Bill's Spicy Fried Chicken

When my partner told me he wanted to cook me this for dinner I was in two minds. Firstly, he doesn't cook very often, so I was excited and wanted to support him in his endeavour. But secondly, the title of the recipe includes the word fried. This usually is enough to stop me from cooking a recipe at home, as I usually try to reserve my fat intake for desserts/cakes/cookies etc! I was also apprehensive as my partner doesn't like to cook chicken that contains bones (after an unfortunate incident in which he served his parents undercooked chook!) and I feared that fried chicken breast would be dry and tough. Bill swears in his book that poaching the chicken in coconut milk before frying keeps the chicken moist and juicy, but it turned out that my fears were confirmed. The centre of each piece was still moist, but the edges were quite dry. Perhaps it would have been okay if we had have used chicken on the bone?

It was, however, edible and quite tasty. We ate it with a simple salad of leaves, cucumber and cherry tomatoes and a LOT of sweet chilli sauce.

Spicy Fried Chicken

1 cup coconut milk
zest of 1 lime
2 asian red shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece ginger, sliced
3 green chillies, chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp salt
1.5kg chicken, cut into 16 pieces
veg oil for frying
sweet chilli sauce to serve

Place coconut milk, lime zest, shallots, ginger, garlic, chilli, turmeric, salt and 2 and 1/2 cups water into a large saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add chicken and cook gently for 20 minutes or until tender and just cooked. Remove from saucepan and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Heat oil in a wok or deep frying pan over high heat. Cook the chicken in batches (do not overcrowd) until golden. Drain on paper towel and serve hot with sweet chilli sauce. Serves 4.

Recipe from Bill's Sydney Food.