Korean Fried Chicken Recipe

Korean fried chicken with a thin, crackly crust that’s glazed with a delicious soy garlic or red spicy sauce!

I know you’re reading this because you love Korean fried chicken! It’s such a culinary pleasure to bite through the well-seasoned, crunchy crust that reveals juicy chicken underneath. This Korean fried chicken recipe will give you that thin, crispy and crunchy crust along with two delicious sauce options — soy garlic and red spicy sauce!

Also known as “the other KFC,” Korean fried chicken is highly popular in and outside of Korea. Over the last three or four decades, the Korean fried chicken industry has grown exponentially. There are fast food fried chicken chains and mom-and-pop places in uncountable numbers, each with their own techniques, secret ingredients and variations.

Among many delicious variations of fried chicken in Korea, yangnyeom chicken is one of the most popular ones. Literally meaning “seasoned chicken,” yangnyeom chicken is fried chicken smothered in a spicy red sauce. The ingredients used in yangnyeom sauce vary widely, including gochujang, ketchup, hot sauce, strawberry jam, etc. It started out being thick and heavy, but the current trend is a thinner, lighter sauce.

In Korea, Gyochon Chicken is the biggest fried chicken chain, while Bonchon is the best known Korean fried chicken chain in the U.S. Both are famous for their thin, crackly crust and two types of glazes — soy garlic and red spicy.

As I mentioned in my dakgangjeong recipe, another popular type, fried chicken is often enjoyed with beer, and that combination is called ChiMaek (치맥), chi from chicken (치킨) and maek from maekju (맥주, the Korean word for beer). It’s a relatively new term that reflects the casual dining and drinking culture.

Korean Fried Chicken (Yangnyeom Chicken)

Prep: 25min

Total: 165min

Yield: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds chicken wings (about 16 drumettes and wingettes)
• 1.5 teaspoons salt (use 1 ts if using table salt)
• pinch black pepper (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 4-5 cups oil for frying (about 2-inch deep (use deep, bottom heavy, medium size pot or pan))
• 1/2 cup potato starch (or cornstarch)
• 1/2 cup frying mix (aka tempura mix)
• 1/4 cup potato starch (or cornstarch)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine (or mirin) or other cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon or 1.5 tablespoons gochujang
• 1 tablespoon or 2 tablespoons hot sauce (sriracha, tabasco, Franks Original, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey (or 2.5 tablespoons corn syrup, rice syrup, or oligo syrup)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon honey dijon mustard – optional
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine (or mirin or other cooking wine)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey (or 2.5 tablespoons corn syrup, rice syrup, or oligo syrup)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon vinegar (white, rice, apple cider, etc.)
• 1 teaspoon or 2 teaspoons oyster sauce – optional
• 4 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped scallion

Instruction:

1. Wash chicken wings, and drain thoroughly. Mix with the salt, pepper, and ginger. Let it sit in the fridge for 2 hours or longer (overnight to 24 hours).
2. Combine all the sauce ingredients of your choice and stir well. Boil over medium heat until it thickens slightly, about 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the heat off.
3. OPTION 1 Dry batter: If using the starch only, add the potato (or cornstarch) to the chicken, and rub it onto each wing well to coat evenly. Set aside.
4. OPTION 2 Wet batter: Mix the wet batter ingredients in a bowl, and stir well until smooth with no visible lumps.
5. Add the oil to a deep fryer, wok, or large pot. Heat the oil to 320°F (up to 330°F). Drop the chicken in the oil, one piece at a time. If using wet batter, dip each piece in the wet batter with tongs and shake off excess batter before dropping the chicken in the oil. Fry them in two batches. Cook until lightly golden, about 6 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken wings. Remove them with a wire skimmer or a slotted spoon. Drain on a wire rack or in a large mesh strainer set on a bowl.
6. Reheat the oil to 350°F (up to 360°F). Add the chicken (you can do this in one batch for the second frying), and deep fry again, for about 5 minutes, until golden brown. Drain on a wire rack or in a large mesh strainer set on a bowl.
7. You can either toss the fried chicken pieces in the sauce or hand-brush them. Sprinkle with the optional sesame seeds or chopped scallion to serve.

Korean Fried Chicken

Get ready for extra-crispy Korean Fried Chicken with this recipe from Delish.com.

Prep: 15min

Total: 1h

Yield: 4 serving(s)

Nutrition Facts: calories 876 Calories, Fat 54 g, Saturated Fat 17 g, Trans Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 275 mg, Sodium 1093 mg, Carbohydrate 48 g, Fiber 3 g, Sugar 28 g, Protein 48 g

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 lb. chicken wings
• 1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 c. cornstarch
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 5 small dried red chilis, sliced
• 1 tbsp. freshly minced ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. gochujang
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c. cocktail peanuts
• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 1 green onion, sliced

Instruction:

1. Make wings: In a deep pot over medium-high heat, heat 4 to 6 cups vegetable oil to 275°. Line a large plate or baking sheet with paper towels. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, baking powder, and garlic powder.
2. Pat wings dry with paper towels, then rub with grated ginger and season with salt mixture. In a large bowl, toss wings with cornstarch and squeeze to compress coating onto each wing.
3. Carefully add wings to oil and fry until skin is just lightly crisped and golden, occasionally flipping with tongs, about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove wings from oil and set aside on prepared plate. Let rest briefly.
4. Heat frying oil to 400°. Return wings to pot and fry again until deeply golden and skin is crisp and crunchy, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove wings from oil and place in a large mixing bowl.
5. Make sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, add butter, dried chilis, ginger, and garlic and cook until fragrant, 2 minutes. Stir in gochujang, ketchup, vinegar, and soy sauce and cook until bubbling. Stir in honey and brown sugar and continue cooking until bubbling and slightly thickened.
6. Pour sauce over wings and toss until evenly coated. Add in peanuts and toss to combine.
7. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion before serving.

