My Mama's Fried Chicken

"What would you like to have for lunch?", Mom would ask. "Would you please make fried chicken...mmm". These were the types of conversation I'd have with my mom while growing up. I enjoyed spending my after school hours in the kitchen with Mom. Mom's a good cook and I love making some of her delicious "chow zhou" and Malaysian Chinese dishes for my family. One of her specialties is curry & spices marinated chicken deep fried in hot oil. I still can visualize the yellow fresh turmeric hue on and in between the chicken pieces - each bite is to die for. The best part of it is that back then it was common to rear fowls in the backward. And we had a huge backyard leading to the woods and separated by a stream from our house. The chicken and ducks roamed freely. What we call them nowadays free-range, organic chicken! We kept them as pets and offerings to the heavenly Supreme.

Lately, I've been hankering for some fried chicken and picked up a free ranged whole chicken the other day. Roast it or fry it? I like either way but since I decided to have an impromptu dinner party with some friends, I decided to deep fry it, sort of. As much as I love fried chicken, the thought of saturated fat and cholesterol prompted me to part fry on pan and part roast in the oven. This is a quick and less messy method way of deep frying. Firstly I used 100% peanut oil which can withstand high level of heat, brown the chicken pieces, then prop them skin side up on a rack over cookie sheet in the oven. Roast in the preheated 320 degrees convection oven for about 35 minutes. It was easy and fuss free, minus cleaning up the leftover grease on the sheet. The saturated fat left on the sheet could have been consumed...eeek. You can at least feel guilt-free eating fried chicken cooked in this method, while not compromising the crispy texture, aroma and taste.

Enough said already. The recipe I improvised a lil' has a wonderful combination of good for you spices.

Curry & Spice Marinated Fried Chicken
(Malaysian Style)

Grind into paste:
5-10 shallots, sliced
5-10 garlic cloves, mashed
20-30 curry leaves
1-2 lemongrass white part only, thinly sliced
1" Galangal (a type of ginger commonly used in Thai cooking), peeled & minced
1" Ginger, peeled & minced
1-2" Fresh Tumeric, peeled and minced (sub. w/powder if you can't find fresh one)
1 TBSP Curry Powder for meat
Salt to taste

One whole chicken, cut up into 8 pieces or smaller.

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup flour

Method:
Pound or grind all of the above into a paste. Marinade the chicken, for at least a few hours. Marinating overnight yields deeper flavor.

Before frying, dust chicken with part rice flower and part flour to give skin a crisp. Pan fry skin side down until light brown. Flip over, and lightly brown. Fry them in smaller batches and do not crowd them as they could end up steaming the chicken pieces. Place a rck over cookie sheet lined with foil if you prefer not to deal with scraping and cleaning. Transfer chicken pieces to rack and roast @ 320 F degrees for 35 - 40 minutes depending on the the size of chicken.