Chicken Chop/Batter-Fried Chicken With Onion Gravy

This is one of Malaysian favourites. It has many names but essentially it is chicken battered and fried. I made this the Southern way (well, as close as Southern American as I can get based on what I've seen on cooking shows) as I marinade the chicken pieces in milk first. I learned that this ensure the chicken to remain tender and moist after cooking. And it works! As per general knowledge, chicken breast can be really dry, so marinading the chicken in milk resulted in really tender fried chicken!

Anyway, I made this for dinner and I have to say, again, my Baba took a second helping! That is a sign that he loves it! Or he was too hungry. 

The condiments I made for this particular dish are fries and buttered boiled carrots. There are thousands of condiment alternatives such as mash potatoes (another recipe for another day!), smashed potatoes, baked potatoes, rice, coleslaw, salad and dressing, corn and others. You just need to be creative or if you are like me, use whatever you have in your pantry. 

I also have many recipes for many types of gravies but this is one of the easiest. And onions are my favourite ingredient. Before I share my recipe, pardon my lack of colour on the plate. I just couldn't find anything else in the kitchen so....Yeah. It's all orange and brown.

Chicken Chop/Batter-Fried Chicken With Onion Gravy

Actually, I made another batch today for my first sister and brother-in-law. And I added mushroom to the gravy and we ate it with salad. This particular batch is MUCH more attractive. Sadly, I'm too lazy to take a picture LOL. Bear with me on this one.

Serving: 2 persons

Chicken Chop/Batter-Fried Chicken Ingredients

• 1 medium sized chicken breast (another option is using chicken drumstick)
• 2 cups of milk (you can also use buttermilk or Greek/plain yogurt)
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1 medium sized egg
• Black pepper to season
• Salt to taste
• Oil to fry (you can use plenty of oil for deep frying or little oil for shallow frying)

Chicken Broth (for the gravy)

• Leftover chicken bones 
• 5 cups of water
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 3 garlic
• 1 medium sized yellow onion

Onion Gravy Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons of leftover oil from frying the chicken
• 2 tablespoons of leftover flour from chicken chop 
• 1 medium sized red onion (alternatively, this can be substituted with 1/4 of medium sized yellow onion. Both are delicious)
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
• Salt to taste

Cooking Method

1. Debone the chicken breast and cut the meat into 2 equal sizes. Halve each portion so that the chicken meat will be thinner and slightly tenderize the chicken with the back of your knife. I cut my chicken until the end of one edge and spread the cut portion so that my chicken's surface area will be bigger. I think they call this the 'butterfly cut'. 
2. Put the 2 portions of chicken breast into the milk and chill them in the refrigerator while you prepare your chicken broth. You can chill the chicken for a few hours but I chilled mine for 30 minutes while waiting for the broth to be ready as I am lazy that way.
3. At this point, you can either make your own chicken broth or buy it. I made mine as I have the leftover chicken bone after deboning it. To make chicken broth, boil the leftover chicken bone, with water, roughly diced carrot, peeled garlic and yellow onion. You don't need to chop the garlic and onion. Boil under low/medium heat until you get a pale yellow broth. The fragrance of the broth will be very yummilicious. Don't add salt at this point.
4. After the broth is ready, prepare your batter (not really a batter as you will dip the chicken breast into each section). Prepare an egg-wash by mixing the egg in one bowl. In another one, mix the plain flour with plenty of black pepper (I LOVE BLACK PEPPER) and salt to taste. So, you basically have 2 separate bowls of egg mixture and flour.
5. Heat up your oil for deep frying (or shallow frying). It should be medium heat.
6. After the oil has heated up, salt your chicken, dip it once on the egg-wash, then into the flour mix and then into the egg-wash again and finally into the flour mix before putting it into the heated oil. I double-batter because I happen to also love the batter.
7. Turn the chicken once the bottom turns golden yellow. Take it out and repeat with the second portion of the chicken.
8. After both chicken portions are fried, turn up the heat and put the chicken back again. Fry for 30 seconds (basically just to crisp up the batter, not to cook the chicken again) and take it out. This method is called double frying which will ensure your batter to be crispy and delicious!
9. So, chicken is now done, lets move on to the gravy. Using the leftover oil and flour mix, make a roux. Then add the broth little by little, continually stirring to prevent from lump formation. Add the sliced onion once the sauce is smooth and salt to taste. The sauce is heavenly and you can add more black pepper if you want to. You can also add mushroom as this is the same base as mushroom gravy.

Your very own chicken chop/batter-fried chicken with onion gravy is now ready! It looks complicated but it is so very easy! Just try it and you will be super happy!