My husband and I, and our rabbits moved from Auckland to Whanganui into our first home a few days before lockdown.
Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand looks quite different than isolation in other countries. For starters, all hospitality was shut down. Yes, that includes restaurants, fast food, bars and cafes. All of them. Even drive-through and delivery. All classed as non-esssential.
Level 3 lockdown included takeout and delivery.
Level 2 included dining out but with many restrictions in place.
Obviously, I haven’t had much of chance to explore where to eat in our new city during lockdown, but so far I’ve been missing Auckland’s large selection of very excellent fried chicken.
My favourite fried chicken in Auckland is at Lowbrow and when fried chicken guru, chef Kyle Street recently shared his fried chicken tips on Instagram, I was intrigued. I’ve combined his tips with an “11 herbs & spices” recipe and the result is bangin’.
I’ve combined this into a burger with a local wonder sauce. Sone’s Satay Sauce is a dreamy mix of peanuts, coconut cream and a kiss of chilli.
Satay chicken burgers
Serves 4
CHICKEN INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup ice
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 4 boneless chicken thighs
- 3 egg whites
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon celery seeds
- 1 tablespoon mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon mixed herbs
- 1 tablespoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 litre oil
BURGER INGREDIENTS
- Sone’s Satay Sauce
- 4 brioche buns
- Coriander
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 1 tomato, sliced
- 1/2 cucumber, ribboned
PREPARATION
- Place salt and hot water in a container, swirl to dissolve. Add ice, chilli flakes and hot sauce. Add chicken thigh pieces, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Crack egg whites into a medium bowl and whip until fluffy.
- In a large bowl, add flour, paprika, celery seeds, mustard powder, mixed herbs, garlic salt and black pepper. Stir in 1/4 cup of brine for crunchy bits.
- Pick up a piece of chicken, allowing excess brine to drip off, dredge chicken in seasoned flour, followed by egg white and back into flour. Lay dredged chicken on a plate. Repeat with all chicken.
- Heat oil in a med saucepan. The oil is ready when a small clump of seasoned flour starts sizzling immediately. Cook chicken two pieces at a time for 7 mins. Drain on a paper towel.
- Toast the buns, spread with a little mayo or butter. On each bottom bun, place cucumber, tomato, coriander, red onion and top with a chicken. Thickly spread the top bun with a tablespoon of Sone’s Satay and crown.
Bunny Eats Design 
I feel your pain! The lockdown here in the UK has been ineptly applied but does include all sources of food I haven’t cooked myself worth a damn. We live in a very small town so there weren’t many options in the first place, and I don’t feel I can justify driving any distance to collect a takeaway when most of the takeaways being done are things like burgers, which, if I wanted to eat one, I’m more than capable of producing myself. I don’t much care for chicken but your posts this morining are making me feel hungry! 🙂
Hi Stella! Having moved to a city with population 1.6million to one with 40,000 means there is a big different in terms of selection. Takeaway burgers and pizza are pretty easy to recreate at home, though as time goes on, there will be more niche ethnic takeaways I will miss. Luckily, I think I could make pretty good recreations at home with bit of online research. Thank goodness for the internet. I think this whole experience is getting us all to become better at “fakeaways”.
I’m always happy to see your blog posts show up in my email, but haven’t seen that you have rabbits again. I would love to see a photo if you’re willing. Scout the Rabbit is hanging in there. He’s ‘middle-aged’ now, having turned four years old in February.
Thanks for all your ‘bangin’ recipes. I have no idea what that means, but I’m suspecting it means ‘good.’
Stay well and stay safe and stay busy.
Hi Paula and Scout! You’re right! Bangin’ means super good. I wasn’t sure if this blog was about bunnies anymore so I’ve been keeping them separate. But now that I’ve read your comment, maybe I should bring bunnies back. We’ve had Kobe and Bento for exactly 1 year now, adopted from SPCA. They are a delight. The bunnies have their own Instagram account here: https://www.instagram.com/kobe.and.bento/
Stay safe out there!
Thanks for responding. Glad you’re back in the Bunny Business. I’d love to see photos of them. Scout the Rabbit ends up on Instagram more often than other social media. Although when I give him a turn on my Facebook feed, people love him. Hope you are doing well.
Your burgers look amazing and yummy, I can’t wait to try your recipe. Keep cooking, we love your blog and culinary adventures in our French home !
Thanks Sophie in France! Stay safe.