaoxing Wine)
- 50 ml Water
PREPARATION (40 min – prepare the day before)
- Remove any feathers on the chicken wings and drumlets. Rub the skin of the chicken pieces with coarse salt to exfoliate the skin, then wash and drain dry.
- Marinate the chicken wings and drumlets with light soya sauce, Hua Tiao Jiu, pepper, sesame oil and prawn paste.
- In another bowl, add plain flour, potato flour, rice flour and baking powder and mix well. Then add the flour mixture to the chicken pieces and mix well until evenly coated.
- Wrap the bowl in cling film and place it in the fridge to marinate for 4-6 hours or overnight (preferable), giving it a stir midway. After marinating, remove from the fridge and allow to stand at room temperature for half an hour.
COOKING (35 min)
- In a wok, pour 1 bowl of oil and turn the heat up to high.
- Give the chicken mixture a stir before frying. Shake off any excess flour mixture before placing the chicken pieces into the wok.
- After a few mins of frying at high heat, turn the heat down to medium. You can deep fry a few pieces at a time until the chicken turns golden brown.
- Remove from heat and transfer on a plate lined with a kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil. Continue to fry the rest of the chicken using steps above
- Once all the chicken pieces are cooked, allow the cooked chicken to cool down for 2-3 minutes
- Heat up the oil again until it is hot, add all the chicken pieces back into the wok and fry for a second time for about 2 mins. Make sure you control the fire to ensure that the chicken does not get burnt.
- Remove from heat and transfer onto a plate lined with a kitchen towel to soak up any excess oil.
- Transfer the chicken onto a serving dish, and garnish with some parsley and serve hot
MARKETING TIPS
- Use either chicken wings, chicken thighs or chicken drumsticks for deep-frying. These cuts of meat have more fats around them so they do not dehydrate so easily. If you use chicken breast, it tends to become dry and overcooked unless you are very good at controlling the heat.
- Deep fry drumstick and chicken thigh pieces (chopped into large chunks) a little longer as they are thicker, making it harder to cook the meat through.
FRYING TIPS
- Allow to stand at room temperature for half an hour after taking it out of the fridge. Otherwise the inside of the chicken is still cold and will not get cooked
- Deep-fry with a pair of extra long wooden chopsticks instead of a spatula, as the chopsticks give you better control and precision. You can also use it to check if the oil is hot enough when you see bubbles forming around the chopstick
- When frying the chicken, the oil must be very hot so that it will instantly cook the outer surface of the chicken, thereby sealing in the juices so that the meat won’t dry out during the deep frying process.
- Fry in small batches to ensure even cooking of the chicken
- You then have to turn the heat down to allow the heat to penetrate into the meat and cook it through, without the outside getting burnt.
- Remember to turn the heat up to high again before you start to fry each subsequent batches.
- Fry the chicken a second time at high heat. This helps to force out the oil from inside the chicken, so that the chicken won’t be oily and greasy when you bite into it.
ADJUSTMENTS
- Use Fermented Yellow Bean Curd (Fu Yu) which is less salty if you find the smell of fried prawn paste too pungent (it smells like belachan during frying), For preserved yellow bean curd, the quantity you would use is 6-7 pieces and you have to mash it up with a fork so it becomes like a paste.
DIETARY INFORMATION
- Egg-Free: You can skip the egg. It won’t affect the recipe too much as its more of a binding agent, and there are other ingredients that will also help the flour mixture to bind to the chicken.
- Fish-Free: No modifications needed.
- Nut-Free: No modifications needed.
- Shellfish-Free: Use fermented yellow beancurd instead of prawn paste to get a similar effect.
