Healthy Mochiko Chicken Recipe (sweet and savory)
I often get lost scrolling through the various cooking shows and love trying to come up with new ways to make the recipes I see on these shows “healthier.” Just last week I was literally drooling watching one of my favorite chefs make a fried chicken dish, and I knew I had to tackle this one next. The recipe was for Mochiko chicken. I had never heard of this, so I immediately went to Google to find out more about this tasty treat.
Mochiko is a fancy Japanese word that means mochi flour. This type of flour is made from sticky rice that is cooked, then dried, and ground up into a powder. It’s sometimes called sweet rice flour and is a very delicate flour that can not only be used as a breading for chicken but can be used in desserts as well. Unlike traditional flours, it doesn’t have a starchiness to it, and it is a great option for gluten-free recipes.
Having never seen this type of flour in the store, I set out on a mission to find it. While it’s listed on the websites for Safeway, Walmart, and Target, after hitting up multiple local stores, I realized this task was far more difficult than I expected. I wondered if maybe this ingredient could easily be swapped out for another flour, but I didn’t want to take that chance. I mean, it is a Mochiko chicken recipe, after all. I then pondered actually making the flour myself, but luckily, I avoided that test by finding the flour on Amazon. Crisis averted.
It is often tricky to air fry ingredients that are best suited for frying the traditional method, especially when a dredge is involved. Truth be told, I wasn’t quite sure I could make it work, but I was up for the challenge of making a Mochiko chicken recipe and am pretty pleased with the results.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken thighs boneless and skinless
Mochiko Marinade
- ¼ cup liquid aminos
- ¼ cup Swerve sugar substitute
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp ginger grated
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup green onion chopped
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Breading
- ¾ cup Mochiko flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Mix marinade ingredients and pour on top of chicken.
- Marinate chicken overnight.
- Preheat air fryer to 390 degrees.
- Combine Mochiko flour, cornstarch, and salt and pepper.
- Lightly coat each piece of chicken and place ina single layer in air fryer.
- Lightly spray each piece of chicken with nonstick cooking spray.
- Air fry for roughly 12 – 15 minutes.
- Enjoy!