The recipe I’m sharing with you is one of my many takes on steamed bao buns. This recipe is tried and true with even the pickiest of eaters. I combine both Chinese and Korean cooking styles to create a versatile Asian dish.

Fried Chicken Bao with a Cilantro Lime Crema

Sarah Mikulski

A fluffy, sweet bun filled with spicy fried chicken and topped with vegetables and crema to cool it down.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 1

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 4 people

Equipment

Steamer
Stand Mixer

Ingredients

Steamed Bao Buns

½ cup water warm
½ cup milk warm
1 T instant yeast
2 T sugar
3 T olive oil
2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
½ t baking powder
½ t salt

Spicy Fried Chicken

3 chicken breasts diced
1 cup buttermilk
½ t salt
½ t pepper
½ t garlic powder
1 ½ cups flour for breading
½ t pepper
½ t thyme
½ t paprika
1 t baking powder
¼ t red pepper flakes
vegetable oil for frying
4 T soy sauce
2 T gochujang
2 T honey
2 T brown sugar
2 T ginger
1 splash lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
carrots julienned
green onion cut small

Cilantro Lime Crema

1 cup sour cream
¼ cup cilantro
1 lime
1 clove garlic minced
sea salt
olive oil

Instructions

Making the Bao Buns

Combine the water, milk, yeast, 2 T sugar, and oil in a small mixing bowl. Set it to the side.
Combine the flour, 2 T sugar, baking powder, and salt in a stand mixer.
Turn your stand mixer on a low setting and slowly begin adding your wet ingredients to your dry.
Once, all of the ingredients are incorporated together, use your dough hook to continue kneading for about 5 minutes.
Form dough into a ball and place back into the stand mixer bowl and cover with saran wrap. Let it rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
After it has risen, place the dough ball on a clean, lightly floured working surface. Using a rolling pin, roll your dough out until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
Using a circle cutter or a circular drinking glass, cut as many circles as you can out of your dough.
Ball up whatever dough is left over, and roll it out and cut your circles shapes out once again, repeating until you have no dough left.
Pour some olive oil into a bowl and and have a food brush on hand.
Brush the entire surface of your bao circle with olive oil, and fold it in half, forming it into a bun. Repeat for all bao circles.
Cover and let it rest for an additional 1 hour.
After the dough is rested, place your steamer into a large pot, wok, or cast iron pan of water and bring it to a boil. Make sure it isn't filled up too high with water so that the bottom tier of your steamer does not fill with water.
Once water is boiling, place your bao buns into the steamer and steam for about 10 minutes.

Spicy Fried Chicken

Dice your chicken breasts.
In a large bowl, add your diced chicken, buttermilk, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Let it sit for 1-2 hours.
Mix together flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, paprika, baking powder, and red pepper flakes.
Bring a pot of vegetable oil to 375 F.
Coat your chicken in the flour mixture and fry until it's a golden brown color. Let it drain after frying.
In a saucepan, combine gochujang, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Mix it over heat until combined and reduced.
Coat your fried chicken in the sauce.

Cilantro Lime Crema

Combine the sour cream, cilantro, juice of 1 lime, minced garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, and sea salt. Let it set in the refrigerator.

Assembling the Bao Buns

Get together your steamed buns, fried chicken, julienned carrots, chopped green onions, and cilantro lime crema.
Place 2 or 3 pieces of fried chicken into the bao bun.
Top with carrots and green onions.
Drizzle some of the crema on top.
Enjoy!

Fried Chicken Bao