Turmeric-marinated and deep-fried chicken thighs – Ayam Goreng Kunyit

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 2 chicken legs
• 1 ½ liters of frying oil
• 1 large onion(s), brown, for garnishing
• 2 tsp, heaped turmeric powder
• 1 tsp, heaped Szechuan pepper
• 2 tsp chicken broth powder
• 1 tsp, levelled powdered sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Rest time approx. 5 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 13 minutes; Total time approx. 5 hours 33 minutes

These are the juiciest and most tender chicken thighs you could imagine. Recipe from Malaysia.

Wash the chicken thighs and dry thoroughly. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a small bowl and, wearing latex gloves (see note), rub the mixture all over the chicken pieces. Marinate in the refrigerator for 5 hours. Then bring to room temperature. In the meantime, cut the peeled onion crosswise into approximately 6 mm wide rings. Heat the frying oil to 190 degrees Celsius. Fry the meat in pairs for about 3 minutes until light brown, then remove from the oil. Cool the frying oil to 160 degrees Celsius and fry the meat pieces together for 10 minutes at this temperature. After 8 minutes, add the onion rings. Remove everything from the oil and drain well. Arrange the chicken thighs on a serving dish and garnish with the onion rings. Serve as a crispy, juicy side dish and enjoy. Notes: Turmeric turns everything a beautiful yellow, even porcelain is not immune. So it’s better to dye your gloves than your hands. When deep-fried, turmeric seals the surface, allowing moisture to migrate inward, while forming a brownish crust on the outside. When it comes to onion rings, I’m not a fan of onion rings that are barely fried. So, the photo shows brownish rings instead of the whitish-yellow ones the recipe calls for.