Crispy Thai Chicken Nuggets are so amazingly moreish you could quite possibly fall into a food coma if you made enough of them – hubby almost did!
With the last of my thai paste sitting idle in the freezer – there wasn’t quite enough left to make a family pot of thai curry, the next dream recipe that popped into my mind was deep fried chicken nuggets, and what an amazing lightbulb of a meal idea it was! These nuggets are so moist, so tender, full of amazing flavours and with the indulgent use of deep frying, deliciously naughty as well.
Balance out the meal with some steamed vegetables such as garlic beans and a stir fried zucchini noodle dish and you won’t feel so bad indulging in these bite size morsels of flavoursome chicken nuggets.
Tip: Don’t be tempted to make this dish a little ‘healthier’ by using chicken breast, as you need the fuller flavour of the chicken thighs as well as the moist meat that the thigh fillets have to successfully make these nuggets.
Ingredients
Thai paste
1 bunch of coriander, remove the leaves from the stems. Wash the roots very well and then pound with a mallet or mortar and pestle to break up the fibres and roughly chop up the stems.
3 long red chillies, seeds and membrane removed if you don’t want heat and then roughly chopped
1 red banana chilli, roughly chopped
1 knob of ginger – about thumb size, roughly chopped
1 stick of lemongrass, break the fibres with a mallet or mortal and pestle then chop.
1tbs palm sugar, shaved
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 lemon, juiced
1 lime, juiced
Chicken
2 chicken thighs per person, cut into 5 or 6 large chunks
3 tbs black vinegar
3 tbs light soy
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
salt and white pepper
Oil for deep frying
Method
Prepare the Thai paste by placing all the ingredients except the coriander leaves into a food processor and blitz till quite fine. Taste it and see if you have a good balance between sweet, sour, heat and saltiness, adjust as needed.
Once you have a nice balance of flavours then add the coriander leaves and blitz quickly so you still have some larger leaves through the paste.
Use 2 tablespoons of the thai paste and freeze the rest in a plastic sandwich bag. This way you can break off a tablespoon or so, fry, add some coconut milk and you have a gorgeous sauce to add vegetables or meat to.
With the 2 tablespoons of paste, add the 3 tablespoons of black vinegar and 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce and stir to combine.
Place the large chunks of chicken pieces into the marinade and leave for about 2 hours, covered and in the fridge.
When ready, mix the flours, salt and pepper together.
Heat the oil to 180°C / 360°F
In batches, remove some chicken from the marinade and then dust with the flours. Carefully place into the oil and cook till golden.
Serve with steamed beans, rice and kale and spinach salad.
- 1 bunch of coriander, leaves removed from the stems and roots. Pound the roots with a mallet to break up the fibres.
- 3 long red chillies, seeds removed if you don’t want heat and then roughly chopped
- 1 red banana chilli, roughly chopped
- 1 knob of ginger – about thumb size, roughly chopped
- 1 stick of lemongrass, break the fibres with a mallet and then chop
- 1tbs palm sugar, shaved
- 2 tbs fish sauce
- 1 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 lime, juiced
- 2 chicken thighs per person, cut into 5 or 6 large chunks
- 3 tbs black vinegar
- 3 tbs light soy
- ½ cup plain flour
- ¼ cup rice flour
- salt and white pepper
- Oil for deep frying
- Prepare the thai paste by placing the stems or the coriander and all the other ingredients into a food processor and blitzing till quite fine. Taste it and see if you have a good balance between sweet, sour and saltiness, adjust as needed.
- Once you have a nice balance of flavours then add the coriander leaves and blitz quickly so you still have some larger leaves through the paste.
- Use 2 tablespoons of the thai paste and freeze the rest in a plastic sandwich bag. This way you can break off a tablespoon or so, fry, add some coconut milk and you have a gorgeous sauce to add vegetables or meat to.
- With the 2 tablespoons of paste, add the 3 tablespoons of black vinegar and 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce and stir to combine.
- Place the large chunks of chicken pieces into the marinade and leave for about 2 hours, covered and in the fridge.
- When ready, mix the flours, salt and pepper together.
- Heat the oil to 180°C / 360°F
- In batches, remove some chicken from the marinade and then dust with the flours. Carefully place into the oil and cook till golden.
- Serve with steamed beans, rice and kale and spinach salad.