hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to reproducing foods from Americanized Chinese cuisine with a shot at reproducing the elusive sweet and savory flavors of the Chic-fil-A Sweet and Spicy Siracha sauce. For those new to the channel, in this series, we have been deconstructing classic dishes from Americanized Chinese cuisine, (including a now massive list of fried chicken recipes) then seeing what they might look like when reconstructed through the lens of more traditional wok cooking. As many of you may likely know, Chic-fil-A is well known not only for its classic American style fried chicken offerings, but also its wide range of dipping sauces that accompany their sandwiches, fries, and chicken tenders.
Amongst these offerings is this Sweet and Spicy Siracha sauce which, apart from the obvious inclusion of Siracha hot sauce, to my taste also very heavily leans on the use of sweet chili sauce to create its sweeter elements. It is also however, in my opinion, SO sweet that you can't even taste the Siracha in this sauce, so, I'm going to do our best to not only reproduce this sauce to the best of my ability, but also try and bring out the actual Siracha qualities in it as well. Finally to round this out because, why not. We're also going to do a quick American style chicken tender so that we may compare and contrast these two sauces in context with some fried chicken. You know. For science. Ok! So, let's get into it. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
2 medium chicken breasts
2 eggs
kosher salt
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
64 oz fryer oil
INGREDIENTS (dry batter)
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
1 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
kosher salt
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp Siracha sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp honey
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, then add to a large mixing bowl
MINCE the ginger, then add to a large mixing bowl
COMBINE all remaining dry batter ingredients, set aside
WHISK the eggs with a pinch of kosher salt, set aside
SLICE the chicken breasts into strips, then coat first in the dry batter, then the egg, then the dry batter, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients except the corn starch slurry, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT the deepfryer to 350F, then add the chicken 4-5 pieces at a time and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden brown
REMOVE the chicken to a dry rack and season with kosher salt immediately
ADD the sauce mixture plus a quarter cup of water to a medium saucepan over low heat, then bring to a simmer
ADD the corn starch slurry and whisk until a thick sauce forms