Fried Chicken Topping from Mother Tongue

"This sprinkle stems from my love for Taiwanese fried chicken joints that have a line-up of flavour dusts at the counter, for liberally coating freshly deep-fried morsels of deliciousness...This Indian-y take on a flavour dust is salty, sweet, sour, and umami all in one. It goes with everything in this book and is intentionally addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you."

- Gurdeep Loyal

We know what you like, and we wanna help you find it. This fried chicken topping is sweet, spicy, tangy, and irresistible. Once you've tasted it, it'll be your answer to everything.

Mother Tongue

This fried chicken topping comes from Mother Tongue: Flavours of a Second Generation by Gurdeep Loyal.

Outwardly, my cinnamon-brown skin, almond eyes and aquiline nose mark me out as 'immigrant' in Great Britain, even though I have only ever migrated an hour's train ride from where I was born in Leicester to East London where I now live. Conversely, my broken Punjabi, tattooed wrists and hipster attire mark me out as 'immigrant' in India.

As a result, I grew up being pulled between self-appointed arbiters of both my Britishness and my Indianness, identity jurors who guarded the social rules of what my labels could and could not be. Being born both British and Indian, I qualified for adjudication twice: a perpetual code-switching game of cat and mouse with my own dual-rooted identity.

My cooking today proudly disregards these labels on a plate, reclaiming my whole identity on my terms, through food that inhabits the middle ground in between so-called cultural boundaries. Just as there is no single monolithic way to be 'British Indian', or any other label for that matter, my recipes rejoice in the queer-hybridity of who I am and celebrate the uniqueness of the others who share my compounded tick-box.

Fried Chicken Topping

Ingredients

• chilli powder - Kashmiri red chilli powder is recommended, but you can substitute with what you have on hand
• cumin - ground cumin is recommended. Grind the seeds with a molcajete as needed
• coriander - ground coriander
• salt - fine sea salt is recommended
• sugar - this fried chicken sprinkle calls for caster sugar or very finely ground sugar
• amchoor
• white pepper - ground
• onion powder
• MSG - optional but trust me, it's better if you include it

Equipment

• prep bowls
• measuring spoons
• molcajete (optional)
• whisk or spoon

Add the Ingredients to a Bowl

Wash your hands with soap and water. Use measuring spoons to add the ingredients to a bowl.

Whisk Them Together

Whisk the ingredients together until they are evenly combined. Transfer the fried chicken topping to a shaker or storage container as needed.

Sprinkle on Everything

Use this fried chicken sprinkle on everything. We highly recommend this fried chicken sando.