Bang Bang! What a name for a recipe. This recipe gets its name from Taiwanese street vendors banging chicken with a meat mallet to tenderize it. The crispy exterior comes from potato starch. Incorporating Japanese cooking techniques for crunchier, southern-style fried chicken.

I love fried chicken. As an American, it is a staple take-out dinner. One-stop-shop for dinner that night. This chicken gets most of its flavor by infusing an easy tangy marinade. The best part of this chicken is the crispy texture from the double fry. Ooh, baby! Why didn’t I learn to double fry chicken in school? So many wasted years!

The key to this recipe is simple. Marinade, batter, 1st fry, and 2nd fry. Chicken, like all food, has a good amount of moisture in it. We marinade chicken to trade some of that moisture inside the chicken for flavor. The wet batter gets mixed into the marinade which helps flavor the breading. One thorough toss through cornstarch and you’re ready to fry. The first fry is all about cooking the chicken and keeping that cornstarch breading stuck. The second fry is all about crispiness. We’ve already cooked most of the moisture out of the chicken at this point, so now we focus on getting that breading as golden as we can for maximum crunch.

My favorite part of this fried chicken is how easy assembly is. I know frying can seem daunting, and the smell is really intrusive, I get it. Always keep a jar of cooking oil or frying oil on hand. It’s recyclable, it makes for easy clean-up and it’s cheaper. Do not use good expensive oils to fry. This is a job for vegetable, corn, or peanut oil. For the smell, make sure to run your exhaust fan while frying and when you’re done, carefully remove the pot with hot oil in a safe space outside until it cools. You have no excuses now. Fried chicken is a special moment, everyone deserves some good homemade fried chicken once in a while.