And the best fried chicken is...

The one from Hat Yai, of course ;)

Sawaddee Ka! 🙏🏼

A little story from my childhood today :) I was born and raised in southern Thailand, in a town called Hat Yai. I didn’t know it then, but my hometown’s fried chicken was about to become a national sensation years later.

I ate HY fried chicken growing up, probably weekly, because it was a staple in my school cafeteria. It came with a plastic bag of sticky rice, with soggy fried shallots stuffed in with the rice (it was a cafeteria after all). It was delightful. No dipping sauce needed.

I had no idea it was a Hat Yai thing, and in fact, we just called it “fried chicken.” Today, it’s become so popular that you can find it all over Thailand (hence I now call it Thai fried chicken) and even Lays, the potato chips, have made a HYFC flavour!

There are 3 distinctive features of HYFC that put it at the top of my list, and in my latest video, I share with you what they are. The good news is, it’s actually a really simple recipe!

The Key to HYFC is Fried Shallots:

While the chicken is great by itself, it’s really not HYFC without the fried shallots. It’s so important that I wrote a dedicated post for how to make crispy fried shallots at home, with answers to many frequent issues that come up. Make sure you check it out!