How to Make Thai Lemongrass Fried Chicken with Dipping Sauce

Method

1. Make the roasted glutinous rice powder: toast glutinous rice until golden brown and crisp, then pound it in a mortar or grind it, leaving the grains neither too coarse nor ground to dust.
2. Trim the skin below the joint off 600 gr of chicken drumsticks and push the meat up the bone. Thicker drumsticks get a few scores so the seasoning reaches through faster.
3. Marinate the chicken with 1 teaspoon of ground pepper, 1 tablespoon of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of finely minced lemongrass, 1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil if using an air fryer, and leave it 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Deep fry over medium high heat for about 15 minutes. In an air fryer, cook 18 to 20 minutes at 200 degrees C, turning the pieces after 15 minutes and cooking another 3 to 5 minutes so the skin puffs and crisps.
5. Mix the dipping sauce: whisk 1.5 tablespoons of kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of lime juice until dissolved. Then stir in 1 tablespoon of roasted glutinous rice powder and 1 tablespoon of chili powder, and finally add 1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro and 1 tablespoon of thinly sliced shallot. Adjust so the sauce lands more sour than sweet.
6. Put the chicken on a plate and dip both the chicken and the sticky rice into the sauce, with cucumber, shredded papaya and fresh herbs alongside.

Tips

• Roasted glutinous rice powder is best toasted and pounded at home, since the ready ground kind for spring rolls is too fine and smells different.
• A few scores across thicker drumsticks let the seasoning reach through faster.
• The dipping sauce is right when it lands more sour than sweet.
• In an air fryer, turning the pieces after 15 minutes is what puffs and crisps the skin.
• Minced lemongrass clinging to the skin burns very easily, so brushing most of it off before the chicken meets the oil helps.