Crispy chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce

Since it was too late to take photos of the chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce inside the girls’ lunchboxes, I contented myself with photographing the leftovers.

This isn’t a new recipe. You’ll find the details in an archived entry called sweet and sour chicken fillets. What’s new is that instead of deboning a chicken breast, I used chicken thigh fillets with the skins on. Amazing how the skins affect the crispness of the chicken. Even after the sauce was poured over the chicken strips, they retained their wonderful texture. I know. The skins add a lot of fat to the cooked dish. But for those who don’t mind the extra fat, it might be useful to point out how not removing the skins will affect the overall texture of the dish.

Some tips for making crisp chicken strips.

Okay, I’ve said my piece about the skins already. If you really have to remove the skins, there are other things you can do to avoid soggy chicken strips.

First, pat the chicken dry to remove excess water before dredging in flour.

Second, make sure that the cooking oil is hot enough before adding the chicken strips. If the cooking oil is not hot enough, the chicken will sort of just boil, not fry, in the oil. Instead of getting seared, the meat and the flour will absorb a lot of oil. The result, instead of light and crisp chicken fillets, you’ll get greasy and soggy ones. I don’t use a kitchen thermometer and I assess the temperature of the oil by looking at it. If the oil emits some smoke, it is hot enough. If the oil emits A LOT of smoke, it is very hot. The latter is good if you’re frying a large whole fish but will be too hot for chicken strips.

Third, never overcrowd the pan. Even if the oil is very hot, if you add too many chicken strips at a time, the temperature of the oil will drop and you’ll still get soggy chicken strips.

Fourth, do not turn the heat down while frying. High heat is essential for stir frying. The meat, fish and vegetables in stir fried dishes are cut small for a reason. They are meant to cook in a few minutes. The high heat is also essential to quickly sear the surfaces so that the juices are retained. If you attempt to stir fry over medium or low heat, you will not get the desired results. You will have to cook everything longer and the prolonged cooking will affect both the crispness and the juiciness of the ingredients.

With all those things in mind, you’ll be able to cook your sweet and sour chicken fillets.

In the mood for more food?

1. Red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar
2. Cream style corn in my pancakes
3. Adobo eggs
4. Bulalo Steak
5. Nilagang baboy (boiled pork ribs with vegetables)
6. Beef, corn and cheese bake
7. Pili nut delicacies
8. Noodle soup with mushroom balls
9. Japaneses-style Vegetable Stir-fry
10. Fresh herbs in my lamb curry

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Pinoy food

• Independence Day Dinner: Mussel Soup and Grilled Tuna
• Chicken afritada, a colonial legacy
• Bulalo (beef, bone marrow and vegetable soup)
• Crab meat and eggplant omelet
• Camaron rebosado
• Sauteed ampalaya (bitter gourd / melon) with dried shrimps and eggs
• Humba and home cooked cua pao
• Catfish and miso sour soup
• Adobong balut
• Kilawing gindara

Experimental

• Vegetable stuffed beef rolls
• When tofu met pesto
• Fish fillets in kalamansi and pineapple sauce
• Corned Beef and Shredded Cabbage
• Ox tongue with gravy
• Ostrich tapa fried rice
• Pasta with tinapang bangus (smoked milkfish)
• Tuna spread
• Oriental lima bean balls
• Pork tongue asado fried rice

Daily Chow