Chinese Fried Chicken
Win your next party with this crispy, savory appetizer!
Cooking Summary
Ingredients: (detailed list)
- Main Ingredients: chicken wing, mini sweet pepper, garlic, shallot, red chili, green onion, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, corn oil
- Chicken Marinade: salt, sugar, white pepper, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, dark soy sauce
- Seasoning: garlic salt, salt, white pepper
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Top 3 Mistakes
- Ignoring the oil temperature:
Check the oil using the recipe’s heat guidance before adding the ingredients. Oil that is too cool or too hot changes how quickly the food cooks and how evenly the surface browns.
- Leaving seasoning in the wok:
Scoop from the bottom as you toss the fried wings with the chopped aromatics. Those small pieces settle, so mix them through instead of leaving the flavor underneath the chicken.
- Leaving ingredients too wet:
Drain and dry the ingredients as directed before they reach the pan. Extra water changes how they cook, making it harder to get the browning and texture the recipe calls for.
Overview
Step aside, buffalo wings! Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings are a universal party pleaser. These savory wings are the perfect snack, appetizer, or side dish. They are a must-have at Lau family gatherings, parties, and celebrations.
Ingredients
Why this recipe
Most chinese fried chicken recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 3.1M views, 57.1K likes on YouTube.
Chicken wing confidence
Chicken wings can be succulent, tender, crispy perfection. But if you have them often enough, you're also guaranteed to come across dry, tough chicken jerky masquerading as wings. (Or worse, undercooked wings that make you take note of where the restroom is.)
Is there a way to guarantee success? Guarantee is too strong a word, but let's say we have a few tricks to greatly, significantly, grandly increase your chances of success when frying chicken wings at home!
Help the wings cook evenly with a few smart incisions. Make two cuts across the flats, and jab twice into the thickest part of the drumettes. This will help the heat (and the flavor!) penetrate the wings better and reduce the chance of undercooking.
Dry chicken is a result of overcooking the chicken, so you need to keep an eye on your oil temperature. Don't be afraid to adjust the heat if you need to help the oil get hotter or to cool it down.
Do an initial fry at 300°F to get the chicken wings cooked through, then take them out. Do a second fry at 350°F to get the crust nice and crispy. Done!
How to make Chinese Fried Chicken
(Washing the chicken is optional; my dad likes to do this for even texture and to feel more confident in the cleanliness of the chicken.)
To wash the chicken wings (1.5 lb), put them in a large bowl of clean water. Scrub off debris and any dangly bits. When they're washed to your satisfaction, pull the wings out and pat them dry with a paper towel. Dry wings will soak up the marinade and fry up much better than wet ones.
Pour the dirty water directly down the sink. Be thorough in cleaning and disinfecting any surfaces that it may have splashed onto.
Next, prepare the chicken wings for even cooking. Make 2 slices across the back of each flat (the 2-boned wings). Then, with a paring knife or other maneuverable small knife, make two careful jabs into the thickest part of each drumette (the 1-bone piece), each jab on opposite sides.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together salt (0.50 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), white pepper (0.50 tsp), light soy sauce (1 tbsp), oyster sauce (1 tbsp), cooking wine (1 tbsp), and dark soy sauce (0.50 tbsp). Add the chicken wings and toss to evenly coat. Massage the wings to help push the marinade in a bit more. Then, set them aside to absorb the marinade as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Chop the green onions (2 stalk) into small pieces. For this dish, we prefer the whites, so you can either buy green onions that have more whites, save the green parts for a different dish, or just be more aware of possible burning when you're cooking later.
Roughly chop the shallots into slices. Since they're already small to begin with, that should be enough to end up with rather small pieces.
Smash and peel the garlic (3 clove), then mince into small pieces.
Cut the stems off the red chilis, and cut into small pieces. These are spicy, so if you prefer a milder dish, you can reduce or omit the chili peppers altogether.
Cut the mini sweet peppers (1 oz) in half to open them up. Remove the stem, core, and the seeds. Cut each half into strips, and then dice into small pieces.
In a small bowl, mix garlic salt (1 tsp), salt (0.50 tsp), and white pepper (0.50 tsp). Stir it up a bit.
We always use white pepper for our Salt & Pepper dishes because we prefer the taste in this combination, and it looks more appealing, but in a pinch, black pepper is also an option. It won't taste the same, but it'll still taste good!
On a large plate, mix up cornstarch (3 tbsp) and all-purpose flour (3 tbsp). Make sure the two ingredients are thoroughly combined.
This 1:1 ratio will result in the perfect amount of crunch! If you run out while coating your chicken and need to make more, just mix up equal amounts of cornstarch and flour.
Bring the chicken wings over and designate a wet hand and a dry hand. Use your wet hand to pick up a piece of chicken and roll it in the plate of flour, thoroughly coating every side and corner. Once it's nicely coated in a layer of starch-flour, use your dry hand to give it a few firm squeezes to help the coating stick. Repeat with the rest of the wings.
