Shilin Giant Chicken Cutlet

The giant chicken cutlet, or hao-da ji pai, is the icon of Shilin Night Market, the largest night market in Taipei, and the dish that defines Taiwanese fried-chicken culture. The technique emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as street vendors in Shilin, seeking to outdo one another, began pounding a single chicken breast into a thin slab as wide as a hand, marinating it in soy, garlic, five-spice and rice wine, coating it in coarse sweet-potato starch, and deep-frying it into a golden, crisp sheet dramatically larger than the diner's face. The brand Hot-Star, founded in 1992, fixed the format and made it a chain, and the cutlet became the must-photograph food of a Taipei night out. The key is the pounding, which stretches the breast to its full extent without tearing, and the coarse sweet-potato starch, which fries up into the characteristic spiky, extra-crisp crust unlike the smooth coating of Western fried chicken. Eaten from a paper bag, burning hot, with a sprinkle of pepper salt, the cutlet is the signature of Shilin and has spread across Taiwan and to night markets abroad.

A huge, thin, golden slab shattering at first bite into a spiky, salty, garlic-and-five-spice crust, the chicken inside juicy and tender from the marinade. Eaten piping hot from a bag, dusted with pepper salt, the size itself part of the fun.

The cutlet's giant size and spiky crust come from two techniques. First, the pounding: a whole skinless chicken breast is laid flat and struck with a meat mallet from the centre outward, gradually thinning and widening it to a slab two or three times its original footprint without tearing, the muscle fibres stretched so the cooked meat is tender rather than tight. The pounded breast is then marinated for at least half an hour in soy sauce, garlic, five-spice, sugar and rice wine, which both seasons and keeps the meat juicy. The coating is coarse sweet-potato starch, not wheat flour or breadcrumbs, the large irregular granules adhering to the wet meat and, on deep-frying at around 175 degrees C, frying into a thick, spiky, extra-crisp crust that stays crunchy even as it cools. The cutlet is drained, dusted with pepper salt, and eaten at once, the contrast of the shattering crust and the juicy meat the whole point. The size is a selling feature, not gluttony, it is meant to be shared.