Mix the soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, five-spice, white pepper and egg together. Toss the chicken in and let it sit at least 30 minutes, though honestly a couple hours in the fridge makes a noticeable difference.

Toss the marinated chicken in the starch until it's fully covered, kind of clumpy looking even — that's normal, that's what gives you the crunchy shell later.

Get your oil to around 325°F and fry the chicken in batches, about 3–4 minutes, till it's cooked through and just lightly golden. Don't crowd the pot here — I did this once and the oil temp dropped so much everything came out soggy instead of crisp.

Step 4. Let it sit a minute. Pull the chicken out, let it rest while the oil comes back up to temperature.

Turn the oil up to about 375°F, fry it again for 1–2 minutes till it's deep golden and you can actually hear it crackling when you tap a piece. This second round is really the whole secret to the crunch.

Drop the basil leaves into the hot oil for like 10-15 seconds max — they crisp up almost instantly and go a bit translucent. Pull them out quick, they go from crispy to burnt fast.

While the chicken's still hot, hit it with a bit more five-spice and salt, toss in the fried basil, and eat it basically right away — in a paper cone if you're feeling authentic about it, or just a bowl.

Sweet potato starch gives a crunchier, kind of craggier coating than cornstarch, but honestly cornstarch's fine if that's what's around, don't stress over it.

Don't skip the double fry even though it feels like an unnecessary extra step when you're hungry and just want to eat. It really is the difference between crispy and crispy-for-five-minutes.

Eat it hot, basically right away. This isn't one of those dishes that holds up sitting around — the crunch fades fast, so don't make it ahead expecting leftovers to taste the same.