Five Spice Fried Chicken Drumsticks

Whenever we visit my grandparents in Queens, it’s all about where to go for lunch. Soup dumplings at Nan Xiang Dumpling House, Malaysian curry noodle soup at the hole-in-the-wall place I can’t actually remember the name of, cumin lamb noodles at Xi’An Famous Foods, or a trip to the food court in the New World Mall in Flushing, NY. Sometimes, though, we keep things simple. My grandma, like most sensible people, loves fried chicken. And though she doesn’t have it often, there’s a street stall that makes some really awesome five spice fried chicken that she likes to splurge on every now and then. We gave it our best shot to recreate it here, and I’d say we did a pretty kickass job of it. This is actually our second fried chicken recipe. We have an awesome Xinjiang Spiced Fried Chicken recipe here, inspired by an epic street stall near our apartment in Beijing, China.

Five Spice Fried Chicken: Recipe Instructions

Rinse your chicken legs under cold running water. Put them in a large bowl and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and half of the five-spice powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together your 2 eggs and tablespoon of water. Add to the chicken, and toss everything together. In shallow baking dish, stir together the flour, baking powder, white pepper, and the other half of the five spice powder. Fill a cast iron skillet slightly less than halfway with oil, and heat to 360 degrees (use a thermometer). Take each drumstick and allow the excess egg to drip off. Thoroughly coat in the flour mixture, and shake off any excess. Lay them in the oil, four at a time. You cook these five spice fried chicken drumsticks just like you do in a good southern fried chicken recipe. Fry each batch of chicken for 14 minutes, maintaining a temperature of 350 degrees (the oil will cool right down when you add the chicken), and flipping them about halfway through, until crispy and golden brown. Serve these five spice fried chicken drumsticks however you like it! We love it as a meal with some white rice but you can just grab a drumstick and run!