BOXING chicken, popularly called chicken lollipop in India and the Philippines, is a crunchy delight.
Resembling a tiny boxing glove as the name suggests, this dish employs the technique of frenching chicken wings which is the process where the meat is scraped down neatly from the bone end to create a hand-held bite of chicken.
My mother made this dish only once when I was a child. I realised why she never made it again when I attempted the recipe and realised the sheer effort needed to french the chicken wings.
That being the most time-consuming part, you may want to tackle the task ahead of time or involve family members to prepare it together for festive occasions.
Each whole chicken wing yields two pieces of boxing chicken. Frenching the drumette is fairly straightforward. It is more fiddly to french the wingette or middle wing, where you’d need to discard the smaller radius bone before scraping down the meat to form the boxing glove.
It was surprising that when rolled into shape, the drumette and wingettes had almost the same amount of meat. Everyone prefers the wingette because it is smoother and juicier.
The shape of boxing chicken has always appealed to children, thus I thought it makes better sense to marinate with herbs and pepper as a non-spicy option rather than the more traditional marinade of curry powder.
You may, however, make a spicy dipping sauce for the adults and also serve a few different bottled sauces such as Thai sweet chilli sauce or mayonnaise as alternative dips.
Instead of regular bread crumbs, you may also use crushed cornflakes or Japanese panko for the crust. Just beware that the chicken on the inside may not cook at the same rate as the browning on the outside.
What makes this dish so convenient is that the chicken can be frozen after frying and reheated in the oven or airfryer when needed.
Detach the meat from the joint and scrape it off the bone, then roll it down into the shape of a boxing glove. (Right) Chop parsley to use with salt and pepper in the dry rub or substitute with curry powder.
The breading keeps the chicken moist inside.
Boxing chicken
Ingredients12 chicken wings
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup flour
4 cups cooking oil for frying
Dredge the chicken in flour, then coat with egg and finally encrust with bread crumbs before frying.
Dipping sauce
20g butter
½ cup tomato ketchup
½ cup water
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp black pepper
Garnish (optional)
1 pod red chilli, finely diced
1 pod green chilli, finely diced
Serve with a dipping sauce of chilli powder, black pepper and ketchup, Thai chilli sauce or mayonnaise.
Directions
Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce until thickened.
Wipe the chicken wings dry with paper towels. Separate the chicken wings at their joints into drumettes and wingettes, and discard wing tips.
To french the drumettes, detach the ligaments, then carefully scrape the meat off the humerus bone and roll it down until it forms the shape of a boxing glove.
With the wingette, cut into the joint to detach the small radius bone from the bigger ulna, then scrape the meat off the radius and discard the bone. Finally, scrape the meat off the ulna and roll the meat down until it forms the shape of a boxing glove.
Season chicken with salt, pepper and chopped parsley.
Beat eggs in a bowl, and place the flour and bread crumbs into separate dishes.
To bread the chicken wings, dredge each piece with flour, then coat with the egg and finally encrust with the bread crumbs. Repeat with the rest of the wings.
Heat up oil in the pan and deep fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes until pale golden. Drain excess oil on paper towels, then bake for 5-10 minutes in a 150°C oven to cook the wings all the way through.
Garnish with red and green chillies and serve immediately with dipping sauce.
