Popcorn Chicken is an easy and healthy chicken breast recipe that is made by frying diced chicken breast and coating them with corn flour. The diced chicken breast is then fried. This chicken recipe can be eaten with rice or pasta and vegetable sauce. You can also make this simple chicken recipe with leftover chicken.
Table of Contents
Ingredients for making Popcorn chicken recipe
- Chicken Breast – you can use any leftover chicken for this easy and simple chicken recipe. An antibiotic-free ranch chicken will be best for making a paleo chicken recipe for those on a Paleo diet.
- 1 teaspoon of salt, ground chili, and garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons of vinegar, sour cream, buttermilk or lemon juice.
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and tablespoon of oyster sauce. The sauce for this chicken recipe depends on what you love or what tastes great for you. I am using Oyster sauce for my chicken breast recipe.
- 1/2 cup of fresh organic liquid milk. If you have added sour cream or buttermilk, no need of using milk again.
- 1 cup of corn flour (cornstarch). Any other flour would do but if you want a gluten-free chicken recipe, use rice flour or any gluten flour.
- Crushed bread crumbs – these make your popcorn chicken recipe crispy and crunchy so that you have a delicious breaded chicken recipe. This is optional.
- Half teaspoon of black pepper
- One egg and Cooking oil, I used olive oil.
How to make popcorn chicken at home (Chicken breast recipe)
Making the Chicken recipe Marinade
- Get a mixing bowl for combining and marinating your chicken and ingredients together
- Dice the chicken breasts or any leftover chicken meat into small sizes. To make a healthy chicken recipe, make sure you remove the skin from the chicken because it is not good for the heart. Also, remember to remove bones in chicken so that you work with only the boneless chicken.
- To the mixing bowl; add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground chili. If you are making this for your kids, you may want to reduce the spices; red chili is hot and peppery and kids may not find it funny, eating it.
- Also, add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
- Now pour 3 to 5 tablespoons of vinegar (Apple cider vinegar) into the mixture containing the diced chicken breasts. You can substitute vinegar with sour cream or buttermilk (if you love a creamy chicken breast recipe) or lemon juice.
- Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- Mix all the ingredients with diced chicken breasts to combine completely
- Cover the mixture in the bowl with a clinched film or appropriate lid and allow it to stay overnight. This is to have a marinated chicken recipe, it helps the ingredients to be absorbed into the chicken breasts, you may also like chicken stir fry recipe. If you don’t want to keep it overnight, you can refrigerate for 2 hours.
Coating your marinated diced chicken breasts
- 1. Get a small container for making a batter
2. Add 1 cup of cornflour (cornstarch), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and another 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder.
3. To the same bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, black pepper, and chili powder
4. Mix the corn flour and the added ingredients together to combine
5. Whisk in 1 egg into the marinated chicken breasts that were left overnight or in the fridge. Stir to combine with the whisked egg.
6. Drain any excess liquid off
7. Add cornflour using a tablespoon into the egg and marinated chicken breast mixture. You can add 2 tablespoons and mix to coat.
8. Start dipping each coated chicken breast piece into the remaining cornflour and keep it on a flat plate. Continue until you have coated all the diced chicken breasts; do not clump them together and if the plate is too small, get a tray or a wider plate.
Frying the coated chicken breasts
- Place a pan on heat on a stovetop. You can use an oven to fry this or whatever you prefer or have at home. Deep frying is not possible if you are using a crock pot. A skillet or pan is better. If you want a baked chicken breast recipe, you can use a dutch oven or a regular oven – just use what you have at home.
- When the oil is heated, start dropping your coated chicken pieces one after another, gently into the heated oil. DO NOT stir immediately after dropping them; until they are heated to prevent the coated corn flour from falling off the chicken pieces during stirring.
- Once they are heated and have started turning brown, you can start stirring to cook evenly without burning. If they are crispy and brown, remove from heat and drain into a colander with a paper towel.
- Your popcorn chicken recipe made from chicken breasts is ready! It is a yummy chicken recipe loved by kids.
Servings
You can serve this chicken recipe as lunch or dinner; it goes well with pasta (spaghetti) and vegetable sauce (spinach sauce or tomato sauce. You can also serve this with rice and stew; or potatoes with a dipping sauce.