This past week I made the Fried Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce, Shallots, and Chiles recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok. This is the first recipe in the Deep Frying section.

Kenji first directs to make a standard Thai-style dressing of pounded chiles and garlic, palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, and cilantro leaves.

For the frying, Kenji calls for three quarts of oil. I think I may have only done two quarts and my wok was quite full. He instructs to heat the oil to 400°F. This took a much longer time on my range than I expected. Trimmed and halved Brussels sprouts and thinly sliced shallots are added to the hot oil. Kenji expects the temperature to drop to around 325°F and to adjust the heat to keep it there. About four minutes later, when the Brussels sprouts are browned, they are removed to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet to remove extra oil.

The fried Brussels sprouts and shallots are then tossed in a bowl with a dressing.

We thought it tasted good. We’re fans of Brussels sprouts (most often we roast them) and Thai flavors, so this was right up our alley. I can’t say that the frying yielded better results than roasting. If I make this again, I will probably just roast them.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.