026 - The Double Crispy Trouble!

Instant ramen is a game changer. No doubt about that. Ever since its inception, the fabulous thing had been converted into lots of creative meal. The imagination those who create a meal off of it has no limit. 

So after I made Milk Ramen few weeks back, I’m going to incorporate yet another Instant Ramen into my recipe. So for this week, brace yourself for this fucker. Lo and behold, the Double Crispy Trouble.

Why double? This dish consisted of Ramen that is pan fried till crisp PLUS a crispy chicken thigh seasoned with the seasoning pack itself!

Here’s what you need:

1 Pack of Instant Ramen of your choice. Onion chicken for me today

Enough oil for frying

For the chicken:

70 grams of Chicken Thigh, cut into bite size pieces.

1 garlic peeled and grated.

2 tbsp of Soy Sauce

2 tsp of Rice Wine Vinegar

1 tsp of Dried Chili Flakes.

1 seasoning packet from the ramen. Remember, save it, don’t waste it. (PURELY OPTIONAL! Read below!)

8 tbsp of Cornstarch (for Indonesians, we call it Maizena)

1 egg white

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Marinate your chicken. Mix the chicken thigh with the garlic, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, AND if you’re feeling adventurous, the ramen seasoning. If you decided to add the ramen seasoning, it’d be best to leave the soy sauce out of the marinade! The seasoning will overwhelm everything, and it will make your chicken way too salty. Oh, and leave it to marinate for at least 10 minute.

Chicken

Soy Sauce

Rice Wine Vinegar

Chili Flakes

Garlic

WARNING: CONTAIN MUCH MSG ORGASM. SUCH INTENSE. MUCH WOW.

 This is what i feel about the seasoning packet:

OOOHHH LA LAAA

Mixy-Mixy- MIX IT UP

Step 2 – Boil your ramen as usual, strain it after it’s done to your liking, and leave it to dry for a bit. Dry ramen will yield a crispy ramen. And you know what crispy means right? YUM YUM. Oh, and no picture for this step, you know how it's done right?

Step 3 – While we wait for the ramen to dry, heat your oil in the pan with high heat, just enough to shallow fry the chicken. Shallow frying is typically used to prepare portion-sized cuts of meat and fish, and patties such as fritters (that’s what Wikipedia says, I simply call this as ‘goreng dangkal’ LOL)

Step 4 – Drain the marinade off the chicken; mix the egg whites and prepare the cornstarch. The flow goes; chicken-cornstarch-egg whites-corn starch. You will see that the chicken will be coated in a thick batter. And trust me on this one; this will become crisp once finished!

Prep line

Corn starch first

Egg whites

Back to the starch

 Step 5 – Dunk the chicken to the hot oil. Cook it for 1.5 - 2 minutes on each side, or until that golden brown crust has popped up gracefully! Be very careful not to burn the crust. Once you hit the jackpot, strain and leave the excess oil drop on top of the paper towel.

After the flip. LOOK AT THAT

Step 6 – Heat yet another batch of oil. Feel free to reuse the previous oil, but for great appearance, use fresh new batch. Don’t be a cheapo will ya? Oh, use medium heat for this. Once you see smoke, put the ramen and shape it into concentric circles. You know, for presentation ;) Cook this for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until it turns golden brown. Drain it on paper towel after it’s done. Oh, and don’t you dare to speedhack the process with higher heat, you will definitely burn the noodle! (I did this, stupid)

First side. Looking lumpy.

Press it!

Golden Brown Crunch!

Step 7 – Serve!

See how easy it is for you to elevate the level of a simple instant ramen? Heads will turn folks, heads will turn. For that extra savory, mix mayonnaise with mustard and a touch of acidity in forms of either lemon juice or white vinegar. Drizzle that all over the dish. D-E-L-I-S-H!

Give this a go and let me know how it turns out!

Peace

xx