Korean Fried Chicken with Soy Glaze

Korean Fried Chicken RECIPE!!! YAY!!!

I’m sure by now you probably have heard of this wonderful creation. And I think someone referred to Korean Fried Chicken as the other KFC! Hmm… I guess Korean Fried Chicken was destined to become famous – just like Colonel Sanders’ Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)!!!

Right, so actually, “Korean Fried Chicken” refers to a whole set of Korean fried chicken dishes, not just one kind. And thus, they all have different names in Korean. Here are some of the most common fried chicken dishes you can find in just about everywhere in Korea.

Different types of Korean Fried Chicken

• Dakganjeong (닭강정) – the most traditional Korean fried chicken that is seasoned, dredged just with corn starch/potato starch, fried twice and then coated with sweet garlic soy sauce glaze. This is what I’m posting today.
• Tongdak (통닭) – Tongdak means ‘whole chicken’. Whole small young chicken is lightly coated and then fried as whole until crazy crispy. Then it’s cut into pieces and served with salt/pepper for dipping along with sweet sour radish cube pickles. Sometimes this is also cooked rotisserie style (jeongigui tongdak 전기구이 통닭). Jeongi (전기) means electric and Gui (구이) means grilled.
• Yangyeom Chicken(양념치킨) or Yangnyeom Tongdak (양념통닭) – a very recent addition (1982) to Korean cuisine but interestingly, this is probably what is best known outside of Korea as ‘Korean Fried Chicken’. Lightly coated in egg/corn starch batter, fried twice to crispness and then coated in very sweet (sometimes too sweet for my taste) gochujang tomato sauce. Topped with chopped peanuts.

  

  Note, at the bottom of the picture, this store calls it Danggangjeong which tells you the names are used interchangeably.

• Padak (파닭) – First, Pa (파) = green onion. This is Korean fried chicken served with lots of fresh green onion slivers. Fresh green onions go amazingly well with fried chicken. This is my daughter’s most favorite.
• Chicken (치킨) – Huh?? Is this a dish?? Well, yes..this is pretty funny…but in Korea, ‘chicken’ (pronounced ‘chikeen’ by Koreans) refers to fried chicken and NOT any other kind of chicken. So if a Korean says ” 치킨 먹으러 가자 chickeen meogeureo gaja”, that implies “let’s go and eat some FRIED chicken!”. For any other chicken dishes, Koreans will use proper Korean names for it – samgyetang, dakdoritang, baeksuk, dakkalbi.. etc. But ONLY when it comes to fried chicken, it’s suddenly called by its English name. 😜  I guess “fried chicken (후라이드 치킨 huride chikeen)” was just too long…lol… as Koreans love to shorten everything.

How is Korean Fried Chicken special or different??

There are two things that makes them special. One, they are almost always very crispy (fried twice to achieve this effect). Two, they have a very thin to almost no coating/batter allowing the skin to become very crispy which in turn results in a lighter and less fatty fried chicken. See this great NY Times article about Korean Share Their Secret for Chicken with a Crunch.

Before we get into the recipe, I have to share about why I cannot avoid thinking about my dear daughter when it comes to Korean Fried Chicken.

My daughter came to live with us for a few months in Seoul after she graduated college. And she just fell in love, I mean really in LOVE with Korean Fried Chicken. I think she might have said at one point that she wanted to marry Korean Fried Chicken if it was a person. HAHAHA.. Now, she loved it sooo much that she had fried chicken almost 2-3 times a week. And towards the end of our stay as we were scheduled to leave Korea, I kid you not, I think she ordered Korean Fried Chicken almost EVERYDAY!!! Yikes!!!! Good thing she is young!!

As our time to leave Korea was approaching, my daughter was almost in tears when she talked about her wonderful Korean Fried Chicken with green onions, saying how sad she was that she will not be able to order (and this is the other part she really loved, just picking up a phone and ordering chicken for delivery) her precious Korean Fried Chicken anymore…. I mean, really..talk about someone who loves food!!!?? I don’t think even I was that bad when I was a kid…hehehe

Anyway, about on my 3rd try, my Dakgangjeong recipe finally got my daughter’s seal of approval. And this is a gluten free version so it’s even more awesome. She liked it so much that she requested that I make this Korean Fried Chicken with Sweet Garlic Soy Glaze for her birthday dinner recently!  I was so very happy to make it for her….If you are a mom, you will understand the satisfaction and happiness you feel – there’s just nothing like seeing your family enjoy the food you cook. 🙂

