We used to own a chicken wing food stall called Wingman. It was located inside of a German beer hall in Saigon, Vietnam. We shared the food area with a dozen other food stands. From there we served chicken wings, chicken fries and loaded fries. We were open for just under 3 years between our first location and then going delivery only for a year. It’s closed now and I thought it would be fun to share all the recipes I created for the store. I’ll be starting with our most ordered which was chicken salt.
As an Australian, chicken salt on chips is part of our blood. It’s something I missed living in Vietnam. During covid I spent months researching the original recipe. There are plenty of recipes online, but I wanted the original. Then I found this interview from Adam Liaw with the creator of chicken salt, Peter Brinkworth.
His original chicken salt included onion powder, garlic powder, celery salt, paprika, chicken bouillon and monosodium glutamate. The vibrant orange-yellow colour came from the addition of curry powder. He can’t remember the specific brand but, as a lifelong Keen’s man, he suspects it might have been that.
So I had the ingredients but not the measurements. It took me about 3 months of experimenting until I got to the final result.
Ingredients
- 30 grams chicken bouillon
- 20 grams curry powder
- 20 grams MSG (Make shit good)
- 25 grams sweet paprika
- 5 grams pepper
- 30 grams garlic powder
- 5 grams onion powder
- 30 grams celery salt
Directions
- Mix all ingredients in a container with a lid, shake well until everything is combined.
- Write the date on the container
- Can to stored for up to 12 months.
I found a recent interview with Peter Brinkworth where he mentions that he adds rice flour as a caking agent, but I never had that issue even in Vietnam with the high humidity.