Korean Fried Chicken- The new generation of KFC!

So these past couple of months I have been obsessed with Korean Fried Chicken, I call it the next generation of KFC and the real KFC. Kentucky Fried Chicken ain't got nothing on Korean Fried Chicken! So today I thought I would try to do-it-myself Korean Fried Chicken at home. I will be trying out Maangchi's recipe today, she has a whole bunch of Korean recipes on her blog. Here is the link to her recipe [here]

But for lazy man purposes I'll write it here too!

Ingredients

• ~1.6kg of chicken wings
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
• 1 tsp of minced ginger
• 2/3 cup potato starch or corn starch
• 1/3 cup peanuts (optional)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 to 4 large red chilli peppers, seeded, cut crosswire into 1/3 inch pieces (optional)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice syrup or corn syrup
• 1 Tbsp of white vinegar
• 1 Tbsp of mustard (optional)
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds
• Grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or peanut oil 

Directions

1. Cut off the tip of each wing and chop the wing in half. After this is done you should have about 3 pounds of chicken, with 24 to 26 pieces.

2. Put the chicken in a bowl and mix with salt, ginger, and ground black pepper by hand.

 I just bought a pack of 600g of boneless chicken thighs to do this, so for the rest of the recipe I have roughly halved everything in the ingredients. 

3. Put 2/3 cup potato starch in a bowl and dip each wing in the powder to coat it, one by one. Squeeze each wing to press the coating to it tightly. (I used corn starch)

To make the sweet spicy sauce:

 The ingredients to make the sauce above.

4. Heat a large non-stick skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons cooking oil, minced garlic, and the dried red chili pepper.

5. Stir with a wooden spoon until fragrant for about 30 seconds.

6. Add soy sauce, rice syrup, vinegar, and mustard sauce (optional). Stir with a wooden spoon and let it bubble for a few minutes.

7. Add the brown sugar and continue stirring. Remove from the heat. Set aside.

To fry the chicken: 

8. Put 4 cups of cooking oil in a frying pan or pot and heat it up for 7 to 8 minutes over  high heat.
See if the oil’s ready by dipping a test wing into it. If the oil bubbles, it’s hot enough to start frying.

9. Slide the coated wings one by one into the hot oil and cook for about 12 to 13 minutes, turning over a few times with tongs.

10. Take the wings out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer. Turn off the heat, and let the wings sit for a few minutes.

11. Reheat the oil and fry the wings again for another 12 to 15 minutes until they all look golden brown and feel super crunchy through the tongs. 

Ok, here we go, my frying of the chicken was a flop! 

 Hardly any of the batter stuck to the chicken, and it just became a soggy, greasy mess! I was so upset! 

Thankfully my flatmate was there with me and I like to think of her as the frying queen as she likes frying things and even makes her own chips! 

She told me when her chips turned out soggy like my chicken did, it was because I didn't have the oil hot enough and the oil I used was too old. 

Taking her advice, I used my last batch of chicken (as I used 2/3 of the chicken I prepared already) and made sure I properly squeezed the corn starch into the chicken before putting the chicken in a fresh batch of oil on high heat. 

The results were muuuuuch better! Who needs Captain Caveman to save the day when the Frying Queen is about! Slewwww.

 Making the sauce was very easy and only took about 2 minutes to fix up. 

I served my KFC with a side of rice of course as I am a proud rice bucket. 

Ok, I would like to take this opportunity, while we are on the subject, to make a quick prayer. 

I would like to pray for the good crop of rice every day. AMEN. 

I really enjoyed the sauce! And it was quick to throw together as well. The fried chicken on the other hand was over done and the batter was too hard. Maybe I fried it for too long, this batter defo needs a take 2 on it to perfect it. I felt like the chicken inside was not juicy either as it should be. There was no marinating involved though, and we all know the key to a good piece of meat is a good marinade!

I'll stick to my local restaurant, On the Bap, for Korean Fried Chicken for now until I get this recipe right!