BEST Korean Fried Chicken (Dakgangjeong 닭강정)

Serves 3                                Cooking Time: 1 hr                   Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

• 2 lb chicken wings or drummetts
• Seasoning for chicken
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 Tbs rice wine
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/8 tsp ginger powder
• Sweet Garlic Soy Glaze
  • 3 Tbs jin ganjang (Korean dark soy sauce) or gluten free Kikomman soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs sugar
  • 1 Tbs water
  • 2 Tbs rice wine or white wine
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp red pepper seeds or red pepper flakes
  • 4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
  • 3 dried red chilis (Japones chile, Oriental style chili peppers)
  • sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 1/2 cup corn starch
• Vegetable or Canola Oil for frying

1. Clean chicken wings by removing any excess fat. If using whole wings, cut at the joint so that you have 2 pieces. Also cut off the wing tip and discard. I made it easier for myself by buying just drummettes.

   

2. Put chicken wings in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, rice wine, ginger, garlic and onion powder. Massage the wings and leave for few minutes.

   

3. Heat vegetable or canola oil in a fryer pot or any heavy bottom pot. Oil should be at least 2 inches deep in the pot. Heat oil on high heat for about 8 minutes or until it reaches 325°F (160°C). If you don’t have a thermometer, you can also check by dropping couple crystals of sea salt or kosher salt. It should make a loud popping noise as it reaches the bottom. If it does not, then it’s not hot enough.

   

   **Personally, I don’t like electric fryers because they are hard to clean. I bought this Tramontina deep fryer pot recently and I really love it. The great thing is that you can use it as a regular pot if you need to because it has two lids. (No, this is not sponsored, but I just like it). I decided to fry it outside to avoid the smell taking over the house!

4. While oil is heating, make the glaze. Heat a small sauce pot or pan over medium high heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil and 1 tsp of vegetable oil and sauté dried red Japones chiles and garlic slivers until slightly brown and fragrant. About 30 seconds.

   

5. Add to garlic chili oil made in step 3, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, ginger, water and crushed red pepper flakes. Mix and bring to boil. Then simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside.

   

   We don’t need the sweet garlic soy sauce to be thick and syrupy because it will be mostly absorbed by the fried chicken. Set aside.

6. Dredge chicken wings in corn starch. An easy way to do this without getting corn starch all over your counter or your hands is to use a paper bag or plastic bag! Put corn starch in the bag and then add wings (5-6 pieces). Grab the top of bag with your hands and shake the bag (up and down).

   

   AND VOILA!!

   

7. When the oil is hot enough, drop the wings in the fryer.

   

   Do not add too many pieces (just enough to take up one layer of space in the pot) because the temperature will drop too much.

8. Fry wings for about 6-8 minutes or until light golden brown like so. DO NOT over brown since this is only our 1st fry.

   

   Take wings out of oil and let oil drain away buy either using a basket or letting them cool for few minutes on paper towel. Repeat step 8 and fry rest of chicken wings. Let them cool for few minutes.

   IMPORTANT – Before frying the wings the 2nd time, have either a bowl or frying pan ready next to the fryer so that you can toss the chicken wings with the sweet garlic soy glaze right when wings come out from the fryer.

9. Fry wings a 2nd time again at 325°F (160°C) for about 2-3 minutes this time. Until it becomes nicely golden brown.

   

10. After draining the oil from wings, immediately transfer the hot wings onto a bowl/pan, add glaze and toss. Use about 1 Tbs soy glaze for about 5 wings. Wings should absorb most of the sauce.

    

11. That’s it!! Serve when it’s hot!

JJ’s Tips

• Coating – for variation, mix potato starch or rice flour with corn starch. I actually tried all different combination and I did not find much of a difference in crispness. I actually liked corn starch the best in terms of flavor.
• Frying – it’s a pain to measure oil temperature as you fry. Just check once at the start but after that you need to learn how to do it by feel. If it browns too fast (less than 3-4 min) then it’s too hot. If it browns too slow (still pale after 4 min or so and also not bubbling enough) then oil is too cold, so raise the heat. It’s not a big disaster if the temp is not perfect. Just adjust as you go. If it browned too quickly in your 1st fry then use a little lower heat in your 2nd fry to cook chicken more thoroughly.

