Har Har Chicken: New har cheong gai concept at Bishan serves up all things prawn-paste chicken

If you love all things har cheong gai, then the new Har Har Chicken! at Junction 8 shopping centre in Bishan will sound like music to your ears. 

This new food kiosk, slated to open on Jul 5, will serve up a menu of all things har cheong gai (or prawn-paste chicken, for the uninitiated). 

Korean fried chicken and even Thai ones have always been popular, but now, it’s finally time for har cheong gai to shine.

Har Har Chicken’s offerings range from standalone chicken items to burgers and rice boxes, with prices starting from S$3.20 for a piece of chicken wing. 

An all-star team of founders

The concept was founded by four friends who are self-professed foodies and prawn-paste chicken lovers. 

You might recognise chef and content personality Lennard Yeong, 36, who was formerly on Masterchef Singapore, as well as LG Han, 39, the one-Michelin-starred chef-owner of Labyrinth. They are joined by restaurateur Tay Jianli, 40, and investment professional Bevin Desker, 39.

Being avid prawn-paste chicken lovers, the quartet realised one day (two years ago, to be exact) that you couldn’t buy har cheong gai in single-portions here. 

The four put pen to paper and decided to begin working on a casual, takeaway concept where diners could order prawn-paste chicken however they liked, without the need to head to a sit-down restaurant and order a big plate of the umami-laden wings. 

After an extensive research and development phase, wherein more than 20 recipes were tested, the concept is finally ready. Responding to queries from HungryGoWhere, the Har Har Chicken team says that they wanted to find a careful balance in the flavours, because “everyone has their own idea of what har cheong gai should taste like”. 

Effort was made to ensure that the har cheong taste carried through, without being overly salty.

Another key challenge was finding a consistent recipe that they could execute out of a food kiosk space.

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If we’ve got you excited, you’ll unfortunately have to hold out for just a bit longer. 

Har Har Chicken’s kiosk at Junction 8 in Bishan will open next Friday, Jul 5, to coincide with the festivities on Jul 6 — International Fried Chicken Day.

But if it helps, we’ve got first dibs on its menu. Here’s what to expect once it opens its doors. 

Trying out Har Har Chicken’s menu 

Most of us would probably have had har cheong gai while dining communally at local zi char restaurants. While it isn’t usually the main dish, it’s a quintessential dish to order for the table. 

At Har Har Chicken, the dish now takes centrestage, with the crew pairing it up with rice, burger buns and also serving it up in different iterations, such as popcorn bites and as boneless cutlets. 

Across the board, we found Har Har Chicken’s offerings to be crisply fried and coated in a delicious golden-brown batter.

The team attributes this to careful temperature control, its double-frying method and a secret blend of flour in Har Har’s batter — which they say ensures the chicken stays crispy, even for deliveries.

The chicken was tender, moist and oh-so-juicy, but how did it fare on the har cheong front? We found it heavy with the usual strong and umami-laden prawn-paste fragrance that we associate with zi char-style har cheong gai.

For har cheong gai in its purest form, there’s the Har Har wings (S$3.20 per piece, S$18 for six) that’s friendly to solo diners and group-eaters alike. 

Love fried chicken burgers but looking for a twist? Try the Har-burger (S$7.30), which features a crisp har cheong gai cutlet with tomatoes, lettuce and creamy mayonnaise. You can also opt for the slightly spicier version dressed with sriracha mayo — this, in particular, was our favourite out of the four versions, with the most har cheong bang for our buck.

The Har Har Pops (S$4.80) are bite-sized morsels that you can conveniently savour on the go — much like KFC’s popcorn chicken! If dipping sauces are your jam, snag some mayonnaise to go with your snack. 

But we especially liked that you could also douse the Pops in some chicken rice chilli, for an extra garlicky touch.

For something more carb-heavy, there are also a variety of set boxes to accommodate bigger appetites. 

Each of these boxes offer a choice of fries or chicken rice, achar-slaw and chicken rice chilli, with the key difference being the protein. The saver box (from S$4.90) includes one wing, the HAR-ty double wing box (from S$7.80) offers the same but with two wings, and HAR-ty cutlet rice box (S$7.60), a whole boneless thigh cutlet — this last box comes only with rice, with option for no fries.

If you’d like to try a little of everything, there’s also combo sets (from S$8.20) that include both wing and cutlet. 

All sets can be enhanced with a fried egg ($1.20), mini Pops ($2), or mini achar-slaw ($1.20).

We found the chicken-rice rice to be a solid rendition of the local favourite, with firm, flavourful grains and a good bite. 

It was also a conscious choice to use chicken-rice chilli instead of the usual har cheong gai chilli, says the team. 

“Har cheong itself has a significant umami-ness and a slight tinge of sweetness to it already…We needed a chilli sauce that complements (these flavours). Hence, we chose to use chicken-rice chilli, which is something more acidic, to cut through all the flavours,” says LG Han.

Visually, the chilli took on a more vibrant, orangey hue, with a more viscous consistency than usual — rather more for dipping than slathering your rice in.

The achar-slaw — Har Har’s local take on the usual coleslaw that accompanies many fried chicken dishes — leaned towards being more sweet than tangy, but nonetheless refreshed our palates, especially after the umami-rich meal.

Price-wise, we do find the set boxes to be a tad pricier than many hawker centre-style chicken rice plates, but provides good value for a modern take on a tried-and-true classic dish.

Opening promotion

In honour of International Fried Chicken Day on July 6, Har Har Chicken! is offering a special one-for-one box set promotion to celebrate its grand opening. From Jul 5 to 7, purchase a Har-ty double wing fry box and receive a Har-ty cutlet rice box for free.

We hear that the founders are open to the possibility of opening more outlets across the island — so stay tuned!

This was a hosted tasting.

Love fried chicken? Celebrate International Fried Chicken Day on July 6 with an unlimited chicken feast. Also, don’t forget to check out the official release of Michelin Guide Singapore 2024.

Do explore the GrabFood Dine Out service for awesome deals.

You can also book a ride to savour Har Har Chicken at Junction 8.