Taiwanese Cuisine · FFET10283
Yan su ji (salt-crisp chicken)
Yan su ji is bite-size chicken coated in sweet potato starch and fried crisp, seasoned with pepper and salt and often served with fried basil.
A white porcelain plate holds bite-sized pieces of boneless chicken thigh fried to a crisp golden brown, beside pale chopped garlic and dark green fried Thai basil leaves, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
The regional cooking of Taiwan, drawing on many food traditions, with rich night-market snacks.
Yan su ji is chicken cut into small pieces, marinated, coated in sweet potato starch, fried crisp and seasoned with pepper and salt, often with fried basil. It is sold at night markets and traditional markets across Taiwan. Some material has weak sourcing, and a 2022 trade column mentions several origins without identifying a founding shop, so this entry gives no origin year or place. The name is now also used for many other fried foods.
What
Yan su ji is small pieces of marinated chicken coated in sweet potato starch, fried until crisp and tossed with pepper-and-salt seasoning and fried basil.1,3,4
When
No dated text was found, and several shops' origin claims have weak sourcing; a 2022 trade column mentions several origins without identifying a founding shop, so this entry gives no origin year.1,2
Where
It is sold across Taiwan, mostly at night markets and traditional markets.1
How
The chicken is marinated, coated in sweet potato starch and deep-fried until crisp. Both recipes give about 3 minutes of frying in all, at an oil temperature of about 170 to 175 degrees Celsius, with 2 rounds in 1 recipe and 1 round in the other. After frying, toss with pepper-and-salt seasoning and optionally serve with fried basil.3,4
Impact and influence
The name yan su ji now also covers many other fried foods, and a Taiwan-wide yan su ji carnival was held in 2022.2
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
My home yan su ji draws on two signed recipes, both Taiwanese in style. The marinade ingredients (garlic, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, five-spice powder, white pepper) and the coating of 1 cup of sweet potato starch follow the former recipe, without its flour batter; the 3 cm pieces and frying the basil at about 150 degrees Celsius for about 20 seconds follow the latter. Both recipes give an oil temperature of about 170 to 175 degrees Celsius and about three minutes of frying in all, so I do the same and cut a piece open from each batch to check it is cooked through. The marinating times differ a lot (at least 2 hours against 10 minutes), so I settled on about 1 hour, which is my own choice. The grams and milliliters are my conversions from cups, pounds and spoons, and the other amounts are my own choices at home.
Ingredients
- Boneless chicken thighs 450 g, cut into pieces of about 3 cm
- Garlic 3 cloves, minced
- Light soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- Shaoxing wine 1 tablespoon
- Five-spice powder 1/2 teaspoon
- White pepper 1/4 teaspoon, for the marinade
- Sweet potato starch 1 cup, 240 ml by volume
- Thai basil leaves a large handful, washed and dried thoroughly
- Cooking oil for frying about 700 ml
- Salt 1/2 teaspoon
- White pepper 1/2 teaspoon, for seasoning the fried chicken
Steps
- Put the chicken pieces in a bowl with the garlic, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, five-spice powder and 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper. Stir and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
- Warm the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper in a dry pan over low heat for about 1 minute and set aside as the pepper-and-salt seasoning.
- Pour the sweet potato starch onto a plate. Drain off extra marinade, press the chicken pieces into the starch one at a time until fully coated and shake off the loose powder.
- Pour the oil into a pot and heat it to about 150 degrees Celsius, measured with a thermometer. Add the dried basil leaves and fry for about 20 seconds, then lift them out and drain. Then heat the oil to about 170 degrees Celsius.
- Fry the chicken in batches for about 3 minutes each, until the coating is golden and crisp. Do not crowd the pot, so the oil temperature does not drop.
- From each batch, cut one piece open and check that the chicken is cooked through with no pink left. Drain the pieces, season them with the pepper and salt while they are hot, toss them and add the fried basil.
Tips
- The basil leaves must be dry because they spatter in the oil; I stand back and use a lid as a shield, which is my own habit.
- I season the pieces while they are hot because I find the seasoning sticks better, which is my own way.
Allergens: soy, wheat