This Korean Fried Chicken recipe is simply irresistible coated in a crispy batter and dunked in a sweet, spicy sauce. Good stuff!
I have been obsessed with Korean Fried Chicken (the proper KFC) for the longest time. I first saw it a while ago on an American food show and I was instantly intrigued. I have always been a fan of good fried chicken but now you take that chicken and dunk it in a sweet and spicy sauce? Yes please!
I decided to try my hand at it a few days ago and let me tell you, this is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. I am a big fan of strong Asian flavours like soy and fish sauce and this mixed with rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger and chilli is just a match made in Heaven.
I searched the web for the perfect KFC and came across this incredibly informative post on Serious Eats which is one of my favourite food reference sites. If you ever want to see someone going to great lengths to find the perfect way to cook a specific recipe, Serious Eats is the only website you should be looking to. I took some of their ideas and combined it with my own to create my very own KFC recipe. The one idea I know works so well is using Vodka in a batter recipe. The vodka evaporates quickly leaving the batter crisp and delicious. I made my own sauce which I kind of did to my own tastes but man alive was it good!! Even C, my non-chicken-eating husband absolutely loved this and had a whopping 8 wings. Definitely the perfect recipe to make this weekend.
Korean Fried Chicken
Ingredients
for the chicken wings
- 8 chicken wings separated into flat pieces and drumettes.
- 1/2 cup corn flour
- 1/2 cup regular flour all purpose
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
for the batter
- 3/4 cup corn flour
- 1/3 cup flour all purpose
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup vodka
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- peanut oil/Canola oil for frying
for the sauce
- 1 cup soft brown sugar
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 cm piece fresh ginger finely grated
- 1 red chilli finely chopped
Instructions
- For the chicken wings, combine the cornflour, flour, baking powder and salt and add the chicken wings. Make sure the chicken wings are well covered in the flour mixture.
- Remove the chicken wings from the flour and shake off the excess. Place on a wire rack and in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the chicken wings to dry out.
- In the meantime, combine all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and allow to simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce has the consistency of maple syrup.
- Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a pot.
- For the batter, combine all the ingredients and mix together. The batter needs to be quite thin, almost like single cream.
- Dip the chicken wings in the batter and fry in the oil until crisp and golden. Chicken wings need around 8-10 minutes to cook.
- Remove the chicken wings from the oil and place in the sauce. Remove and serve with the remaining sauce.
More fried chicken recipes you will love:
The ultimate fried chicken
Fried chicken sandwich with creamy coleslaw
OMG! This is so good! Absolutely tasty and flavorful! The whole fam is obsessed with it, too! Glad I got to get all my needed ingredients in Karman Foods. I used a low-sodium soy sauce as an alternative and I love its lighter side.
The ingredients were a bit hard to find but nowadays Korean grocery stores have alot of options available.
I am just finding out today that vodka can be used to fry chicken. Fried chicken is one of my favorites and I make it often. I gotta admit my fried chicken isn’t bad but I don’t mind making it even better
Your recipe and pics of your fried chicken look so addictive. So I gotta try making this recipe. Can use additional seasonings like garlic and onion powder, chili powder, etc? Thanks for your response and thanx for sharing this awesome recipe
Korean food is my favourite. I tried your recipes and they are very tasty, the ingredients were a bit hard to find but nowadays asian grocery stores have alot of variities.
Those look absolutely delicious. You hooked me as soon as you mentioned dunking that crispy chicken in a sauce. I need to try this!
Thanks Farah! Let me know what you think once you’ve tried it.
Thanks Ami!
This recipe of yours looks so so much better than the KFC’s fried chicken!! That too with amazing sauce..your pics are making me drool and my mouth is watering!!
GAH! These wings look heavenly, Alida. I’m totally obsessing over that crispy coating… and the dipping sauce {who am I kidding?}! That’s it, I have to make these ASAP!
You MUST! I am so beyond obsessed with these.