I love Chinese food, both the American and authentic variety. Unfortunately, what I don’t love about it is mystery meat, extreme sugar contents, MSG and tendency to use peanut oil. As a transplanted American in Canada, I’m also kind of put off by these giant orbs of dough that they call “sweet & sour” chicken and serve with a sauce so neon red I’m afraid to turn off the lights because I might discover that it glows in the dark.
So Chinese food has largely disappeared from my diet. Every now and again, though, I find myself really Jonesing for some, and so my control-freak self learned how to make my own. No peanuts, no dairy, no preservatives, no MSG, no toxic substances, no GMOs, no questions about whether the neighborhood cat is missing.
It can be a bit time intensive, but there are some significant upsides to making your own fry batter (besides, of course, knowing exactly what’s in it!). One is the power of the knowledge that with a single fry batter and even a single meat inside of it you can produce a multitude of different “dishes” just by soaking it in a different sauce. Use this trick to amaze your friends for dinner! They don’t have to know that the only difference between the lemon chicken, General Tso’s chicken, and the sweet and sour chicken is what has been put on top. 🙂 The other is that Chinese cuisine lends itself extremely well to dietary restrictions.
So here is my two favourite fry batter recipes. One produces a thin crispy batter good for the likes of General Tso’s chicken and similar dishes, and it just happens to have the added benefit of being naturally gluten-free. The other produces a rounder, puffy crisp of batter that is typical of state-side sweet and sour chicken or pork.
Sweet & Sour Batter (Egg free)
Makes batter for about 1.5 LBs of meat (~4-5 chicken breasts)
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (black pepper works too, but it’ll be visible)
- 1 tsp golden sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2.5 tbsp water
- 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
- 1 litre of cooking oil (I like to use pure, light olive oil, but you can use any oil and optionally add a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil to it if you want.)
- 1.5 lbs of cubed raw pork loin or boneless chicken breast or thighs
Heat your cooking oil to a temperature of 375F.
Mix all the other ingredients in a medium size bowl. Add your cubed meat, and toss to coat well using some tongs.
Drop battered meat into the hot oil 1-2 pieces at a time and fry in batches for 4-5 minutes, or until a deep golden brown and cooked through. Break up pieces that stick together as soon as possible. Drain on paper towels.
Protip: As much of a pain in the butt it is to drop the meat into the oil one at a time, stay the course. If you drop a bunch of meat in at once, they will all stick together, cooking improperly and ruining your nice batter. It’ll also drop the temperature of your oil, which will make the batter a lot greasier.
See my recipe for sweet & sour sauce.
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Cornstarch batter (Gluten Free)
Makes batter for approximately 1.5 lbs of meat (or ~4-5 chicken breasts)
This one’s actually my favourite batter… I use it all the time to make General Tso’s chicken, which is both elegant enough for a dinner party and one of my favourite dishes in its own right. My son likes to call it “Kung Pow” chicken and eat it like popcorn pieces. You may opt to use the two-stage fry method with this one for a golden crust that will hold up under the pressure of a sauce.
- 1 egg
- 1.5 lbs pork loin or boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cubed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp golden sugar
- 1 pinch white pepper
- 1 – 1.5 cups of cornstarch
- 1 litre of cooking oil (I like to use pure, light olive oil, but you can use any oil and optionally add a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil to it if you want.)
Heat your cooking oil in a large pot to 375F.
In a medium-sized bowl, beat the egg and mix in the cubed meat. Sprinkle with the salt, sugar, and pepper, and stir well. Slowly add the cornstarch, stirring, until the meat is coated well but not extremely powdery (see below).
When the oil has reached cooking temperature, drop the pieces of meat in ones and twos into the oil. Fry in small batches (up to about a cup at a time) and drain on paper towels for about 3 minutes each until golden. If you wish to fry twice, keep the batches separated slightly, and re-fry one batch at a time, beginning with the first batch, for another 2-3 minutes until a deep golden brown.
Drain the fried pieces on paper towel and serve in sauce of your choice. Quick link to my General Tso’s sauce.
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Need moar Chinese food recipes?
Miranda Carie Cunningham says
1/2 cup all purpose flour makes this non gluten free. Lost my all cornstarch recipe. Looking for a new one.
Food Retro says
Hi Miranda, the first batter is egg-free, the second is gluten free (100% cornstarch). You can substitute 1/2 cup AP GF blend for regular flour in the egg-free recipe if you want the thicker batter. I have it on good authority that chickpea flour works too, though I haven’t tried it myself. Hope this helps!
Sean Fish says
You may want to reword the first recipe because for a second it seemed like you wanted me to pour in the liter of oil into the batter.
Food Retro says
LOL! OK. I’ll fix it, just for you. 😉
Nita says
Thank you Sean Fish for your question/clarification on the litre of oil, I thought I was to add it as well.
Thanx again!
Nita
daniel says
Excellent recipe! I was looking for a GF batter and this was perfect. Thank you so much for sharing
Food Retro says
You’re welcome, Daniel! Glad you enjoyed it.
BJ says
Not sure how much this is asking for?
1 – 1.5 cups of cornstarch
Does this mean add one & a half cups of cornstarch…one time?
Food Retro says
Hi BJ! It’s 1 to 1.5 cups of cornstarch. Depending on how thickly you’d like it breaded, how small it’s cut and how much meat you’ve got. It’s not a very fussy recipe, so you can just sprinkle it in til you’ve got it breaded well. 🙂 Hope this helps!
John says
Thanks very much for this !
Heidi Arthur says
Hi I’m looking for a recipe for deep fried chicken in chill salt and spices and this sounds like this could be the one used, Have you ever heard of this dish and if so have you got the recipe for it as like u stated earlier on i’m abit concerned with all this unidentified meat and would love to make my own lol. Thank you Heidi.
Food Retro says
Hi Heidi! I don’t have a recipe for what you mentioned specifically (although it sounds really good). But the batter is easy to modify to your seasoning preferences, and so it should fit the bill 🙂 Try adding 1/2-3/4 tsp of chili powder to the cornstarch to start and tweak from there!.
Heidi Arthur says
Thank you so much for the batter recipe I added 5 spice into the cornstarch and they tasted just like the ones I used to get from the Chinese, no more buying them from there I’m going to make then everytime I want them ????
Lil Nilla says
Ok so when you say heat the burner to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, what setting is that on the burner? Does the burner need tobe set on “high” or?
Food Retro says
Hi Nilla, it can vary a lot based on your stove, but it will usually be around medium or medium-high. I recommend using an instant thermometer to check the oil if you don’t have a good feel for the approximate setting on your stove to keep the oil at a safe temperature.
Sue Robinson says
Thank you for your recipes! I also have the same feelings toward restaurant Chinese food. I do like it if I can make my own or someone who knows how. I want to know what’s in the food I’m eating & not wonder about “mystery meat”! I hope this works out for me….I’ve got a huge hankering for some sweet & sour chicken!
Food Retro says
Thanks for reading! It’s a little labour intensive, but it does work. And it’s so good 🙂
Ramona Hughes says
Hi. My batter is VERY thick and doesn’t look like yours at all. Why does yours look slightly runny? Should I add more water possibly?
Food Retro says
Yep! Make sure you don’t pack down your flour or corn starch. You’d be amazed at how much extra you can compact in (and throw off all your baking, too) when you measure out by scooping or packing. Fortunately in the case of the fry batters, it’s easy to rectify if the batter is too thick. Just drizzle in extra water by the tablespoon slowly and mix well before adding more.