Honey Marmite Fried Chicken
Chef Nicole Yeoh shares her take on this classic sweet and savoury Malaysian Chinese dish, which can also be easily veganised. Photos by Nicole Yeoh and Georgia Rudd.
Good morning, and welcome to Vittles! Today, Nicole Yeoh shares a recipe for double-fried honey Marmite fried chicken, a riff on a classic Malaysian Chinese comfort food with a rich umami sweetness. The honey Marmite sauce also pairs beautifully with tempeh, tofu, aubergine, and other veg, so make a big batch of it to eat throughout the week.
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Honey Marmite Fried Chicken
Chef Nicole Yeoh shares her take on this classic sweet and savoury Malaysian Chinese dish.
When I first moved to the UK about ten years ago, the marketing of Marmite as an inherently polarising ingredient – ‘You either love it or hate it’ – puzzled me. In Malaysia, Marmite is a pantry staple, found in nearly all Malaysian Chinese kitchens along with taucu (fermented soybean paste) from southern China; belacan (fermented shrimp paste) introduced by the native Malays; and Worcestershire sauce, another British influence. Its robust umami taste – deep, bold, and savoury, with slightly bitter notes – aligns perfectly with classic Chinese flavour preferences. It’s even branded locally as the ‘Condiment King’.
Introduced during British colonial rule, Marmite is widely available in Chinese corner shops and traditional Chinese medicinal halls (due to perceived health benefits, such as boosting the immune system). It evokes comfort and nostalgia: infants are weaned onto rice porridge with Marmite stirred through, while working mothers mix it with hot water for a quick soup, considered a healthier alternative to salt or light soy sauce.
Most notably, Marmite is heavily used as a condiment in 煮炒 (zi char; literally: ‘cook and fry’) restaurants, casual, open-air establishments that serve affordable, Malaysian Chinese homestyle dishes. Although Malaysian Chinese food often remains close to Cantonese, Hokkien, and Teochew traditions and techniques, it also incorporates Malay, Indian, and British ingredients such as curry leaves, spices, and, of course, Marmite. In zi char restaurants, Marmite adds a heady aroma to fried rice or when stir-fried with prawns and crab, and one of the signature dishes is Marmite chicken – crispy fried chicken coated in a deeply satisfying sweet and savoury sauce.
I first started to make Marmite chicken for myself during the pandemic, when I found myself craving comforting food that reminded me of home. Despite being one of the most popular Malaysian Chinese dishes, Marmite chicken is rarely found on restaurant menus in the UK (zi char cuisine in general is underrepresented, perhaps because Malaysian restaurants are mostly run by Malays, with Malaysian Chinese operating Chinese takeaways or Japanese restaurants instead). So, when I opened my own Malaysian restaurant in a pub in Winchester three years ago, I knew I had to add Marmite chicken to the menu, and it quickly became one of our bestselling dishes.
My version features more Marmite than the typical zi char dish, and uses honey rather than the traditional maltose to balance the salty, slightly bitter Marmite – honey’s floral notes complement the earthiness of the yeast extract perfectly. A marinade adds a further savoury, garlicky layer of flavour, and double-frying seals in the juiciness while adding deep crags of batter to capture that sauce. Don’t think of serving it with anything other than a big bowl of steamed white rice.
Honey Marmite Fried Chicken