Serving

• Serve with green onion slivers, Korean pickled radish or pickles, and salad like cole slaw. And rice and kimchi 🙂
• If you don’t want the soy glaze, just season wings with a little more salt and then eat it plain without the glaze. This is really good too.
• For extra garlic flavor, fry some garlic separately and serve as garnish. Crispy garlic is always great!

Enjoy!!

XOXO,

JinJoo

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5 from 12 votes

Korean Fried Chicken (Dakgangjeong)

Crispy Korean Fried Chicken wings glazed with sweet spicy garlic soy sauce. Gluten free corn starch coating makes an extra crispy chicken.

Prep: 20 minutes minutes

Cook: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

serves: 8

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 lb chicken wings or drummetts
• ▢ 1 1/2 cup corn starch
• ▢ Vegetable or Canola Oil for frying

Seasoning for chicken

• ▢ 1/2 tsp Sea Salt (Trader Joe's)
• ▢ 1/4 tsp black pepper
• ▢ 1 Tbsp rice wine
• ▢ 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• ▢ 1/4 tsp onion powder
• ▢ 1/8 tsp ginger powder

Sweet Garlic Soy Glaze

• ▢ 3 Tbsp jin ganjang (Korean dark soy sauce)
• ▢ 2 Tbsp sugar
• ▢ 1 Tbsp water
• ▢ 2 Tbsp rice wine or white wine
• ▢ 1 tsp sesame oil
• ▢ 1 tsp vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 tsp chopped ginger
• ▢ 1 tsp red pepper seeds or red pepper flakes
• ▢ 4 cloves of garlic , sliced thin
• ▢ 3 dried red chilis (Japones chile, Oriental style chili peppers)
• ▢ sesame seeds (optional)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Clean chicken wings by removing any excess fat. If using whole wings, cut at the joint so that you have 2 pieces. Also cut off the wing tip and discard.
• Put chicken wings in a bowl and season with salt, pepper, rice wine, ginger, garlic and onion powder. Massage wings and leave for few minutes.
• Heat vegetable or canola oil in a fryer pot or any heavy bottom pot. Oil should be at least 2 inches deep in the pot. Heat oil on high heat for about 8 minutes or until it reaches 325°F (160°C). If you don’t have a thermometer, you can also check by dropping couple crystals of sea salt or kosher salt. It should make a loud popping noise as it reaches the bottom.
• While oil is heating, make the glaze. Heat a small sauce pot or pan over medium high heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil and 1 tsp of vegetable oil and sauté dried red Japones chiles and garlic slivers until slightly brown and fragrant. About 30 seconds.
• Add to chili oil, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, ginger, water and crushed red pepper flakes. Mix and bring to boil. Then simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside.
• Dredge chicken wings in corn starch.
• When the oil is hot enough, drop the wings in the fryer. Do not add too many pieces (just enough to take up one layer of space in the pot) because the temperature will drop too much.
• Fry wings for about 6-8 minutes or until light golden brown.
• Take wings out of oil and let oil drain away buy either using a basket or letting them cool for few minutes on paper towel. Repeat above steps and fry rest of chicken wings. Let them cool for few minutes.
• Before frying the wings the 2nd time, have either a bowl or frying pan ready next to the fryer so that you can toss the chicken wings with the sweet garlic soy glaze right when it comes out of the fryer.
• Fry the wings a second time again at 325°F (160°C) for about 2-3 minutes this time. Until it becomes nicely golden brown.
• After draining the oil from wings, immediately transfer the hot wings onto a bowl/pan, add glaze and toss. Use about 1 Tbs soy glaze for about 5 wings. Wings should absorb most of the sauce.
• Serve when warm!

Tips & Notes:

Serve with green onion slivers, Korean pickled radish or pickles, and salad like cole slaw. And rice and kimchi 🙂
Mix potato starch or rice flour with corn starch for different coating. I actually tried all different combinations and I did not find much of a difference in crispness. I actually liked corn starch the best in terms of flavor.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 264kcal (13%)| Carbohydrates: 27g (9%)| Protein: 12g (24%)| Fat: 10g (15%)| Saturated Fat: 3g (19%)| Cholesterol: 47mg (16%)| Sodium: 555mg (24%)| Potassium: 120mg (3%)| Sugar: 3g (3%)| Vitamin A: 175IU (4%)| Vitamin C: 0.9mg (1%)| Calcium: 11mg (1%)| Iron: 0.9mg (5%)

Author: JinJoo Lee

Course:Appetizer, Chicken, Main Course

Cuisine:Korean

Keyword:crispy, deep fried, sweet and salty

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