Butter Oat Chicken

This is another recipe from Aunidayini's blog, hoho. She originally made it with prawns, and at that point, I was tempted to try it with chicken already. But, she then modified it and used it with chicken. The results were apparently very good, so of course, I have to try it now. :D So here it is~

What you need:
Boneless chicken pieces - I used 3 thighs and 3 drumsticks, deboned
Salt
Ground white pepper
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon butter

50g butter
1 tablespoon oil
10-20 curry leaves
2 dried chillies, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 cup oats
Sugar (I used demerera sugar)
Chicken stock granules
Salt

What you do:

1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Add the light soy sauce, and season well with salt and white pepper.
2. Melt the 1 tablespoon of butter in a wok and heat until bubbling. Add the chicken and fry until cooked through. Set aside.
3. In the same wok, melt the 50g of butter together with the tablespoon of oil. Once hot enough, add in the garlic, dried chillies and curry leaves. Fry until fragrant.
4. Add in the oats, adding more oil if necessary. Fry until golden brown and crispy.
5. Season with chicken stock and sugar. Add in the chicken pieces, and mix well to cover in the oats. Serve immediately.
   

This was modified only slightly from the original recipe. I stir-fried the chicken, as opposed to her deep-frying (the prawns). Yes, its again with the price of oil, haha. I also changed the seasonings of the chicken a little bit - using light soy sauce to give it a bit of flavour, and using butter to fry it for the same reason. I also used dried chillies, because those were all I had. I also used demerera sugar, because this had big granules and would give a nice crunch in the oats mixture. :D Same thing with the chicken stock granules.

My housemates were a bit worried when I told them that I would be using oats for this dinner, as ... well, they usually use oats as cereal or porridge. (Me? I don't touch them :P) To tell the truth, I was a bit worried as well since A was coming over for dinner and its not really good to try out new dishes when guests are over, is it? I was also very worried when frying the oats in the butter, as they got all bubbly and looked like they were about to turn into porridge. So I just added in more oats and hoped for the best. :)

When I tasted the oats separately without the chicken, I thought they tasted a bit funny. Kind of powdery. I asked Hadi is this was because I used his "quick-cooking" oats, but he assured me that oats generally tasted like that. So... okay. I got him to taste it, and he claimed that it was delicious, so that gave me some hope. So I just mixed in the chicken, and served it up~

And ....
It was a hit! The others loved it, particularly the oats. It gave a good texture, apparently, since it was quite crisp. A said that it was "interesting" and I asked her if that was a good or bad thing, haha, since "interesting" can be interpreted in different ways. :P But apparently, it was in a good way, so yay~ They all liked the oats, like I said, and said that it was a unique way of using oats. Apparently, none of them (and me either) have eaten chicken with oats before, so this was new. And a yummy one as well :D I'll probably make this again some day. Hmmm... wonder how it will go if the chicken pieces were coated in flour and then deep-fried? Probably will make it even crunchier right? *drool* :$

Justin really liked chewing on the dried chilli pieces, but I found the whole thing a bit too spicy. Hadi and A liked the spiciness though, I think, haha. Our new dried chillies are very potent, I keep on forgetting that. In our old batch, I used to use about 3 each time, and you can barely taste the spiciness. But this one, even with one, its way too much. I actually wanted to add in dried chilli flakes, but luckily I didn't. :P Oh, and Justin also liked the garlic pieces mixed in the oats, which got all crunchy and golden brown from the frying. He even suggested I make a dish with garlic pieces instead of the oats next time.

Haha, I don't think so. :P

Quote of the day: You know it's a good recipe if it starts with a stick of butter.

(That's 113g of butter, in case you didn't know ;) )