There's nothing quite like fried chicken. It's crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and, when done right, packed with flavor. I think it's safe to say that most places have their own version, and Hawaii is no exception. This sweet rice flour–battered chicken is perfectly crunchy, salty-sweet, and highly addictive. It's one of my all-time favorite dishes, and I'm taken back to my childhood every single time I have it. While I believe it's best served warm with onigiri (aka triangle-shaped musubi), namasu (daikon and carrot salad), and takuan (pickled daikon radish), the way my mom serves it, it's equally great cold, chopped up, and tossed into a green salad with creamy Asian dressing or atop a bed of cold somen noodles.
Excerpted from Aloha Kitchen (Recipes from Hawaii) © 2019 by Alana Kysar. Reproduced by permission of Ten Speed Press. All rights reserved. —Alana Kysar
Alana Kysa's mother taught her how to make this mochiko chicken recipe. Alana described the conversation she had with her mom about it: "It's a dish that, to this day, is my absolute favorite thing to eat on this planet. It's so intrinsically tied to my childhood that I can’t help but feel like I’m 8 years old whenever I smell it.
"When I asked her how she learned to make it, she said, 'I don’t know. Probably from a local cookbook.'
“'You mean your mom didn’t make it or teach you how to make it?' I asked.
“'Sure, she probably made it,' my mom explained, 'but I’m pretty sure I found the recipe in a book in high school and used that to make it for my family.'
“...'But Grandma made this dish too, right, and she never taught you?' I nearly demanded the answer to my question.
"'She probably made it, but no,' she said. And that was that.
"This recipe, my mother’s version of it, appears in my cookbook ... It went through five different rounds of testing, where I tried to alter the ratios, add more of this or that, and ultimately failed to improve upon it. In fact, the only change I made was to wrap the chicken in nori, adding a bit of my tie-dyed neon flair, if you will. It’s this magical mix of sweet and salty, lightly batter fried chicken that has Japanese origins but is very much a product of my home. Of Hawai‘i. Of my mom." —The Editors
See what other Food52ers are saying.