Korean Fried Chicken
Regular fried chicken is great. Korean fried chicken is a religious experience. I don't say this lightly — I grew up on Polish schabowy, which I consider one of the finest breaded-and-fried foods on Earth. But Korean fried chicken exists on a different plane. The double-fry technique creates a coating so impossibly crispy that it stays crunchy under a thick layer of sticky, spicy-sweet gochujang glaze. Regular fried chicken goes soggy under sauce in about 90 seconds. Korean fried chicken laughs in the face of sauce. It's engineering as much as cooking.
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 2 pounds chicken wings or drumettes
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Salt and pepper
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the Gochujang Glaze
- 3 tablespoons gochujang
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Sesame seeds and sliced green onions for topping
Method
Coat the Chicken
- Pat chicken completely dry — moisture is the enemy of crunch. Mix cornstarch, flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. The baking powder is the secret: it reacts with the oil and creates tiny bubbles in the coating that make it extra crispy and airy. Toss the chicken in the coating until every piece is thoroughly covered.
Double-Fry
- Heat oil to 160C / 325F. Fry chicken in batches for 8-10 minutes until cooked through but only lightly golden. Remove and rest on a rack for 10 minutes. This rest is critical — steam escapes from the coating, and when it hits the hot oil again, the surface fries up crispier than a single fry could ever achieve.
- Heat oil to 190C / 375F. Fry the chicken again for 3-4 minutes until deep golden and shatteringly crispy. The coating should audibly crunch when you squeeze a piece. If it doesn't crunch, give it another minute. This double-fry method is the same technique I use for General Tso's and dragon chicken — it's the universal secret to fried food that stays crispy under sauce.
Make the Glaze
- While chicken rests between fries, combine gochujang, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and garlic in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens and gets glossy. It should coat a spoon and drip slowly. Too thin = it slides off the chicken. Too thick = it clumps instead of coating.
Toss and Serve
- Toss the hot, crispy chicken in the glaze. Work fast — every second the chicken sits in sauce, the coating softens slightly. Plate immediately. Shower with sesame seeds and sliced green onions. Serve with pickled radish (or Polish pickled cucumbers — the tangy crunch is the perfect counterpoint to the rich, sticky chicken).