Salt & Pepper Chicken

METHOD

Place the diced chicken thighs in a large bowl and add 1 tsp of the Cracked Black Pepper Oil, a twist of salt and black pepper, the grated ginger and crushed garlic. Mix and leave to one side to marinade for 10-15 minutes.

Heat a good amount of Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil in a wok or large pan on a high hob heat. Around a 4cm depth of oil should be enough to cook small batches of the chicken. Alternatively, use your deep fat fryer. When the oil is at temperature, around 170C, or test by sticking a chopstick in the oil, if bubbles form around it, it’s hot enough to cook in.

When the oil is ready, coat each chicken piece in cornflour and deep fry in small batches. It should take around 2 minutes for the chicken pieces to float to the top and be ready. The amount of chicken in this recipe took two batches to fry in our large wok. When cooked, remove the chicken from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a grill rack or a plate lined with kitchen paper. Proceed to double fry the chicken for that crispy coating you are looking for.

In another frying pan or wok, heat a good glug of Cracked Black Pepper Oil on a medium to high hob heat and add the onions and stir fry for a couple of minutes,. Add the peppers and do the same, then the twice fried chicken and spice mix. Lastly, add the spring onions and chopped chillies, if using. Keep on moving around the pan or wok until all heated thoroughly but there’s still some crunch in the veg. Serve with rice or noodles.

Our Top Tips – When making this dish we tend to use skinless chicken thighs from Soanes Poultry. Thigh meat tends to stand up better to the high temperature cooking without drying out. Feel free to keep the skin on the thighs, or indeed use diced breast fillets. When you’ve finished using the oil to fry the chicken, you can reuse it. Leave to cool completely. Filter through a fine sieve and then using a funnel pour back into the glass bottle or container for the next fry