Recipe: Korean Fried Chicken

My family loves to go to this local Korean resto for their KFC aka Korean Fried Chicken or simply called as Chikin or Dakgangjeong in Korea. Our pockets aren’t that deep so we can’t really afford to eat there as often as we want to but you can make this at home with easy to find ingredients. If you can fry a chicken, then you can do this. I don’t claim my recipe to be authentic but I develop them with with some Korean ingredients found in local supermarkets like the gochujang and the fried chicken breading. You can just use potato flour or cornstarch if you can’t find any but the Korean chili paste is a must. It usually comes in big red plastic tubs of it but there are also ones in small tubes found in local supermarkets if you don’t use them often. I use @bountyfreshph chicken cut-ups bought at @landersph for this recipe. 

Serve with pickled veggies like this kimchi with some fresh sliced cucumber added.

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN

• 400 grams chicken cut-up pieces or chicken wings / drumsticks / chicken strips
• 1 tbsp rice wine or calamansi juice
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup potato starch or corn starch
• cooking oil for deep frying 

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN SAUCE

• 3 tsp tomato sauce ketchup
• 1 tsp gochujang or according to taste
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• toasted sesame seeds

1. Clean and dry the chicken. 
2. Add the rice wine, ginger, salt and pepper and half the starch. Set aside. 
3. Mix all ingredients for the sauce and heat until the sugar melts. Set aside. 
4. Heat oil for deep frying in a pan until it reaches 175C or 345F. 
5. Add the remaining starch on the chicken and mix until it costs all of them. 
6. Deep fry  the chicken pieces in oil until its cooked about 3 to 5 minutes, drain on paper towels.
7. Fry a chicken again for the second time and this time for another three more minutes until outside is crispy. Careful not to overcrowd the pan or else the chicken gets soggy. 
8. Place the chicken in a large bowl and pour the sauce over it. 
9. Toss the chicken until it’s evenly coated with the sauce.
10. Transfer in a serving dish and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.