My Husband’s Favorite: Korean Fried Chicken

I’ve always been a fan of fried chicken. Hot or cold, I can’t seem to resist it, yet my husband has always been rather lukewarm about traditional fried chicken.

Then I made him Korean Fried Chicken.

Now it’s the only fried chicken he wants.

The basic steps to this recipe are simple. You mix chicken with seasonings then coat in a starch (both cornstarch and potato starch do an awesome job.) You fry the chicken once, let it rest, fry it a second time, coat it in a sweet and spicy glaze, then devour. The double frying and the use of corn/potato starch create shatteringly crispy, super crunchy, fried chicken. What’s gonna be bad about that?

Most Korean Fried Chicken recipes use chicken wings only. I like dark meat so I include drumsticks and often thighs. Just let regular fried chicken, I tend to skip the breast. You want your chicken all roughly the same size so if I’m doing legs and thighs I don’t separate the wings. If I’m doing only wings, I separate them.

Ingredients

For the chicken:
3 lbs of chicken parts
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp minced or grated ginger
2/3 cup cornstarch or potato starch
Lots of oil for deep frying – I tend to use peanut, but vegetable, grape seed, or canola all work

For the sauce:
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed (yes, I love my garlic press)
1 tsp red chile flake (feel free to skip this for no heat, or increase the amount to get the heat you desire)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup corn syrup (rice syrup is good too)
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp mustard – it sounds weird, but I got the idea from Maangchi and it’s a nice addition)

 

Directions

Start by rubbing the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and ginger. Then coat each piece in the starch. You really want to press the starch onto the skin so you get every inch coated.

Now we’re moving to the deep fry. I like to use a big cast iron dutch oven or a taller soup/stock pot, but a smaller pot works too, you just may have to fry in smaller batches.

If you haven’t done much deep frying, I suggest you get a candy thermometer. There are only a few tricks to learn when you start and then its easy sailing. But I do have some deep frying rules.

Rule #1 – Do not fill your pot/pan more than halfway with oil. When the food goes in that oil is going to bubble and spurt, you do not want it overflowing the sides. It not only makes a huge mess, but hot oil can be dangerous! If you have a gas stove, can we say grease fire? And if you are using electric, that oil will just burn onto your cooktop.

Rule #2 – Let the oil fully heat up. There is nothing worse than oil-clogged fried food which happens if you fry at too low a temp. Keep the temp around the 350 F mark and you’ll have crispy fried food, not greasy fried food.

Rule #3 – Don’t walk away. There’s a ton of hot oil bubbling, so I don’t see why anyone would walk away from it, but honestly, the oil can get too hot. This leads to burned food or even worse, fried chicken that looks done on the outside but is still undercooked on the inside. Watch your stove and adjust the temp if you start crawling up to 375 F.

Rule #4 – Have tongs and some sort of spider or strainer nearby as soon as you start.

If you follow those rules, you’ll be fine.

Once your oil is up to temp (I aim for 360 since the heat will drop once you put the chicken in) fry your chicken for 7-10 minutes (depending on the size of the parts). You may need to do this in batches, but when this first fry is done, turn your oil off and set the chicken aside to rest for 15 minutes.

While the chicken is resting you can make the sauce. Using a large non-stick skillet or frying pan (wok works too if you’ve got it) place the oil, the garlic and the red chile flakes in the pan over medium high heat and cook for just 30 seconds to a minute. You want it fragrant, but you don’t want the garlic to burn. Add all the rest of the ingredients and let it bubble together until it is one smooth and happy glaze. It takes just a few minutes, so don’t go anywhere, just stir with a wooden spoon until it looks good and glazey, then turn it off until the end.

By now your 15 minutes should be up. Use your spider or a spoon to get any pieces or cornstarch etc out of the oil and then bring that oil back up to 350. This second fry takes a little longer, 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your chicken pieces. You want them a dark golden brown and the exterior should feel rather hard and crisp when you tap it with a wooden spoon.

When the chicken is done with it’s second fry, heat up that glaze (it’ll have gotten thicker while it cools so you want it thinner to coat the chicken) and toss your fried chicken in it to coat all the pieces thoroughly.

Once they are coated, toss them on a platter and dig in! This chicken is great because its super crunchy and the glaze is the perfect sweet, spicy, tangy combination.