Singapore Salted Egg Yolk Chicken

This is the sauciest, creamiest and easiest Salted Egg Yolk Chicken you will ever make!

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken is a beloved Singapore and Malaysian zi char restaurant/hawker dish of fried chicken bites slathered in a creamy, sweet and savoury salted egg yolk sauce. This is also so incredibly easy to make at home. I used chicken here, but this recipe works with squid and prawns as well. I made a Salted Egg Yolk Calamari a while back, and this recipe is even easier to make!

What are Salted Egg Yolks?

Salted eggs are one of those special Asian ingredients. It may not be essential, but every household would have these at some point. These are the yolks of salted eggs, typically duck eggs. They’re cured in salt over a period of time so it’s salty. When you buy the salted eggs from the supermarket, there’s usually a layer of black soil that you would need to rinse off. Once it’s cleaned out, crack the eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. You can actually eat the whites as well, though most people would just use the yolks as an ingredient.

These days, or at least in Southeast Asian supermarkets, you can purchase these salted egg yolks, readily peeled and separated from the whites.

How to Cook Salted Egg Yolks?

Before using the salted egg yolks, they will need to be cooked first. In this recipe, I steamed the yolks.

Steaming the yolks is my preferred way of cooking it since it is a lot more consistent to produce cooked, soft yolks. Simply steam on high for 10 to 15 minutes until the yolks cook, or when it turns into an opaque, paler yellow.

Mash the yolks before using so it blends well into the cream. I’ve seen people use food processors to get a finer mash, which you can try if you’re after the smoothest sauce.

There are a couple other ways to cook the yolks including:

• Boiling: Clean the eggs, and boil it whole (without cracking) for 10 minutes. Then gently peel, and remove as much of the cooked whites from yolk. Yolk is ready.

• Microwaving: My second favourite way, for when I’m extra lazy! Crack the eggs, and remove the whites as much a possible. Add to a microwaveable bowl, and cover the container – important as the yolks will most definitely explode. Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes, or until yolk is completely opaque.

Making the EASIEST Crispy Fried Chicken Bites

I made Salted Egg Yolk Calamari here. In that recipe, I coated the calamari in a seasoned, egg and flour dredge. It’s great, but messy. I tried this ultra simple method one day – and I never looked back!

All I did was season the chicken cubes with salt and pepper, and enough cornstarch to coat. This yielded crispy chicken! Since you’re going to coat this in salted egg yolk sauce, it even makes the most sense to keep it simple so the sauce can truly shine.

Another hack I tried with this was to shallow fry the chicken! If I can shallow fry everything, and save oil, I would. Of course, if you’d rather deep fry the chicken and let it cook, that works too.

Ingredients for the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Sauce

The ingredients in Salted Egg Yolk Chicken are minimal, and all lend to the flavours that we are accustomed to expect when ordering this at zi char restaurants.

• Butter: This adds such a buttery creamy flavour to the dish. You can also replace with oil.

• Garlic: No onions or scallions are used in this dish – just garlic! Add according to your preference.

• Curry Leaves: This would be the most unmissable ingredient. Curry Leaves add that extra signature something something to the dish. Unfortunately there’s really no replacement for curry leaves, so try to source it out. They’re very easily available at Singapore supermarkets – I grow them! Otherwise it’s easily available on Amazon as well.

• Bird’s Eye Chillies: This add a spicy kick to the sauce, and helps to cut the heaviness of the salted egg yolk sauce. If you don’t take spice, you can omit this ingredient.

• Evaporated Milk: I used canned evaporated milk, since that is what zi char restaurants use. You can easily replace this with regular milk, or even low fat milk to the exact same results! This is a CREAMY salted egg yolk chicken, so I added quite a lot of milk. If you want a coating of sauce, then simply half the amount.

Why is my Salted Egg Yolk Chicken so thick?

This is just the nature of salted egg yolk dishes! You would realise that most salted egg yolk dishes in restaurants are not very saucy at all. Salted egg yolk sauces thicken as it cools. Salted egg yolk itself is a thickening ingredient when combined with milk.

You can try to add more liquid, for a saucier dish, but I would not recommend adding TOO MUCH. For this recipe, 2 cups should be the maximum amount to add, otherwise you will lose the salted egg yolk flavour. Do note that even with additional liquid, the sauce will get gloopy when it’s cooled!

Some eateries do offer a more liquid, saucy version. Often than not these are made using artificial, instant salted egg yolk mixes. If you have this easily available then use it! It works in this recipe as well; add the instant salted egg yolk mix instead of adding mashed yolks.