Chicken breasts are super popular, but my favorite cut is chicken thighs. They’re so flavorful, tender, and moist and are less expensive than chicken breasts. That’s why I was so excited when I found this recipe for Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken. It uses my favorite cut of chicken, has tons of garlic, and it’s topped with slices of jalapeno pepper for a touch of heat. I can’t say I’ve ever had authentic Hawaiian food, so I’m also excited about that. You can always tempt me with new food!
Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken made with a soy garlic sauce and fried jalapeño rings. This is a spicy version of your favorite island takeout!
The Ingredients
As usual, rooted through my pantry and refrigerator before heading to the grocery store and found several ingredients. I had flour, ground ginger, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. I also had tamari (I use it in place of soy sauce) and vegetable oil, but not enough for this recipe.
My shopping trip went smoothly, and I found everything I needed at my usual grocery store. The chicken was the only sort of miss, but I was able to fix it in no time.
This recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken thighs which are usually easy to find. I grabbed a pack of 4 and didn’t read the label only to discover they were skinless but bone-in. Strange, but removing the bones was easy enough with a sharp boning knife.
The Process
Making my Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken went pretty smoothly. I started by adding vegetable oil and a thermometer to a saucepan and heating it on the stove. I use an electric stove and I started on 5 out of 10 and had to move it up to 8.
As I was cooking I noticed the temperature fluctuated. I’m guessing that’s a stove thing and that a deep fryer would not have that problem. I don’t deep fry very often, so it’s not something I have. But everything worked out in the end despite the temperature fluctuation.
I also put on a pot of water for rice at the same time. It’s not listed as an ingredient, but the recipe’s photo shows the chicken served with it. I used jasmine rice, and I’m sure basmati or long-grain white rice would also work.
Deboning and chopping the chicken thighs and mixing up the ingredients for the breading was next. I dredged the chicken a few pieces at a time and shook off the excess.
The oil was still heating so I prepped the sauce ingredients and jalapeno pepper while I waited. I managed to get the sauce boiling before the oil had fully heated. Once it boiled, all I had to do was turn off the heat and let it sit on the stove to thicken until I needed it.
Now it was time to fry the chicken. Tip: The recipe doesn’t say how long to fry it, so I waited until it was golden brown—about 5 minutes per batch. I let each batch drain on paper towels and finished up by deep frying the jalapeno slices for 30 seconds.
Finishing up was just a matter of tossing the chicken in the sauce. I simply added it to the pan I made the sauce in and mixed until the chicken was coated. A shallow but wide pasta bowl was perfect to serve my Crispy Hawaiian Garlic Chicken. It had plenty of room for the chicken and rice.
Timing
This recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 25 minutes to cook, and 40 minutes total, and I came within 1 minute of that time:
- 19 minutes to prep:
- 12 minutes to prep
- 7 additional minutes waiting for the oil to reach 350℉
- 20 minutes to cook:
- 19.5 minutes to fry the chicken
- 30 seconds to fry the jalapeno slices
- 39 minutes total