It's important to use your wet hand to manipulate the wet wings, and to use your dry hand to squeeze the coated wings. If you use your wet hand to squeeze the coated wing, the coating will stick to your hand and come off of the wing. (If this happens, just wash and thoroughly dry your hands, re-designate your wet and dry hands, and re-coat the wing with flour.)
In your deep-frying vessel (a deep pot is best, in our opinion), heat up oil (5 cup) to 300°F. There should be enough to cover the chicken wings.
Once the oil reaches the right temperature, start cooking the drumettes. They're thicker, so they take longer to cook.
Set the pieces in gently; if you drop things into hot oil from high up, they'll splash dangerously. Instead, set them in gently, and let go once a corner of the piece is actually in the oil. It won't splash, and the splatter won't be very dramatic because your wings are coated in dry flour.
When the drumettes are all in, lower the heat to medium so that the oil can stay more consistently around 300°F. Occasionally, you may need to raise or lower the heat to keep the oil at the right temperature. Flip and rotate the chicken to help it cook evenly. When the chicken turns golden and floats to the surface, it has cooked through. This should take about 5 minutes. Take them out, and then fry the flats. The flats will cook through much faster, normally taking about 2 minutes. Take the flats out.
The chicken wings are now cooked through but not sufficiently crispy, so we're going to fry them a second time to get that crunch! The second fry will also tighten the crust to help keep the interior nice and juicy.
Bring the oil up to 350°F for the second fry. Add the drumettes back into the oil. Let them get a 30-second head start, then add the flats as well. After 30 more seconds, scoop out the golden brown drumettes, which will have had spent a smidge more than 1 minute in the second fry. Once all the drumettes are out, take out the golden brown wings.
Set the pot aside. You'll need to take a bit of it for the next stir-frying step. You can strain and reserve the rest for future use after it cools down a bit.
Heat up a wok on medium heat. Add oil (2 tbsp), taken from the frying oil from the previous step.
Add the minced garlic and shallots, and stir-fry for 10-15 seconds.
Add half of the minced green onion and the chopped chilis. Stir-fry them until they're aromatic, or for 30-40 seconds.
Add the chopped sweet peppers, and stir-fry for another 30-40 seconds.
Add the double-fried chicken wings. As you stir-fry, mix them in really well. Because the chopped ingredients are small, you'll want to scoop all the way to the bottom with your spatula. Every piece of chicken needs a chance to meet the aromatics and the fragrant oil. Stir-fry for about 20-30 seconds.
Then, start sprinkling in the seasoning mix while constantly stirring and flipping, so that it is evenly distributed. Use as much of the seasoning as you like; we usually don't use all of it.
When the seasoning is evenly coated on the chicken, turn off the heat and plate. Garnish with the remaining chopped green onions. Enjoy quickly for maximum crunch!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you fry crispy chicken wings without undercooking or overcooking them?
The crispiest wings come from the double-fry process. The first fry cooks the meat through, and the second fry crisps up the crust to a fantastic crunch.
To avoid undercooking wings, we suggest making a few incisions in the wings and drumettes. Watch our video or scroll up to the steps above for a visual, but in general, you'll want to make two slices across the flats, and two jabs into the thickest part of the drumettes.
To avoid overcooking wings, it's important to keep the oil at the right temperature. Do the first round of frying at 300°F, and when the wings turn golden and are floating at the surface of the oil, take them out. The wings will be just cooked through. Do a second round of frying at 300°F, and when the wings are a deep golden brown, take them out. They'll be crispy and oh so aromatic!
How do you fry chicken wings without them getting too greasy?
It sounds counterintuitive, but you need to fry wings in a larger amount of oil, and at a high enough temperature, in order to decrease the amount of grease on the final dish.
The high temperature of the oil is what cooks the wings, so if the oil is at a lower temperature, then the wings take longer to cook through. The longer the wings take to cook, the longer they have to sit in that oil bath, and the more oil they're soaking up.
The amount of oil is also important! When you drop a cold item into a pool of hot liquid, the overall temperature of the pool will drop. So when you're adding that raw chicken into the pot of hot oil, the temperature of that oil will drop. If you have a lot of cold, raw chicken and not a lot of hot oil, the temperature of that oil is going to really, really drop. Ideally, you'll want enough oil so that the temperature doesn't drop so dramatically when you start adding chicken to it.
What do you do with leftover oil from frying chicken?
You can save frying oil to cook with later! Make sure to strain out any debris that might burn, and keep a nose out for any rancid hints or burning smells.
What's the best way to keep fried chicken wings crispy for longer?
It's always ideal to eat fried items quickly, before the crust has time to soften, or worse, turn soggy.
If you need to transport it, say to show off at a potluck, cover loosely with foil and poke some holes in the foil to let steam vent out.
If you have access to an air fryer, you can pop them in for a few minutes at 400°F to help them crisp up again.
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Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.