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Juicy Deep-Fried Prawn Paste Chicken (Har Cheong Gai) Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg Chicken Mid-Wings and Drumlets
- 250 ml Oil For deep frying
- 1 bundle Parsley
Marinade Ingredients for the chicken wings
- 6 tbsp Plain Flour
- 4 tbsp Potato Flour
- 3 tbsp Rice Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 4 tbsp Shrimp Paste
- 2 tsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 Egg
- 1 dash Pepper
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 3 tbsp Chinese Wine (Hua Tiao Chiew / Shaoxing Wine)
- 50 ml Water
Instructions
PREPARATION METHOD (prepare the day before)
- Remove any feathers on the chicken wings and drumlets. Rub the skin of the chicken pieces with coarse salt to exfoliate the skin, then wash and drain dry.
- In a big bowl, place all the chicken wings in a big bowl and marinate them with the marinade ingredients until evenly coated.
- Wrap the bowl in cling film and place in the fridge to marinate for 4-6 hours or overnight (preferable), giving it a stir midway. After marinating, remove from the fridge and allow to stand at room temperature for half an hour.
COOKING METHOD
- Put 250 ml of oil in a wok and turn the heat up to high.
- Give the chicken mixture a stir before frying. Shake off any excess flour mixture before placing the chicken pieces in small batches into the wok. Do not overcrowd the chicken pieces in the wok otherwise they won't be cooked uniformly.
- After a few mins of frying at high heat, turn the heat down to medium. You can deep fry a few pieces chicken at a time until they turn golden brown.
- Remove from heat and transfer on a plate lined with a kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil. Continue to fry the rest of the chicken using steps above.
- Once all the chicken pieces are cooked, allow the cooked chicken to cool down for 2-3 minutes.
- Heat up the oil again until it is hot, add the chicken pieces in batches back into the wok and fry for a second time for about 2 mins. Make sure you control the fire so that the chicken does not get burnt. This is to purge out the excess oil from the chicken.
- Remove from heat and transfer onto a plate lined with a kitchen towel to soak up any excess oil.
- Transfer the chicken onto a serving dish, and garnish with some parsley and serve hot with Thai Chilli Sauce.
Notes
MARKETING TIPS
- Use either chicken wings, chicken thighs or chicken drumsticks for deep-frying. These cuts of meat have more fats around them so they do not dehydrate so easily. If you use chicken breast, it tends to become dry and overcooked unless you are very good at controlling the heat.
- Deep fry drumstick and chicken thigh pieces (chopped into large chunks) a little longer as they are thicker, making it harder to cook the meat through.
- The chicken pieces will be more crispy by adding rice flour to the marinade.
FRYING TIPS
- Allow to stand at room temperature for half an hour after taking it out of the fridge. Otherwise the inside of the chicken is still cold and will not get cooked
- Deep-fry with a pair of extra long wooden chopsticks instead of a spatula, as the chopsticks give you better control and precision. You can also use it to check if the oil is hot enough when you see bubbles forming around the chopstick
- When frying the chicken, the oil must be very hot so that it will instantly cook the outer surface of the chicken, thereby sealing in the juices so that the meat won't dry out during the deep frying process.
- You then have to turn the heat down to allow the heat to penetrate into the meat and cook it through, without the outside getting burnt.
- Remember to turn the heat up to high again before you start to fry each subsequent batches.
- Fry the chicken a second time at high heat. This helps to force out the oil from inside the chicken, so that the chicken won't be oily and greasy when you bite into it.
ADJUSTMENTS
- Use Preserved Yellow Bean Curd (Fu Yu) which is less salty if you find the smell of fried prawn paste too pungent (it smells like belachan during frying), For preserved yellow bean curd, the quantity you would use is 6-7 pieces and you have to mash it up with a fork so it becomes like a paste.
Jennifer says “These are the prawn paste chicken I air-fried for dinner last night. Yummy, addictive and nice prawn paste fragrant, thank you for your recipe.”
Where to get the prawn paste from? Does NTUC sell it?
Hi Bernie, thank you for your question! NTUC if I recall correctly does not sell this brand, you can try Sheng Shiong or dry grocer stalls at the wet market. Remember the sauce has to be light purplish, not dark coloured! Happy cooking, share the final product on our Facebook page when you are done:)
On the main page, you stated 2kg of chicken, but on the printable recipe, it’s 1.2kg of chicken. which is correct?