Chicken balls or chicken nuggets for most people have a unique and beautiful flavour depending on the way you make them. They are often eaten as snacks or for kids with sauces such as mayo, chilli sauce etc …however it’s different where I come from, every meat or vegetable dish is eaten with rice and Asian sauces mainly made from chilli, sugar, lime juice and fish sauce which tastes sweet and sour.
The recipe I am sharing today is a Cambodian version of chicken nuggets (it’s not really nuggets but from the way it looks you may call it that) the way my mum used to make this dish is with batter and then deep frying them. Deep frying isn’t a healthy way of making anything, but I won’t be placing them in the oven like I normally would because I still want the flavour from the frying so I do a shallow fry instead. Deep frying/shallow frying once in awhile doesn’t hurt.
The way my mum normally serves the dish is with a sauce, a vegetables dish and rice. Since dad is Aussie he always used mayo instead of the traditional sweet and sour sauce so feel free to serve this dish as an entree or however you prefer.
CHICKEN BALLS
Prep-Time: 10 mins Serve: 4-6
Cooking Time: 6 mins
Ingredients
500g chicken mince
4 cloves garlic, mince
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp stock powder
5ml sunflower oil for shallow fry
batter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ginger powder
sauce
5 thai chillies, red ones preferred
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 – 2 lime juice
3 tbsp boiled water
3 cloves garlic, optional
(I don’t use garlic in this recipe but the originally recipe for the sauce does use it)
Method
make the sauce: in a mortar and pestle/blender ground the chillies and garlic, once it’s nicely grounded add in the rest of the ingredients and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Taste to make sure it has a balanced flavour of saltiness, sweetness and sourness (most people in Cambodia like it sweet). Set a side.
Make the batter by adding all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl, whisk until smooth so that there are no lumps remain and set aside .
making the chicken balls: combine all ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl, nead the ingredients until well combined and leave to set for 5-15 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan over high heat.
Scoop out a tablespoon of the mince and make into a ball, dunk it into the batter and then remove and shake off the excess batter. Place into the oil once it’s perfectly hot. To test that it’s ready by placing a battered chicken ball half way in the oil, if you hear it sizzle and the oil starts to bubble it means the oil is hot enough. If that doesn’t happen you will need to wait until it get hotter to prevent the risk of cooking your chicken balls in cold oil which will cause it to be soggy.
Cook the chicken balls for 1-2 minutes or until all parts turn golden. Remove from the oil and leave to drain on a paper towel. Transfer onto a serving plate and serve with the sauce.