Main ingredients 🥩
chicken thighspotato starcheggmayonnaisesugarchicken stocklettucecooking oil
Seungwoo Dad's Nuts Mayo Chicken
Chicken cooked using a low-temperature frying technique starting from cold oil without preheating, resulting in a crispy exterior and moist interior, tossed in a sweet and savory mayo sauce.
🙋 Recommended for
- ⭐ Cooking beginners who struggle with undercooked centers when making fried chicken or tempura at home.
- ⭐ Those who want to enjoy luxurious, sweet, and savory mayo cream chicken (a shrimp sauce variation) in Chinese restaurant style, filling and generous.
- ⭐ Those who want to make clean, crispy fried dishes using only a shallow pan of oil instead of deep frying.
Ingredients needed 🛒2 servings
- chicken thighs (skin removed), as needed
- potato starch, generous amount
- 1 egg
- cooking oil, shallow depth (enough to half-submerge chicken)
- mayo sauce (mayonnaise, sugar, chicken stock or dasida, water), as needed
- a little lettuce
Recipe 🍳
- To reduce calories and prevent oil splatter, remove the skin from chicken thighs, then flatten and cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Coat the prepared meat thoroughly with potato starch, then egg wash, then potato starch again, ensuring no gaps.
- Pour cooking oil into a frying pan to a shallow depth (enough to half-submerge the chicken) and place the coated chicken in a single layer into the completely cold, unheated oil.
- Turn the heat to high and cook using the low-temperature frying method, allowing the oil temperature to gradually rise. Once the surface turns golden, flip once or twice gently.
- When the coating is crispy and golden, the chicken is fully cooked inside. Remove from oil.
- To maintain crispness, place the fried chicken on a perforated rack rather than paper towels, allowing cold air to cool it quickly.
- In a saucepan, add sugar, water, and chicken stock (or MSG/salt) for umami, and heat for about 30 seconds just until the sugar dissolves completely.
- **Crucial point: Turn off the heat completely** before adding mayonnaise, then stir with residual heat to create a smooth mayo sauce.
- Add the cooled fried chicken to the finished sauce and toss to coat evenly. Serve on a plate lined with lettuce.
- Coat chicken thighs with starch, egg, and starch again, then place into unheated cold oil in a pan. Turn heat to high.
- Fry using the low-temperature method until crispy on both sides, then cool quickly on a perforated rack.
- Turn off the heat under the warmed sugar-water mixture, mix in mayonnaise, then gently toss with the fried chicken and serve on lettuce.
Cooking tips 💡
- Starting from unheated oil and gradually increasing the temperature is the safest frying technique for beginners, perfectly avoiding the disaster of burnt outside and raw inside.
- To keep fried food crispy, use a perforated rack that allows air circulation to quickly remove moisture and heat, rather than draining on paper towels.
- If you continue to heat the mayonnaise sauce after it's hot, the oil and fat will separate into clumps; always mix mayonnaise into a completely off-heat base for safety.