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Fish Sauce Caramel Chicken Bites

An umami, crispy and saucy treat!
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Ingredients
  

Fish Sauce Caramel

  • 1 shallot finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon ginger and garlic minced
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons sambal
  • Red pepper flakes (optional to taste

Fried Chicken

Brine

  • 2 cups buttermilk or regular whole milk
  • 1/2 cup pickle juice
  • Juice from 1 lime
  • 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

Coating

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon ground cumin to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Instructions
 

Marinade Chicken

  • Cut your chicken into bite sized pieces. I like mine cut in half or thirds but you can make yours more like popcorn chicken and cut into 4 pieces.
  • Place your chicken in a bowl and season with salt and pepper and pour over your buttermilk, pickle juice and lime juice.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and let marinade in the fridge for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Caramel Fish Sauce

  • In a pan add your oil, and shallots and sautee for 5 minutes on medium until translucent.
  • Add your garlic and ginger and sautee for a minute then add your sugar, water, sambal, fish sauce and black pepper. Simmer on medium stirring periodically so it does not burn.
  • After about 5 minutes, it should begin to thicken and coat your spoon and the sugar should be fully dissolved. Taste for spice level and add either more sambal or red chili flakes for extra added heat.
  • Your caramel should really thicken, coat the back of your spoon and start for form smaller bubbles as its heating up. Remove from the heat when it does start to thicken if you heat it up too much, when it cools slightly it will be too thick to coat your chicken. If this does happen, just add more water, and return to the heat to loosen it up.

Fry Your Chicken

  • In a dutch oven add about 5 cups of oil, or enough oil so that it at least 4 inches form the bottom of your pot. Heat your oil to 325-350 degrees.
  • In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for your chicken coating and set aside.
  • Remove your chicken from the fridge and take it from the marinade/brine, add your coating, shake off extra coating, return tot he brine once again briefly, and back into the dry coating. Use your hands to really pat on the flour to properly coat each piece. Set side your coated pieces of chicken on a rack while the oil heats.
  • Once your oil is heated, carefully test a single piece of chicken in the oil. it should bubbled when placed in and not brown too fast.
  • Since these are boneless they take shorter to cook but cook time will depend on how big you cut it. For popcorn chicken it should take about 5 minutes. For Bigger pieces cook for about 3-4 minutes per side.. The chicken should be golden brown when you take it out. If you are at all nervous about it being underdone, you can make in your oven at about 375 degrees for 10 minutes. It is better to cook thorough in the oil because placing your chicken in the oven after it has been fried may affect the coating.
  • When all your chicken it cooked, place in a bowl or on your serving plate and drizzle your fish sauce caramel on your chicken to coat. Serve hot!