4th February 2023

So yesterday we were trying a new fried chicken recipe, one of the highlights of my weekend.  I know fried chicken is not everybody's cup of tea but it really is mine, the usually salty crispy skin/coating and the soft delicious juicy inside.  I love it and initially I was going to make a Moroccan inspired fried chicken but flicking through my recipe books yesterday morning over coffee I saw an Indonesian fried chicken that looked utterly fantastic and that sealed the deal.

I was so looking forward to it and we made the paste for marinating and it smelt fabulous and I literally could not wait.  I had a little problem with the paste just not being moist enough initially but I added some lime juice and ploughed on and all looked on track.  Until we started cooking.  The cornflour just would not lightly coat and then was too thick to go golden.  As if that was not bad enough, the chicken started 'popping' and spitting and then there was a huge huge pop and burning hot oil went flying everywhere, including all over me, my exposed arm and neck.  My first bad accident cooking and a painful one at that. 

To make matters worse, the coating sort of lifted off of the chicken and burnt so that the actual chicken had not too much of the amazing flavour that had been promised. Aside from being in pain I felt really glum that the chicken had been so disappointing.