Air Fry Har Jeong Gai (prawn paste chicken)

I have been trying to perfect my Har Jeong Gai for very long now. It started with oven baked but never very correct. While I've almost nailed the taste, the batter has always escaped me.

Now that I have an air fryer, I thought I'd try a new recipe culled from ideas off the internet. I'm not concentrating on the taste here but on the batter.

You can see two wings in the top left corner which I attempted to squash and flatten the batter and 'paint' onto the wing, they looked better

To dredge 

This chicken breading recipe is revolutionary not because it's tasty but because it reduces waste. Basically, 1 egg for every 1 tbsp of flour. I used corn starch or potato starch which I find to be lighter than flour.

To coat

It's 1 tbsp of rice flour + 1 tbsp of oil per drumlet or wing, plus one (for up to 10 wings) or two more (for more than 10 wings) of each for the road because who likes under-battered wings? The rice flour really is the game changer. Using the AF to 'fry' any other batter (other than panko) crumb will not make it crispy but in some cases, can be like eating raw flour.

The trick is to combine the rice flour and oil until it resembles bread crumbs. Then, the dredging slurry of egg and corn starch gives it the liquid that binds the rice flour + oil mixture into a light and dryish 'liquid' batter that just coats the wing and adheres to it. You can try 'painting' it onto the wing (I did) so that it is smoother than just lumpy bits of batter but other than looks, it really doesn't matter.

Then, airfry the wings skin side up at 220 deg C for 5 minutes to bind the batter to the skin. Do not turn or the batter will fall off! 

Turn down to 200 deg C and fry 8 to 10 minutes until cooked (when the skin bubbles). The oil from the skin also helps the batter to stick to the skin.

Feedback

I had originally turned down to 180 deg C for 8 minutes and it came out undercooked. The batter was just cooked but like eating uncooked bread crumbs. After re-cooking for another 2 minutes at 200 deg C, it was perfect. The batter tasted very mealy and more crunchy than crispy, but the clumpy rice batter just tasted like rice biscuit. [Temps adjusted above.]

Other recipes for future:

Noob Cook - no flouring in AF

Spice N Pans - uses baking powder and corn flour in marinade, then coat in plain flour and spritz with oil before AF (which I tried but didn't work?). His temps were 160 deg C for 15 mins then turn and 200 deg C for 3 - 5 mins. I should try these temps next time.