“Popcorn” Pork (Fried Pork Chunks with Biscuit Crumbs)

“Try making these cute and tasty little fried pork cubes to increase your child’s appetite”

This is a variation of “popcorn” chicken.

I intended to cook sweet and sour pork at first, but ended up with just the fried meat with biscuit crumbs added. It was crisped, and tasty enough to eat without sauce/ gravy onto it.

These bite-sized crisped meat chunks looked cute and delicious. It resembled the “popcorn” chicken in KFC. Yes, pretty alike, except it was made of pork instead. And, I had it made better as tasty cream crackers were made into crumbs and added to these fried “pork corn” (laughing). It wasn’t necessary to add biscuit crumbs into this fried popcorn pork, but I did. Yes, it was much more delicious and aromatic, with a hint of buttery taste. Yummy!

This recipe yields fragrant and crisped fried pork meat. It will be better to go with some soupy dishes as the fried meat chunks were dry ones. Well, just remember not to over-fry it to retain its tenderness and moisture in the meat.

Besides pairing with soup dish, you may also serve the sweet plum paste along, as dipping. It’ll create a refreshing taste in the palate.

Simple recipe to follow:

Ingredients
400 grams of pork meat (preferably with some fat in it), cut into bite-sized chunks

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Sprinkle of sesame oil
Sprinkle of ground white pepper

Coating:
1 egg, briefly beaten
6-8 pieces of plain/ butter cream crackers (cream biscuits), mashed
2 tablespoons of corn flour

1 cup of cooking oil (for frying)

Method
1) Season pork chunks with the listed seasoning. Combine well and marinate for at least 30 min. You may keep it refrigerated while marinating.

2) Beat an egg briefly, and mix well with seasoned pork chunks. Set aside.

3) Mash crackers, mix it with corn flour. Coat pork chunks with cracker mixture. Make sure all sides are well coated with thick layer of cracker mixture to resemble popcorn shape.

4) Heat wok with oil over high heat till smoke starts rising. Reduce heat to medium fire, place ‘popcorn’ pork chunks into wok and fry till light golden brown.

5) When meat chunks turn light brown, increase heat to high fire and fry the pork chunks till oil is bubbling agressively. Then, heat off and remove from wok immediately. Drain on kitchen towel before placing on serving dish. Serve with dippings or some soupy dishes.

A large portion of “popcorn” pork cubes counts about 340kcal.

Tips: To make sure the pork chunks are well seasoned and coated. You may use clean bare hand to perform the mixing.
* Do not over-fry the pork meat. Pork cubes should be removed when lightly browned to allow some standing time after removing from oil (as it will continue to ‘cook’ for a while more even after heat off).