I first learnt of this Mongolian Chicken many years ago from my aunt although I have no idea how it is “Mongolian”. I don’t believe it came from Mongolia just like how Singapore Noodles didn’t originate from Singapore and German Cookies didn’t come from Germany. The husband said when he was a university student more than ten years ago, an uncle in his school canteen used to sell this at $3.50 a plate with rice. You might also have eaten “Mongolian Pork Ribs” at zichar stalls before. I know of a few places selling variations of this with a similar sauce, many with dark soy sauce added for colour and a lot more black pepper.

You’d be surprised at the ingredients because I was. Isn’t this something like butter prawns without butter and prawns? Or salted egg chicken without salted egg? It’s no surprise because all these dishes have similar base ingredients: garlic, chilli padi, curry leaves and evaporated milk, giving it that fragrance and creaminess distinct of many popular zichar dishes.

What “Mongolian” chicken has also is the addition of sliced yellow onions, grated ginger and a little bit of curry powder. You can substitute chilli padi for regular big red chilli like I have in this recipe.. because the aunt has a gastric problem and can’t take heat. But I think the spicy kick in chilli padi really makes a difference in this dish. This sauce will also be good for pork ribs or even sliced lean pork, better if deep fried beforehand. Have fun with this recipe! I had two bowls of rice today :)

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I wasn’t thinking of posting this “recipe”– that explains the makeshift photos– but I’m quite intrigued by it.

This was tonight’s dinner. I was in a lazy mood with no plans to cook anything but the husband needed to eat. He “ordered” a #friedchickenparty from his personal chef (me) and I, being the very challenging wife wife who’s always up for a challenge, gladly took it up.

I had some marinated mid-joint wings that I was going to cook for tomorrow’s dinner, maybe simply airfried without batter or coating, but I decided that this chicken was going to come to good use tonight. I coated the wings with some self-raising flour, potato starch, five-spice powder and salt, and airfried it til super crispy. And to make it a fried chicken platter, I airfried some frozen tom yum pop corn chicken I had in the fridge.

All this while I had NO IDEA this was going to turn out the way it did.. all I knew was that I had to dress it up. How to serve anyone plain brown chicken? I opened the chiller and saw cheddar cheese– I was going to melt it– and then I saw my new squeezable bottle of Heinz mayonnaise, and I was going to use it. And of course there was Lee Kum Kee’s cutesy squeezable ketchup and loads of spring onions. This was it.. cheese fries chicken!

The hubby went, “WAH!” when he saw the creation.. but he had three words for my “cheese sauce”. “Play cheat one!” he said. Ingrate!!

Haha! I hope you enjoy making this and that your husband was as amused as mine was! p/s- you could use frozen pre-cooked chicken all the way instead of marinating it and cooking it fresh.

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