I realised that I didn’t have a very basic Korean fried chicken recipe, just lots of different versions with different sauces.
So here is your base recipe, which you can then add the sauce of your choice to.
I use wings for this as I find the drumsticks too big for this. In Korea the chicken seems to be much smaller, so drumsticks aren’t insanely big.
If you get wings with both tip and base part, cut them in half so you have small, pieces that evenly fries.
Recipe for 10 wing pieces (so 5 full wings)
– 5 full wings cut separated at the joint.
– 4 tbs Soju or mirin
– 4 cloves of garlic minced
– 1/2 tsp ginger minced
– 2 tsp curry powder
– salt and pepper
For the batter:
– 1 cup Korean fried chicken flour (or mix half/half flour and potato starch, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder)
– 1 cup water
– 1/2 cup of potato starch
Marinate the chicken for at least 1 hour, up to overnight. The soju/mirin not only makes the chicken tender but it also gets rid of that chicken-y smell.
Make the batter, set aside.
Heat the oil (I use vegetable oil), I don’t have a deep fat fryer, just a thermometer so I can keep an eye on the temp.
Ideally the first fry will be done between 170-180C.
Squeeze moisture out of each wing witch kitchen towel. Then cover each wing with potato starch.
Dip in the batter, then quickly roll it back in the potato starch, this will give the chicken it’s craggly skin.
Once the oil is hot enough, time to fry the chicken.
Cook in batches otherwise the temp drops too quickly.
Fry for 8 mins then put on a plate with kitchen towel. I prefer this over a wire rack as the paper towel soaks up excess oil much better.
Fry until all wings had their first fry.
Let the oil get to 190-200C for the second fry.
Now you can add the lot in one go, fry for 1 min.
Let it cool on more kitchen towel.
Make your sauce of choice (check out the other fried chicken recipes for sauce ideas) and either brush each wing with a pastry brush or toss them in the sauce.
Serve with beer, an absolute must!
