Name: Max’s Style Fried Chicken
Yield: Serves 3 or 4
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 chicken (3 pounds/1.4 kg), giblets removed, rinsed, and patted dry with paper towels; 2 bay leaves, fresh or dried; Steamed rice, for serving; 4 cups (960 ml) canola or other neutral oil, for frying; ¼ cup (40 g) uncooked white rice; Banana ketchup, store-bought or homemade, or Suka at Bawang, for serving; 1 (2-inch/5 cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped; 3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled; 1 tablespoon fish sauce; 2 scallions, trimmed and chopped; 1 teaspoon soy sauce; 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

Preparation info

Serves
3 or 4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Filipinx

By Angela Dimayuga and Ligaya Mishan

Published 2021

About

The only fried chicken I knew as a kid came from KFC and Banquet frozen family packs. So it was a revelation when one day my dad made dry fried chicken à la Max’s, a Philippine chain founded in the wake of World War II, which today has outposts from Milpitas and Waipahu to Las Vegas and Dubai. The chicken was steamed whole before it got dunked in the deep fryer, making it extra juicy and miraculously crispy without a batter.

This recipe draws from both Max’s and my time at Mission C