Aromatic Salt and Pepper Chicken Bites! （盐酥鸡块）

Oh yum! The salt and pepper chicken bites! How about that as one of the dishes for dinner? If you want to make it as snacks...hmm..I think it is okay too!
If I wasn't mistaken, this is the street food started in Taiwan? As I was brought up in Kuala Lumpur Cheras area, I know the night market (pasar malam) in the area sells this delicious street food. It was sold in Mid Valley too! You will normally get a large piece of chicken breast fillet salt and pepper chicken from the street food store. However, since I am doing it at home, it is a good idea to cut the chicken breast fillet into large bite-sized pieces as it will be easier to serve and to eat as well. 

Here's how I made my salt and pepper chicken bites:-

550g chicken breast fillet (cut into large bite-sized pieces)

Marinate with...
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 0.5 to 0.75 tbsp Chinese cooking wince (Shao Xing)
- 0.25 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp Chinese five spice powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 0.5 to 0.75 tsp salt (note: I prefer 0.75 tsp salt)
- about 2 dashes of black pepper

**Optional: Set aside about 3 to 4 tbsp of curry leaves - washed and dried thoroughly with kitchen towel for later use.

>>>> You also need about a cup of tapioca flour or corn flour for coating the marinated chicken pieces before frying. (Note: Do not coat chicken with flour earlier. Only coat the marinated chicken pieces when you are about to fry them.)

Now the steps....

(1) Marinate the bite-sized chicken pieces with the above mentioned ingredients (except the curry leaves). Then, place the bowl of chicken in the fridge and allow it to marinate for at least 30 minutes. You can marinate overnight if you want to cook it the next day. (Note: Please do use a pot cover or cling wrap to cover the bowl of chicken pieces before placing into the fridge.)   

(2) Once you are ready to cook, heat up some cooking oil (1 or 2 cups maybe?) at high heat. While heating up the cooking oil, work on the chicken pieces by coating each piece of the marinated chicken pieces (ie. both side) with flour. Shake off the excess flour and fry the chicken pieces at medium high heat in batches.

(Note: I normally coat the chicken pieces with flour in batches. Once the frying process for the first batch of chicken bites almost done, I will start coating flour for 2nd batch chicken piece. However, this is only my way of doing as my frying pan is not very big in size. If you are using a bigger frying pan, then you need to use more cooking oil and you might be able to coat flour and fry all at once.)

(3) By now, the aroma from the delicious salt and pepper chicken bites would have filled everywhere of your kitchen. Remove chicken bites from frying once they turned golden brown. Place the chicken in a serving plate and set aside for the next step if you want to add curry leaves. Otherwise, it is okay to do without curry leaves. 

**(4) Heat up 1 tbsp of butter or cooking oil. Put in the curry leaves and stir fry them at medium low heat to prevent turning dark quickly. Once they have crisped up, quickly pour in the cooked chicken bites and mix well. Remove chicken from heat and it's ready to be served. :)

This is how I served my aromatic salt and pepper chicken bites with warm rice and 2 other dishes. Enough for my family of 2 adults and 2 children. :)

Enjoy!!