Chicken salt crackers and popcorn mushrooms

We bought the Breville toaster oven! It’s a monster on our counter and takes up too much space, but I love it with all my heart and I use it almost everyday. To celebrate the toaster and break it in, I wanted to make little hand pies. Except. I did weird math in doubling my pie dough recipe in my head (this is why you always write things down even if you know it in your head!) and made some weird thing and had to start over.

Instead of throwing the dough away, I just rolled it out cracker thin, brushed some oil, and sprinkled on “chicken salt” that I accidentally bought instead of white pepper a while ago. Chicken salt appears to be five spice, msg, white pepper, and salt. Sounds like it’s for Taiwanese popcorn chicken - I also used it on king oyster mushrooms I fried a la Taiwanese popcorn chicken, and it was great! Recipes below.

Crispy, flaky, savory cracker

Same dough, but zucchini flatbread

Mushrooms, seasoning on the side

A very shallow deep fry

Chicken salt crackers

This (accidental) recipe for sure needs to be tweaked, the method maybe, or the ratio. It can be a little tough if underbaked, but it is very crispy if properly baked. I wonder if you can use a savory pastry dough recipe and just roll it thin.

1. In a bowl, combine:

   • 16oz AP flour

   • 6oz butter, cold, sliced into 1/2-in pats, or 1 in cubes

   • 2 tsp salt

   • 1 Tbsp sugar

2. Smush the butter into the flour mixture very roughly, and add:

   • 10 oz ice cold water

3. Mix into a dough and chill thoroughly for at least 1 hr.

4. To make crackers, chop off a small amount of dough, and roll it about 1/4in thick. Sprinkle on some chicken salt or other seasoning in the middle, and fold into a small block again.

5. Reroll to 1/8-in thick crackers. This redistributes the big butter layers a little. Transfer to a baking tray.

6. Brush a thin layer of sesame oil on top, and generously sprinkle chicken salt, enough to cover the cracker in one thin layer.

7. Bake for ~15-20 min at 350F or until golden and crispy.

Taiwanese Salt&Pepper Mushrooms, with chicken salt

1. In a bowl, marinate until ready to fry:

   • 1 lb king trumpet mushrooms, roll cut into little nuggets

   • 1/2 tsp five spice powder

   • drizzle sesame oil

2. Heat oil to 350F.

   • I fry in like an inch of oil in a 2 quart, heavy bottomed stainless steal saucepan because I hate dealing with leftover fryer oil, so the less the better. But this means you have to gauge your temperature more and fry in several batches. I overshoot the temperature of the oil, especially if the ingredients are cold, since the oil temp drops dramatically.

   • Also, I tend to cook a bunch of different frying recipes in the same oil, throw it out, and don’t fry for months.

3. Make batter in the mushroom bowl:

   • 2 eggs

   • 1 cup water

   • 1.5 to 2 cups starch; I used a mix of rice flour and tapioca starch; I think potato starch is more typical to Asian frying

     • I think the amount depends on the starch, but I went for slightly thicker than crepe batter.

4. Fry in batches, until golden, it should take about 6 minutes. Also fry some Thai basil leaves (careful of splatter!).

5. Drain well, and toss in chicken salt when it’s still hot out of the fryer. Adjust seasoning with extra white pepper if you’re me.

6. Serve with chili powder.

Juicier than chicken, and you don’t even miss it because it’s just a vehicle for that amazing chicken salt. Because of the mushroom’s moisture content, these don’t stay crispy even with a double fry. It stayed crispy for longer with a 4 min + 4 min fry, but I don’t think it’s worth it. The scraggly bits of batter that don’t touch the mushrooms do stay crispy, and the double fry makes them almost too crunchy. You still do get some crunch in every bite with the batter, so it’s not necessary IMO.

I probably wouldn’t make the mushrooms very regularly, mostly because I don’t think it is so amazing that it justifies the trouble of frying - almost nothing does. But I was already frying 4 other things, and this recipe was a great way to use up my impulse purchased mushrooms and a really addictive treat. Thanks to Michelle for the idea.

The crackers…. YES. I want to tweak it, or reference some similar pastry dough recipes. It’s flaky and crispy and I still have a whole vial of chicken salt to go through, not to mention it’s the perfect portable snack. I imagine it’d be great with lots of different flavors too.