Chilly Chicken

Method

First time making this? Read to the end before you start. The frying is relaxed, but the final stir-fry is fast — once the wok is hot you won't have time to chop or measure, so everything needs to be ready and lined up by the hob first.

1. Cut the chicken evenly. Cut the thigh into roughly 2.5 cm / 1-inch chunks — all about the same size, so they cook at the same rate. Pieces much bigger stay raw inside while the crust darkens; much smaller dry out.
2. Marinate. In a bowl, toss the chicken with the egg, 1 tbsp soy, ginger-garlic paste, white pepper and ½ tsp fine sea salt until slimy and well coated. Rest 20 minutes 20:00 on the counter, or up to 2 hours covered in the fridge. The soy and egg season the meat itself and help the coating grip — a dry dredge alone slides off in the oil.
3. Prep everything else while it rests. Chop the onions, peppers, ginger, garlic, green chillies and spring onions and set them in separate piles. In a small bowl whisk together the sauce: soy, chilli-garlic sauce, Schezwan sauce, ketchup, vinegar, sugar and black pepper. In a second little bowl, stir the 1 tsp cornflour into 60 ml water (this is your slurry — stir again right before using, as it settles). Line all of it up next to the cooker.
4. Coat the chicken. Just before frying, sprinkle the cornflour and plain flour over the marinated chicken and toss until each piece wears a thick, craggy jacket. It should look shaggy and only slightly tacky, not wet and pasty — add a teaspoon more cornflour if it's gluey.
5. Heat the frying oil. Pour 4–5 cm of oil into a deep pan or wok and heat over medium-high. Aim for 175 °C/350 °F. No thermometer? Drop in a pinch of the coating: it should sizzle steadily and float up within about 2 seconds. If it sinks and sits, the oil's too cold; if it browns instantly, too hot — pull the pan off the heat for a minute.
6. First fry. Lower in the chicken a piece at a time, in 2–3 batches — the pieces should bob freely with room around them, never a crowded clump (crowding cools the oil and makes them greasy and pale). Fry each batch 4–5 minutes 05:00 to pale gold, turning once or twice, then lift out onto a rack or paper towels. Let the oil come back up to temperature between batches.
7. Second fry for crunch. Raise the heat a little (190 °C/375 °F — the coating dropped in now browns in about a second) and fry each batch again for 1–2 minutes 02:00 until deep golden and crisp; it should feel firm and sound lightly hollow when tapped. The chicken is fully cooked at an internal 74 °C/165 °F — cut one open to check it's white throughout, with no pink. Frying twice is what keeps it crisp once the sauce hits; a single pale fry goes soggy in seconds.
8. Start the stir-fry. Heat 2 tbsp neutral oil in a wok or wide frying pan over the highest heat your hob allows, until it shimmers. Add the ginger, garlic, green chillies, spring onion whites and sesame seeds and stir constantly for 20–30 seconds 00:30, until fragrant but not browned — garlic burns in seconds at this heat, so keep it moving and don't walk away.
9. Char the vegetables. Add the onion cubes and peppers. Toss on high heat for 2–3 minutes 03:00 — keep them moving with a spatula or by shaking the pan so nothing sits and steams. You want blistered, charred edges but vegetables still crisp in the middle. Home hobs can't hit true restaurant "wok hei"; a screaming-hot pan and not overloading it gets you most of the way.
10. Sauce it. Pour in the sauce mix and let it bubble for a few seconds. Stir the slurry and pour it in — half for a dry appetizer-style finish, all of it (plus 2–3 tbsp water) for a saucier, spoonable version. Stir for about 30 seconds 00:30 until it turns glossy and thick enough to cling to a spoon.
11. Finish off the heat. Turn off the heat, then tip in the fried chicken and fold gently until every piece is coated. Scatter over the spring onion greens and serve straight away, while it's still crisp.