There's a reason why these crunchy, savory bites of fried chicken have gone viral! Korean fried chicken is double-fried and covered in a delectable, sticky gochujang sauce packed with flavor.
What makes this fried chicken Korean? These bites of chicken thighs are double-fried to keep the insides juicy and the outside crunchy. The chicken is then tossed in a sweet and savory gochujang sauce that lends a bit of a kick. Korean fried chicken is an extremely popular snack and can even be found served at street stands in Korea!
This dish is great served with a cold glass of beer or wrapped in a tortilla to make Korean Fried Chicken Tacos. If you're looking for a vegetarian version, try my Gochujang Baked Tofu (Vegan)!
What is double-frying?
Double-frying is exactly what its name indicates. The chicken is first fried in less crowded batches to ensure that the entire surface area is evenly fried. Then the chicken is placed in hot oil again to allow any extra moisture to evaporate and give each bite the perfect crunch. I'd recommend double-frying anytime you're making a fried chicken recipe!
Salting the chicken ahead of time
If there's anything I've learned from reading Samin Nosrat's book Salt Fat Acid Heat - it's to salt your meat ahead of time - especially chicken. The science behind salting poultry ahead of time is that it allows the meat to retain more flavor and moisture. So if you're deciding to make this dish for lunch, prep your chicken in the morning. It's never too late to salt your chicken. I try to give it at least 3 hours before I move onto the next steps.
Ingredients
- Chicken thigh or chicken breast: If using chicken thigh (which is a juicier cut), buy the boneless, skinless version
- Rice wine or Shaoxing wine
- Garlic, ginger, salt, pepper: For the rest of the marinade
- Cornstarch: For the coating; however, if you want a lighter coating, you can use potato starch too which I did with my Chinese Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings.
- Neutral oil: For frying, you'll want to use a neutral flavored oil such as canola, sunflower, vegetable or avocado with a high smoke point.
For the gochujang sauce:
- Soy sauce
- Rice vinegar
- Gochujang: Korean red pepper paste is a necessity for this sauce and it's hard to provide an appropriate sub. You can purchase this at any Asian grocery store in their condiments aisle or online.
- Honey
- Brown sugar
- Sesame oil
- Garlic
- Sesame seeds (optional)
- Chopped scallions (optional)
Instructions
- Slice chicken into 1 inch cubes.
- See my section on Salting Chicken Early. If possible, salt your chicken earlier in the day. If not, follow the rest of the recipe as is. It'll still be delicious.
- Marinade the chicken in salt (only if you didn't salt the chicken beforehand. If you salted as per step 2, don't add more salt), pepper, rice wine, garlic, and ginger. Let sit for around 30 minutes.
- Coat each piece in cornstarch.
- Heat oil to around 350 F/175 C. If you don't have a thermometer, you can check by sticking a wooden stick straight into oil and seeing if bubbles start to appear around the chopstick.
- Fry the chicken in batches so you're not overcrowding. Each batch should take around 3 minutes to fry and become golden brown. Remove batch from oil and let sit on a paper towel to soak up the excess oils.
- Let the oil heat back up between each batch since the removing of the chicken tends to bring the temperature back down.
- After each batch has gone through a first frying, place the chicken back in for a second frying. This should take around another 2-3 minutes.
- Make the gochujang sauce by mixing gochujang, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Heat up in a pan and stir until the mixture starts to thicken and bubble.
- Toss fried chicken in the sauce and serve up with sesame seeds and chopped scallions.
📖 Recipe
Korean Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast or chicken thigh
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- ½ cup cornstarch (or potato starch)
Gochujang Sauce
- 1 tablespoon gochujang
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Slice chicken into 1 inch cubes.
- See my section on Salting Chicken Early. If possible, salt your chicken earlier in the day. If not, follow the rest of the recipe as is. It'll still be delicious.
- Marinade the chicken in salt (only if you didn't salt the chicken beforehand. If you salted as per step 2, don't add more salt), pepper, rice wine, garlic, and ginger. Let sit for around 30 minutes.
- Coat each piece in cornstarch.
- Heat oil to around 350°F / 177°C. If you don't have a thermometer, you can check by sticking a wooden stick straight into oil and seeing if bubbles start to appear around the chopstick.
- Fry the chicken in batches so you're not overcrowding. Each batch should take around 3 minutes to fry and become golden brown. Remove batch from oil and let sit on a paper towel to soak up the excess oils.
- Let the oil heat back up between each batch since the removing of the chicken tends to bring the temperature back down.
- After each batch has gone through a first frying, place the chicken back in for a second frying. This should take around another 2-3 minutes.
- Make the gochujang sauce by mixing gochujang, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Heat up in a pan and stir until the mixture starts to thicken and bubble.
- Toss fried chicken in sauce. Serve with chopped scallions and toasted white sesame seeds!
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