Dakgangjeong...Korean Sweet and Crunchy Fried Chicken

 Ingredients

1 lb chicken tenders, cleaned and cubed
2-3 tablespoon potato starch or corn starch
cooking oil for deep frying

for the sauce

1 tablespoon Gochujang (Korean chilly paste)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice winegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic, about 2-3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon minced ginger, about 1" piece of ginger root

some chopped green onions and roasted sesame seeds

Directions
1.  First prepare the sauce ingredients. Mix up all the ingredients for the sauce in sauce pan and heat
     in up on medium heat until you can smell the aroma from the garlic and ginger. Turn off the heat
     and leave it to cool.
2.  Next coat the cubed chicken tenders with the potato or corn starch dust off the excess starch from
     the chicken.
3.  Heat up some cooking oil on medium heat for deep frying. When the oil is hot or reaches 350°F or      180°C, carefully drop in the coated chicken cubes and deep fry until the chicken is lightly brown
     and crispy.  Fry the chicken in batches to avoid the chicken cubes from being soggy.
4.  Drain the fried chicken cubes on a kitchen towel.
5.  When all the chicken cubes are fried, transfer them to a bowl and pour in the sauce. Mix well to
     coat each chicken cube. Finally add in the toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions and
     mix well.
6.  Garnish with some extra toasted sesame and chopped green onions and serve with hot steamed
     rice.

Applewood smoked Pulled Chicken

This recipe is another one of my family favorites. Everyone loves it, so do I but I just keep to the cooking and not the eating. I usually make it without the smoked applewood since I don't have a smoker or grill at home, however I decided to try smoking the chicken in the oven after eating applewood smoked pulled pork at Subway.

Boneless chicken breasts marinated with garlic powder, black pepper and lime juice

Dry Mix

Chicken thighs marinated with the dry rub and onto the smoking skillet for searing

Chicken thighs being seared on the hot skillet

Tomato Sauce and Chipotles in Adobo Sauce

Seared chicken thighs, tomato sauce, mustard, barbeque sauce and chipotles

Damp applewood chips wrapped in foil and ready to go into the oven

After about 2 hours of slow cooking in the oven. I removed the foil with the applewood chips and I started hitting the meat gently with my spatula 

All the chicken thigh meat is pulled out and mixed with its sauces

Ingredients

Marinade for the chicken thighs
3 lbs of boneless chicken thigh, remove excess fat and clean (I used organic free range chicken)
2 tbsps garlic powder
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
juice of 1 lime

for the dry rub (mix everything together)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp paprika powder
2 tbsp onion granules or onion powder
1 tsp cumin powder

For the sauce:
1/2 cup barbeque sauce
1 tbsp French's yellow mustard
1 454g can of tomato puree
1 tbsp of onion granules
2 tsp chipotle paste (I ground "chipotle peppers in adobo sauce". It comes in a tin and you can find it in the hispanic aisle in at the supermarket)

to smoke
Applewood chips

Some kaiser rolls
Creamy coleslaw

Directions

1. Heat a dry cast iron skillet on high heat until it starts to smoke
2. In the meantime, take the dry rub and rub all over the chicken thighs and arrange them on a plate.
3. When the skillet is smoking, pour 1 tbsp of canola oil and grill the chicken thigh with the dry rub,  a few pieces at a time. Once the bottom part of the chicken i browned, turn it over the brown the other side. We dont have to cook the chicken, but just brown the sides.
4. Once the chicken thighs are browned on both sides, remove them from the skillet and place them in a nice dutch oven or casserole dish. I used my Le Creuset large casserole pan which works great for this dish.
5. Once all the chicken thighs are browned, add the sauce mixture to the browned chicken thigh and give it a good mix.
6. Next take two layers of heavy duty aluminium foil over a clean plate and place some damp applewood chips(spray some water over the chips) on it and wrap the foil tightly. Poke some small holes on the top of the foil and place it on top of the chicken. I used this method to get the applewood smoke into my chicken.
7. Place it an oven and set the temperarure to 250F. Cook the chicken for about 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.
8. Once the chicken is done, take it of the oven and remove the applewood wrapped foil.
9. Remove the chicken thighs and hit the chicken thigh gently with a silicone spatula  or pull it with your fingers to separate the meat. This should be pretty easy if the meat is very well cooked
10. Put the pulled chicken back into its sauce and taste for salt and sugar. Add more barbeque sauce if needed.
11. Serve on a toasted kaiser roll topped with some creamy coleslaw and enjoy.

Thai Green Curry Chicken

Ingredients

500 grams chicken breast, sliced thinly

1/2 cup of coconut cream

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1/2 cup of coconut water

3 tablespoon green curry paste (I used Aroy-D green curry paste)

1 cup water

1 tablespoon Thai palm sugar

1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce

1/2 a red capsicum, sliced thinly

100 gms asparagus or any vegetable of your choice , cut lenghtwise

1/2 cup of Thai basil leaves

Directions

1.  In a pan or wok, heat the coconut cream on medium heat until it starts to boil. Keep stirring the 

     coconut cream until oil starts to separate.

2. Add the Thai green curry paste and keep stirring until the green curry paste is aromatic and has lost     its raw smell.

3. Next add in the sliced chicken breast meat and stir fry for about a minute.

4. Add in  a cup of water and mix well. Once the curry starts to boil, lower the heat to medium low     

   add in the coconut milk.

6. Add in the palm sugar and fish sauce, Adjust the saltiness and sweetness to your taste.

5. Once the curry starts to boil again add in the vegetables and give it a quick stir. 

6. Finally add in the basil leaves, stir the green curry again and remove it from the heat.

7. Serve the green curry with steaming hot Thai jasmine rice.