Korean Fried Chicken

How to make sweet, spicy and sticky Korean fried chicken! It’s super crunchy and hugely addictive!

Prep: 10min

Total: 40min

Serving Size: 1 serving

Nutrition Facts: calories 685 kcal, Carbohydrate 69 g, Protein 35 g, Fat 29 g, Saturated Fat 7 g, Cholesterol 126 mg, Sodium 1290 mg, Fiber 2 g, Sugar 33 g, servingSize 1 serving

Ingredients:

• 1.4 kg whole chicken
• 2 Tbsp rice wine
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup potato starch (or corn starch)
• Some cooking oil (for deep frying (I used rice bran oil))
• 3 Tbsp tomato sauce ( / ketchup)
• 2 Tbsp gochujang ((Korean chilli paste), add 1/2 Tbsp more to make it spicier)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• toasted sesame seeds
• green onion (finely chopped or thinly shredded)

Instruction:

1. In a bowl, place the chicken, rice wine, ginger, salt and black pepper. Combine them well. Then evenly coat the chicken with the starch and set side. (To get the effect like the picture, dip the individual chicken pieces into the bowl of starch, roll the chicken around a bit then take them out and set aside.)
2. In a deep saucepan (or frier) add a generous amount of oil and heat it until the oil temperature reaches 175 C / 347 F (or boiling). Start adding the battered chicken carefully and fry them until they cook (between 3 to 5 mins, depending on the size of chicken). Do not overcrowd the pan. (It might be useful to use a grease splatter screen if you have one. It’s super handy! It minimises oil splatter.) Take out the done chicken and place them onto some kitchen paper while frying the remaining chicken pieces. Once the first set of deep frying is completed, quickly scoop out any floating debris from the oil using a skimmer. Then deep fry the chicken again when the oil temperature reaches 175 C / 347 F (or boiling). Fry them until the batter is golden and crisp. (The second time frying is shorter than the first time, 2 to 3 mins) Set aside.
3. In a separate saucepan, add in the Korean fried chicken sauce ingredients (listed above). Heat the sauce over low medium heat and stir well. Once it starts bubbling, remove the pan from the heat. Place double fried chicken into a large mixing bowl then pour the fried chicken sauce over the chicken to coat. Mix them lightly and thoroughly. Alternatively, serve the fried chicken and the sauce separately and use the sauce as a dipping sauce.Once all the chicken is coated with the sauce, serve it hot immediately. Leftover chicken can be refrigerated for a day or two and eaten cold. But it won’t be as crunchy.

Easy Korean Fried Chicken

Korean Fried Chicken. Crunchy, juicy fried battered chicken. A delicious, indulgent way to have chicken. Perfect with some beer or a carbonated drink.

Prep: 10min

Total: 50min

Yield: 8

Serving Size: 1 serving

Nutrition Facts: calories 256 kcal, Carbohydrate 35 g, Protein 14 g, Fat 7 g, Saturated Fat 2 g, Trans Fat 0.03 g, Cholesterol 70 mg, Sodium 687 mg, Fiber 0.4 g, Sugar 0.1 g, unSaturated Fat 5 g, servingSize 1 serving

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 4 cups avocado oil ((or any neutral oil like vegetable oil, grapeseed, peanut oil or canola oil))
• 1 tbsp dry sherry ((or sub with white wine))
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1.5 tsp regular soy sauce ((not light or dark soy sauce) )
• 1 tbsp garlic (minced)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2.5 cups tapioca starch (aka Tapioca Flour depending on the brand. You can also sub with potato starch or cornstarch)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 cups water (cold)

Instruction:

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix your marinade ingredients. Marinate your chicken for 10 minutes or overnight for best results.
2. Meanwhile, in another large mixing bowl, mix your batter ingredients until you have a thick but runny batter. The batter will settle and almost “solidify” but that is normal. You will just need to mix it again when you’re ready to batter the chicken.
3. Once your chicken has marinated, add it to your batter and mix. You’ll need some arm strength here to evenly coat the chicken.
4. Heat your avocado oil or neutral oil in a pot over medium heat. Place a wooden chopstick in the oil to check if the oil is hot enough by looking for bubbles. Once you see bubbles form at the tip of the chopstick, your oil is hot enough.
5. Carefully place battered chicken into hot oil. The batter will run off the chicken a bit but that’s normal. Do not overcrowd the pot (about 4 pieces per fry). Do not cover with a lid.
6. Cook your drumsticks for 10 minutes on both sides (20 minutes in total), flipping around every now and then until golden crispy brown.
7. Transfer to a cooling rack or paper towel to drain off excess oil and enjoy!

Korean Fried Chicken (Yangnyeom-tongdak: 양념통닭)

FAQ

Why is Korean fried chicken so crispy?

What is Korean fried chicken batter made of?

1. tapioca flour, or sub with potato starch or corn starch.
2. onion powder.
3. garlic powder.
4. curry powder.
5. salt.
6. black pepper.
7. baking powder.
8. cold water.

What makes Korean fried chicken different?

Why does Korean fried chicken taste so good?