Korean Fried Chicken

If there’s one food I’ll eat for the rest of my life, that would be fried chicken. When I was a kid, I would always had to have the drumstick. Now, I’m in love with chicken wings.

So when I read last year that there’s a place that serves mean fried chicken, I had to try it out. So after obsessing much with BonChon chicken, I was finally able to satisfy my appetite with their chicken wings. And they were good.

Although I think it was overhyped. Chicken Joy tastes better! Haha. I mean, yeah, the flavor profile is somewhat new to most people, but I think it’s just because of the sauce. If you strip the chicken off the sauce, what you’ll have is just a bland piece of a crunchy chicken wing. I have to give it to Bonchon though for the crunchiness of the wings. They stay freakin crunchy even after 30 minutes with the sauce. Plus, I find them expensive too! At first, I thought P375 for 12 pieces was okay. But they actually separated the mini drumstick and the wing, so what we actually had was 6 pieces of wings. That’s almost 3 kilos of wings for P375 actually.

All in all, my Bonchon experience was nice. Thanks to buddies Arjay and Joan I was just expecting more from them coz of all the hype I’ve read and heard bout them.

So my quest for this Korean delight did not stop there. I knew I had to learn a recipe similar to Bonchon. Through research, I found out that their fried chicken is actually just Korean Fried chicken  and found hundreds of recipes online.

It is just a simple fried chicken recipe. The main difference is the re-frying. This vital step gives the fried chicken the crunch that  makes a Korean fried chicken.

So after going through dozens of recipes, I settled for Andrea Nguyen’s recipe, and this, and this I combined these three recipes for my ultimate Korean fired chicken.

Forget Bonchon! (What Bonchon?) This one’s better!

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN

Chicken Seasoning

Most recipes just call for salt and pepper for the seasoning, but for me, it is better if you season the chicken well so that you will have a succulent piece of chicken wing even without the sauce.

• 6 pieces chicken wings, drumstick and wing part separated (12 pcs total)
• 1/2 T minced onion
• 1/2 T minced garlic
• 2 T soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Breading

• 1 /2 c all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 T chicken powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season chicken with onion, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Marinate for at least an hour or overnight
2. Prepare the breading by mixing well all the ingredients. Set aside.
3. Heat enough oil to deep fry wings in a pan (or large sauce pan). (Most recipes call for 350˚)
4. Working in batches of 6-8 pieces, toss flour mixture into the wings to evenly coat each piece.
5. Deep fry chicken until golden, 6–8 minutes.
6. Drain on paper towels and rest chicken wings for 2-5 minutes.
7. Re-fry chicken until crisp, about 6–8 minutes more.
8. Drain again.
9. Toss chicken wings in sauce.

Sauce

Ingredients

Of  the recipes I found online, there are basically two types. The Soy-honey glaze and the ketchup-chili sauce. I’m not really a fan of spicy food so the ketchup-chili sauce is out of the equation already. But then again, I love fried chicken with ketchup (better than gravy!) So I had to somehow include it in the recipe. It was a pretty bold risk for me to combine the soy-honey glaze with ketchup coz I really do not how the two flavors would combine. The risk paid off well coz the result was amazing!

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 T honey
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T Chinese cooking wine
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 1-inch wide ginger coins
• 1 T finely minced garlic
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 T hot sauce

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix soy sauce, honey, water, Chinese cooking wine, and brown sugar. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan on medium heat, saute garlic and ginger for 2 minutes.
3. Pour in soy sauce mixture and simmer for 10-12 minutes until sauce thickens.
4. Remove from heat and add in ketchup and hot sauce.
5. Stir to evenly mix the sauce.

Real finger lickin' good!!!

3 hours after frying and 30 minutes with the sauce, it's still has a crrrrunchy skin and moist flesh inside!

I couldn't help it!!! After the taking photos, I gotta have at least one more piece!

An yes, after the shoot, I finished the remaining two more pieces! Finger lickin’ good! Oh wait, that’s for the other KFC!