Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to reproducing foods from our eight day trip traveling through Taipei Taiwan with a look at what I would consider to be one of the top five most iconic foods found in Taiwanese cuisine, which of course is the Taiwanese popcorn chicken. Those that have been following along with this channel for a while now may know that we are certainly no stranger to popcorn chicken (and in fact, we even took a crack at the Quicklys Taiwanese popcorn chicken a few years back, too). Today though I felt inspired to revisit this dish once again because of the inclusion of one single ingredient that I saw used pretty frequently in the Taiwanese nightmarkets, which is Thai basil, more specifically, deep-fried Thai basil. And, if you're like me and you're wondering, why in the world would you deep fry a Thai basil leaf? Then, you are in the right place. 

For those unfamiliar, a Taiwanese popcorn chicken is a relatively straight forward dish, comprised of a double fried, diced piece of chicken breast or thigh coated in a light and crisp potato and tapioca starch batter, then seasoned with an iconic five spice and white pepper seasoning. By now, I hope you will recognize this seasoning from a myriad of different dishes that have come up in this series already. Finally last but definitely not least, we'll also be taking a look at what I might call the biggest whoopsy moment I have ever had in my many years of deepfrying, which is...what exactly happens if you accidentally pour water into the deepfryer? Bad, bad things, y'all. very bad. Hope you try it.