Chinese chicken balls with 2 sauces
About Chinese chicken balls with 2 sauces
“Chinese chicken balls with 2 sauces” is one of our family favorite dishes. Light and crispy chicken fritters go very well with sweet and sour sauce, and Japanese tartar sauce. I don’t know if the name “Chinese chicken balls” is correct, but I decided to share the recipe because it looks a lot like it, it’s easy to make and very tasty.
Usually, I think Chinese chicken balls are only served with sweet and sour sauce. However, in Japan there is a popular dish called “chicken nanban”, which is chicken seasoned with sweet and sour sauce and served with tartar sauce. This chicken nanban is so delicious that we eat chicken balls with two sauces as well. The combination of creamy sauce and sweet and sour sauce makes it very special.
These chicken balls are economical because you can make a lot even if the amount of meat is not much. Originally there wasn’t much chicken in the fridge, so I added baking powder to the butter to increase the amount. The children were very happy to eat it. And then I started making it often.
I don’t think it’s suitable for diet, but there are times when you like to eat something like this. At home, we eat plenty of fresh vegetables together with this dish.
I use chicken breast for this dish, and below, I put a link to nutrition and health benefits of chicken breast. Please read it if you like.
Recipe tips
As I wrote above, I think it’s best to use chicken breast. Before frying I marinate chicken breast with mayonnaise. Then, the breast meat will be very moist and tender. The ingredients of mayonnaise are vinegar and oil. By soaking in the two, the fibers of the breast meat become softer.
Coat the whole chicken evenly with the batter and fry. Fry them flipping several times until the outside is crispy and golden. After frying, drain well so that it does not become oily.
Chinese chicken balls with 2 sauces
Equipment
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 Sauce pan
Ingredients
- * 30 gram Onion (finely chopped)
- * 30 gram Pickled cucumber (finely chopped)
- * 3 Hard boiled eggs (chopped)
- * 3 tablespoon Mayonnaise
- * 1/2~1 teaspoon Ketchup
- * a pinch of White pepper
- # 3 tablespoon Vinegar
- # 3 tablespoon Granulated sugar
- # 3 tablespoon Ketchup
- # 1 tablespoon Japanese sake or Chinese rice wine or sherry
- # 1/2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
- # 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- # 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
- # 50 ml Water
- 400 gram Chicken breast
- a pinch of Salt & pepper
- 1 tablespoon Mayonnaise
- 100 gram All purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1/3 teaspoon Salt
- 100 ml Milk
- 25~30 ml Water
Instructions
- Making tartar sauce : put all ingredients marked with* (boiled eggs, onion, pickles, ketchup mayonnaise and white pepper) in a bowl and mix well. Keep the sauce in the fridge until required.
- Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add mayonnaise, mix well and leave for about 10 minutes.
- Making sweet and sour sauce : put all ingredients marked with # (vinegar, sugar, ketchup, sake, soy sauce, salt, cornstarch, water) in a sauce pan and mix well. Cook over medium heat with constant stirring until thickened and translucent.
- Making batter: put flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl and add milk little by little to make batter so as not to get lumpy. Finally, add water and mix well. Fill a frying pan with oil to a depth of 2-3 cm and heat the oil to 170C = 338F.
- Dip the marinated chicken in the batter, coat the whole chicken and fry. (do not try to fry it all at once, but divide it into two or three parts according to the size of the frying pan and the amount of oil). Turn the chicken upside down several times, fry it for a total of 4 to 6 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and it becomes crispy and golden brown. Drain the oil well. Place the chicken on a plate and serve with two sauces.
Notes
You can use tartar sauce and sweet and sour sauce in various ways and they are very convenient. Below, I put a link to a recipe that uses tartar sauce, so if you’d like, make that too.
Thank you for reading and Bon Appetit!