Directions

1. Put the chicken, ginger slices, scallion stalks, and purple onion strips, salt, sugar, sand ginger powder, and soy sauce in a big zip-lock bag. And massage the chicken for 5 minutes. Push out the air. Keep the chicken in the fridge breast-side down for at least 5 hours. It might look like I used a lot of salt. It is ok because most of the sodium will be left behind once we take the chicken out.
2. To make the glaze, or what we call "脆皮水," add maltose, water, and vinegar into a saucepot, and heat over medium heat until the maltose is dissolved. If you don't have maltose, you can use the same amount of sugar or honey as a replacement. Set the glaze aside.
3. Fill a big wide open cookware with water and bring it to a boil. Take the chicken out of the bag and remove the aromatics.
4. Carefully drop the chicken into the boiling water and move around for 40 seconds. Blanching will shrink the chicken skin, leading to a later crispy result.
5. Remove the chicken from the water and place it in a tray. Drizzle the glaze onto the chicken skin and brush evenly. The maltose will caramelize while deep frying, which gives the chicken a desired golden brown color.
6. Place the chicken into a dehydrator and let it dehydrate at the lowest temperature for 5 hours or until the skin is dried completely. If you don't have a dehydrator, place the chicken under a ceiling fan with the highest speed for 5 hours. Once done, set it in the fridge overnight.
7. Combine one egg white and 1 tbsp of rice flour thoroughly. Take the chicken out of the fridge and evenly brush the egg-rice flour mixture over the skin.
8. Pad the sesame seed all over the chicken skin. The egg-rice flour mixture acts like glue so the sesame seeds won't fall off.
9. Put the chicken back in the dehydrator and let it dry for 2 hours.
10. Preheat the oven to 380 F and bake the chicken for 1 hour or until the inner temperature reaches 165 F.