Thai marinated chicken

When travelling through South East Asia I tasted all sorts of fried chicken, mostly variations on the same combination of ingredients. I've been looking for a decent approximation and thanks to Chez Pim, I think I've found it. Very crispy and very tasty.

• 8-10 pieces of chicken drumsticks
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, diced and crushed
• ¼ cup of chopped fresh corriander
• ½ tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• ¼ cup fish sauce
• Enough canola oil or other high-temp oil to fill about 2-inch from the bottom of a frying pan.

With a mortar and pestle crush the garlic, corriander, pepper and salt into a paste. Put the paste into a bowl and add the oyster sauce and fish sauce. Then add the chicken and toss it around with your hands (I used a large zip-lock bag and just gave it a shake). Let the chicken marinade for at least 3 hours. I left it overnight in the fridge.

Fill your pan with vegetable oil about 2 inches deep, make sure it goes at least half way up a chicken leg. Let the oil come up to frying temperature, about 360F or 180C. I always just cut a small piece of potato and drop it in the oil, when it turns golden brown the oil is hot enough.

While you're waiting for the oil to heat up put about 2 cups of rice flour into a large bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a little bit more pepper to the flour. Coat each of the chicken legs in rice flour (shaking off any excess) and put them on a plate. When the oil is ready, place them in one at a time. You should get nice little bubbles all the way around the legs, if it starts spitting you've got the temperature much too high.

Cook the chicken until it's brown and crispy all the way around. It's tough to overcook drumsticks, but as suggested by Chez Pim the best way to tell if they're ready is to cut one up.

More pictures and instructions at Chez Pim