Mochiko Chicken
July 6: National Fried Chicken Day
Make mochiko chicken as an Asian alternative for National Fried Chicken Day. Mochiko chicken, a Japanese-style fried chicken, is popular at potlucks and in bento (lunch box) in Hawaii. Mochiko, a sweet rice flour, is blended in the batter with other ingredients to give the chicken coating a unique and savory flavor. Below is an old family recipe for mochiko chicken. Now that Islander and her brother live on the mainland, we still cook this for potlucks on occasion and pack the rest for lunch—if there are any leftovers!
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ – 2 pounds of chicken wings
- 3 tablespoons mochiko (sweet rice flour)
- 2 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 ½ tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar (we used C&H brand, granulated white)
- 2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (we used Aloha Shoyu brand)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- ½ tablespoon oyster sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 stalks green onion, chopped
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish (optional)
Directions
Boil the chicken wings in a pot of water for about 15-20 minutes. Drain the water and cool the chicken wings. Make the coating by combining the mochiko, cornstarch, flour, sugar, soy sauce, egg, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt and green onions and in a bowl. Whisk until smooth.
Coat the chicken wings in the batter. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for two or more hours, turning the chicken wings occasionally so they are well marinated. Deep fry the chicken wings in hot oil. Drain on a wire rack over paper towels. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions before serving.
Notes
- Mochiko flour can be found at Asian grocery stores. Make sure that it is the sweet rice flour and not the plain one.
- Try other favorite chicken pieces instead of wings for this recipe. They can be boneless and skinless.
- Search our blog for more recipe posts using mochiko as an ingredient.
HI COOKERY 
November 10, 2014 at 7:17 am
After searching high & low I wasn’t able to get my hands on the Mochiko Flour so I settled for Bob’s Red Mill: 1 to 1 Baking Flour since the first ingredient is Sweet Rice Flour. Followed the recipe as written but found batter to be thick & pasty so I improvised by adding another egg, a little more soy, & oyster sauce. Batter was still on the thick side. Bottom line the end product was beautiful & my husband declared we never need another wing recipe!
November 11, 2014 at 10:42 pm
Sorry you couldn’t find mochiko sweet rice flour. But sounds like you did a great job improvising! Thanks for visiting our blog. Happy cooking!
January 31, 2017 at 11:09 am
https://www.amazon.com/Mochiko-Sweet-Rice-Flour-16oz/dp/B00NHDP9F8/ref=sr_1_3_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1485860930&sr=1-3&keywords=mochiko+sweet+rice+flour
September 3, 2015 at 7:43 pm
[…] Recipe and photo courtesy of Hi Cookery […]
January 24, 2016 at 9:59 pm
What can I use instead of oyster sauce, my grocery store ran out due to the snow storm. Thanks
January 26, 2016 at 10:56 pm
OMG–hope you survived the snow storm! A common substitute is Hoisin Sauce. But if you don’t have that in your pantry, replace with soy sauce and some sugar to taste. The little amount of oyster sauce in the mochiko chicken won’t make much of a difference so you can even eliminate it. It’s the sesame oil that will bring out the flavor in this recipe. Good luck–and stay warm!