Korean Style Crispy Chicken

This recipe is to die for. My daughter is a K-pop and Korean TV fan and now we are into trying Korean food. She found this recipe and we have been having it regularly ever since. Serve with egg fried rice and stir fried vegetables and its a real winner. (A vegetarian friend of ours substituted the chicken for cauliflower and said that it worked really well too).

For the Chicken you will need:

3/4 Chicken Breasts diced.

2 eggs

1 cup of cornflour

vegetable oil for frying

For the Sauce you will need:

1/4 cup of dark brown sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce (there are gluten free varieties please check the label)

1/4 cup honey

3 tbsp butter

salt & pepper

1 tbsp rice vinegar (or substitute for cider vinegar)

1 tbsp sesame seed oil

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp ginger

2 tbsp chilli paste or to taste (gochujang if you’re not worried about making it gluten free, otherwise try chipotole or something similar but check the ingredients list )

For the Garnish you will need:

thinly sliced spring onions

toasted sesame seeds - organic taste the best

thinly sliced red chilis (optional)

Prepare all the ingredients at the beginning. Once you get cooking you will want to move quickly through the stages to keep the chicken crispy. Once your chicken is cooked through you can set it aside while you prepare the sauce. Be sure to have your rice & veg dishes all ready before you mix the chicken in with the sauce because it is almost ready at that point.

Method:

Toss the chicken in the beaten egg, then dredge through the cornflour to coat it.

Add about 1 inch of vegetable oil to a heavy bottomed pan and heat to hot. Add the chicken to the pan and fry off in batches, don’t make the batches too large as this will drop the temperature of the oil too much. Keep the batches small and cook until a light golden brown. About 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Transfer the chicken to a paper towel lined plate and keep frying off the batches until all the chicken is cooked. I find that it is best to coat the chicken in the cornflour just before you fry each batch as it can soak in and you don’t get the same crispiness if it is left to stand. This is the longest part of the preparation. When you have fried all of the chicken, reheat the oil to hot, (sizzling) and then deep fry the chicken again in a single batch for a minute or two, This is double frying and I’m told its the Korean way. (If you aren’t too keen on the deep frying I have also had success shallow frying the chicken in sesame seed oil in a wok, it works very well but the chicken won’t be as crispy - but it is a little bit more healthy.)

Once all your chicken is cooked you can move on to preparing the sauce.

Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the crushed garlic and freshly grated ginger and cook for about 30 seconds just to get the aroma going. Stir in the brown sugar and honey and cook for another minute until the sugar is dissolved. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame seed oil and chilli sauce and stir. Cook for about 30 seconds. Then add the chicken and toss well into the sauce. Don’t overcook the chicken at this point or you will lose the crispiness of the chicken if you leave it in the pan too long. Toss is a few toasted sesame seeds. Serve the chicken with your side dishes and garnish with thinly sliced spring onions.

Try and eat with chopsticks. It’s fun!

Enjoy.

Christine McKay31 May 2021