KFC but better

Say whaaat? Does anything beat KFC? Actually, yes. My brother and I went to Newtown tonight and stopped by a gyoza place after watching The Wind Rises (Miyazaki's final movie). There, we had Tebasaki chicken wings. Tebasaki is spicy and sweet sauce,the chicken itself is deep fried, then coated with the sauce, 7 spices and sesame seeds. Cookingwithdog has a recipe on youtube.

While the tebasaki chicken wings were quite a competition for best fried chicken (KFC's spicy wings are too good....), back a couple of months ago, Sal and I made a healthier version. Baked, not fried! This was from NQN's website.

From cookkk

From cookkk

Thing about this chicken is that it needs to be prepared beforehand, so the chicken can sit in its marinade overnight.

From cookkk

After that, reserve the marinade to make rice with it!

From cookkk

With the chicken, dunk it in buttermilk and then the spice flour mixture~ that is a lot of ingredients, but Sal had most of them in her kitchen already. My kitchen is a bit too Asian to have paprika, cayenne pepper, etc.

From cookkk

We had some difficulty coating the chicken with the spice flour mixture- they clumped together into a mess, and then we didn't have enough, so we quickly guestimated a new batch. Bake for 20 minutes in a 200 degrees oven. You'll smell it, but restrain yourself- uncooked chicken is never good.

From cookkk

To make the rice- just put the whole lot of ingredients into a rice cooker and turn it on, or stove top method- steam for 10 minutes, turn off stove and leave for another 15 minutes or so with the lid on until all the liquid is gone.

This was REALLY good, and guilt free. I don't think you understand how good it is just by looking. Just blogging about it makes me want to make it again, despite all the effort and ingredients it requires. Make extra if you do try this recipe, so you can box them leftovers up for lunch and dinner the following days. 

Changes though for next time: perhaps use chicken thigh fillets (more meat for all that effort!); get the marinade OFF the chicken before coating with buttermilk and spice/flour; steam the rice for a little longer.

Go on, make this so we can be friends.