Chinese Crispy Honey Chicken

Chicken and marinade

500g chicken stir fry (we like smaller pieces of chicken, which is why I have chosen stir fry, you can use breast and cut it into smaller pieces, but this often ends up too thick for us).
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp chinese cooking wine
2 tsp cornflour

1/2 cup cornflour extra

Batter

45g cornflour
30g plain flour
7 tbs soda water
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Honey Sauce

150g honey
25g glucose syrup
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp chinese cooking wine

2-3 cups grapeseed oil for frying

sesame seeds and finely sliced spring onion as a garnish

Place dry batter ingredients in a bowl in the fridge.

Mix chicken and marinate in a bowl, refrigerate for 30 minutes ( no more than 30 minutes).

Place marinate chicken in a sieve and allow to drain for 3-5 minutes.

Place the cornflour on a plate and toss the chicken (a few pieces at a time) in the cornflour to coat.

Dust off excess cornflour.

Place a cake rack on a plate.

Pour oil into a small-medium saucepan and lace over medium high heat for 3-5 minutes. The oil is hot enough if a cube of bread dropped into the oil turns to toast in 50 seconds. Any longer than this and the oil is too cool, any shorter than this and the oil is too hot.

Add the soda water to the dry batter ingredients and whisk 10-15 times, lumps are no problem, you do not want to overwhisk.

Dip chicken (one piece at a time) in the batter to coat (the batter should coat the chicken and not drip off instantly. It also should not be too thick and gluggy). Add 1 tsp more water at a time if the batter appears to be too gluggy or thick. This batter quickly changes from too thick to too thin, it is really important to add only 1 tsp at a time when adjusting for glugginess.

When the oil is at the right temperature, fry 4 pieces of chicken at a time. Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes and then turn the chicken, cook for another 1 1/2 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oil and place on the cooling rack.

Repeat with the remaining chicken until it has all been cooked.

Allow the chicken to cool for 20 minutes.

Make the honey sauce by placing all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and simmering for 3 minutes. Put the sauce aside (covered) until needed. You may need to reheat the sauce as it becomes thick and sticky when cool.

Heat the oil over high heat for 3 minutes and add the chicken in batches and fry again for 90 seconds.

Remove from the heat and place on the cooling rack.

Pour 3/4 of the sauce into a bowl and dip the chicken into the saucepan with the sauce. I like to start with less sauce and gradually add in more from the bowl to reach the optimum amount of sauce.

Place the chicken on a serving plate and toss over sesame seeds and a large amount of spring onion.

Try this served with steamed rice, blanched snow peas and steamed broccolini.