Chinese Chicken Balls, Takeout style. An easy recipe with secrets for keeping the chicken juicy and getting the crispiest batter ever!
Chinese Chicken Balls.
We have always enjoyed making takeout favourites at home in our family. There are many different examples of that on this website.
We’ve done everything from Copycat KFC to Shake Shack’s Smoke Shack Burger. There’s also our version of local favourite Big Mary Chicken Sandwich to an unusual local gourmet pizza our family loves!
These and others have been big hits on Rock Recipes over the last 20 years but none more so than our Asian Inspired and Chinese Takeout copycat recipes. There are so many we put them in a special collection with everything from Singapore Noodles to spicy General Tso’s Chicken and many more.
Chinese Chicken Balls.
Be sure to check out all of them at our collection of Best Chinese Take Out Recipes at home! 20 recipes that will have you skipping delivery for a tasty, sometimes quicker and often lower sodium meal at home.
The demand for today’s recipe for Chinese Chicken Balls.
Last week, I finally posted our standard recipe for Sweet and Sour Sauce. It was something I had been remiss to do in almost 20 years online.
I basically thought it was a sauce everyone already knew, as most versions are the same basic recipe. A friend reminded me that mine did not include water as the base and that makes all the difference!
When I posted different photos of the sauce over the week on our Facebook Page, I posted one with the sauce being poured over simple chicken balls.
That got a big reaction, not from the repeat posting of the sauce, but for requests for the Chicken Balls recipe! I committed to posting it this weekend to enjoy with that very sauce, so here we are.
Cooked to a perfect gold brown.
The one ingredient difference in my Chinese Chicken Balls recipe.
Like my Sweet and Sour sauce recipe, there is one thing that I do differently. The unlikely inspiration for that actually came from my incredibly popular recipe for Crispy Fish and Chips!
The secret ingredient in that simple tempura style recipe, was the addition of rice flour! In my experiments I drew from that same inspiration.
Most chicken balls recipes use corn starch and plain flour in differing proportions. The flour giving structure to the batter and the corn starch bringing the crispy property.
I thought, why not try to up the crunch using rice flour as a third dry ingredient to up the crunch factor!
Some proportions of the other two ingredients in other recipes were too doughy in texture and too thick a coating. Many recipes do not maintain crispiness and can get a bit soggy between frying batches.
I did not find this was the case in this particular recipe. I made 3 batches in the fryer and the first maintained it’s crispiness in a warm oven until ready to serve.
This, to me is a particularly valuable attribute to have, especially when serving more than 4 or so people at a time. It give =s you that extra little bit of flexibility when entertaining that ensres perfection n the olate when time to serve.
So there it is, my teaching course in Chinese Chicken Balls 101! Be sure to try it for yourself and come back and share your experience with the l=clas in the comments below!
快乐而成功的烹饪
Great with Sweet and Sour Sauce.
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Chinese Chicken Balls, Takeout style.
Ingredients
For the chicken and marinade
- 4 large chicken breasts, cut in large cubes. About 8 per breast.
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
For the dry dredge
- 1 cup flour
You will also need
- Additional oil for frying, about one litre.
For the batter
- 1/4 cup rice flour
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp canola or peanut oil
- 1 cup water
- 1 egg
Instructions
To prepare the chicken.
- Cut the chicken breasts into chunks and place in a bowl with the 1/4 tsp soy sauce and baking soda.
- Marinate for a 30-60 minutes.
To make the batter.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the rice flour, flour, and cornstarch along with the salt and baking powder.
- Make a well in the center and add the water, oil and egg.
- Whisk the batter together until smooth with no lumps.
- Heat the oil in a deep fryer or dutch oven to 350 degrees F.
- Dredge the chicken pieces in the plain flour until well coated.
- Drop the dredged chicken pieces into the batter a few at a time.
To fry the Chinese Chicken Balls.
- Shake off the excess batter, one piece at a time and drop into the hot oil.
- Cook for 3 to four minutes and flip the pices to cook an additional 3 or 4 minutes on the other side to brown evenly.
- This should be enough time to cook the chicken pieces inside but I always use a meat thermomether to take the temperature of the largest ball to ensure that it is at least 165 degreed F. There will be some carry over cooking as the balls rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
- Keep the cooked chicken balls on a rack over a cookie sheet at the lowest temperature of your oven between batches as you fry to maintain their temperature and keep them crispy.
- Serve with our Sweet and Sour Sauce!
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 575Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 2gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 99mgSodium 1010mgCarbohydrates 84gFiber 2gSugar 0gProtein 35g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.