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Prawn Paste Chicken (Har Cheong Gai)
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Prawn Paste Chicken (also known as fermented shrimp paste chicken or “har cheong gai“/虾酱鸡) is one of my favourite local zi char dish. The main ingredient for the chicken marinade is prawn paste (shrimp paste) which is truly “smelly”, pungent and will stink up your kitchen (you have been warned!) – yet it lends such a genius touch of savoury deliciousness to many South East Asian dishes that my pantry is never without it!
Related Recipe:
See Also:
- Baked Marmite Chicken Wings Recipe
- Fermented Bean Curd Chicken Wings Recipe
- More Chicken Wings Recipes
I usually add a teeny bit to certain stir-fries such as pineapple fried rice and it became a hidden secret ingredient which brings together all the flavours of the dish. A plus point of home-cooked version of har cheong gai is that you know the vegetable oil used is clean and always changed after each round of deep frying.
Tasty and fragrant, just like at a zichar restaurant!
Delicious! I love this version of chicken!
This looks delicious! What else do you use the shrimp paste for?
As mentioned in my post, pineapple rice, and basically many Asian stir-fries esp those involving seafood and poultry.
What is the difference between this shrimp sauce and belachan?
Can I use it to fry kangkong, long beans etc?
Like Lizzie, I would like to know what are the other uses of this shrimp sauce.
thanks.
jonie
Hi Jonie, the shrimp sauce is essentially the belacan in paste (liquid) form, making it ideal for use as a marinade. Belechan is in the dried/solid/block form, usually first toasted then blended with chilli and spices to make sambal belacan chilli https://noobcook.com/sambal-belachan/
You can add shrimp sauce to stir fry kangkong and long beans, but using sambal belacan chilli will do the job better imho.
Recipes:
https://noobcook.com/sambal-long-beans/
https://noobcook.com/sambal-kangkong/
Wow, they are fried to perfection!
Not many stalls can master this – sometimes, supposed to be Har Cheo Gai but taste more like fried chicken.
agree with you. without the sharp aroma of shrimp paste, it will just taste like five-spiced chicken like those from the economical bee hoon stalls.
Hi Wiffy
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I will give a try this weekend. Do you think grilling this wings will taste as good as frying?
Thanks for suggesting other dishes which the shrimp paste can be used. After cooking your delicious pineapple fried rice recipe, I was wondering what to do with it ;o).
Felicia
I honestly don’t think har cheong gai will be same without deepfrying, but if you do give it a try, let me know. I do have a local-style baked wings recipe at https://noobcook.com/honey-baked-wings/
Hi Wiffy
Sorry for my late update, I tried your recipe 3 weeks ago.
Unfortunately, mine did not turn out well … very salty. I am not sure if it is due to the long duration of marinading, mine was more than 24 hours. Would you recommend me to remove the oyster sauce?
Felicia
Hi Felicia, sorry to hear that. Did you measure the quantities? Yes, reduce the oyster sauce next time, and/or the shrimp sauce (maybe half it).
anyone tried this on Philips air fryer?
Wiffy, yours have a very nice redness. Mine turned out abit floury white.
What could have been the cause? How do we get the redness?
Hi Lynn, it sounds like you may have coated your wings with too much flour. The flour, when added to batter, must be dissolved completely into the marinade and form a sticky coat on the chicken. If you see dry white flour on it, they will turn out floury white when deep fried.
Guess you are right! I basically coated the marinated chicken with flour and straight into the wok!
Taste a bit salty too, I will add less shrimp paste. Overall, I got a nod from family.
Hopefully next attempt would be a better success! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this great recipe Noobcook. Tried it and tasted delicious!