I forgot to put the egg/soy sauce/wine/vodka mixture into the batter. This made it adhere less to the chicken and flake off into the oil, turning it into sludge that kept cooking less and less effectively with each batch that went into the wok. Eventually, it accumulated at the bottom and burned.
The chicken did turn out edible and not bad, but not crispy.
So, I think I have to take the complexity of the breaded chicken more seriously next time. I may even need a written checklist. I could also stand to do the optional step where you lay each batter-dipped piece out on a tray so you know they’re separated.
Or! I could find some kind of high quality pre-cooked fried chicken, if it exists. Most of why I’m doing this is because the guy really enjoys takeout orange chicken as well as the frozen orange chicken sold by Trader Joe’s.
We eat the Trader Joe’s stuff every week because it’s nice for everyone for him to have at least two non-challenging meals a week. Unfortunately, I now notice the low chicken quality in the Trader Joe’s offering and kind of can’t take it anymore. On the other hand, I’m not sure that making stuff by hand will ever be a non-ordeal.