History of Korean Fried Chicken
<photo above> Quite contrary to what many Westerns believe, Korean fried chicken sold in South Korea is not all covered in red, spicy sauce. Here is a photo of Korean fried chicken sold at a popular Korean pub, Devil’s Door, known for their small batch beer.
One thing I can tell you about the South Korean food scene is that it is extremely sensitive to new trends. For a couple of years now, eating anything with “mala” spice was all the craze. Currently, South Korea is going strong with the Tanghulu phase—so it is very easy to see street vendors and dessert shops selling various rock-sugar-coated fruit on bamboo skewers. A few years ago, bread that could be mistaken as a whole roasted sweet potato #고구마빵 or a whole roasted potato #감자빵 was considered trendy. Once you bite into these breads, of course, you quickly find out that they are just breads decorated to look like these roasted vegetables (side note: these breads usually have a slightly chewy exterior and creamy + savory mashed potato-like fillings inside)!
However, there is one trendy food that seems to never seems to lose its hype…and that’s Korean Fried Chicken. South Koreans’ relationship with fried chicken is often so deep and complex that news reports related to consumer uproar and public anger when popular franchises raise their prices or change the country of origin of their most important ingredient, chicken, can be easily found on Naver, South Korea’s version of Google, at least a couple of times a year.
Korean Fried Chicken is often distinguished from American-style fried chicken with 1) extra-crispy exterior coming from the usage of potato starch 2) flavors that are distinctively Korean (e.g., garlicky + spicy sauce/ gochujang (AKA: Korean fermented pepper paste) + a bit of sweetness).
<photo above> photo of Korean Fried Chicken from famous KyoChon chicken. Pickled daikon cubes are always served with the chicken (with no extra cost added). Many Korean people claim that these pickled daikon cubes are essential to their Korean Fried Chicken meal— since their slightly sweet and acidic, vegetablely existance helps you “reset” your stomach & works as a palate cleanser.
Often consumed as a drinking/ late-night snack with friends and family, Korean Fried Chicken is so often paired with an ice-cold beer that there’s even a term (Chi-meak) 치맥 referring to this food/drink combination.
What might be surprising, however, is that Korean Fried Chicken did not exist before the Korean War occurred and Americans came to intervene. This means it was merely ~60 years ago when the famous Korean Fried Chicken was born.
Similar to Korean Army Stew, Korean Fried Chicken is something of a fusion combining American and Korean ingredients. According to KBS2 아침 궁금하닭! 양념치킨, a documentary that explores the history of Korean Fried Chicken, Koreans mostly steamed, braised, and cooked chicken in liquids before the Korean War. However, after the war began, more Koreans started hearing about this delicious American chicken dish where chicken parts are cut up then deep-fried until crispy —due to the increasingly close interactions between Koreans and American soldiers who were sent over to help fight the war.
South Korea’s very first fried chicken restaurant was founded by Mr. Yoo, who was already very familiar with American-style fried chicken after receiving his education in the States in 1975. According to Mr. Yoo (유석호), in 1977 (the year he decided to open his business), Korean restaurants specializing in whole rotisserie chicken were popular (side note: often targeted as a health-conscious store/restaurant with interesting store names including words like “nutrition” (e.g., 영양센터, which is literately translated as "nutrition center” You can still go visit 영양센터 in Myeongdong)). However, not a single restaurant that sells deep-fried parts of a chicken existed yet. So he opened one up—inside a department store building.
Was his business successful? YES.
Soon, other restaurants specializing in fried chicken started entering the market. Pelicana chicken and Mexicana chicken made their entrance as well as overseas giants like KFC (Yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken) entered the South Korean market in the mid-1980s. As competition grew, the quest to develop interesting sauces and flavors became a huge focus for many of these restaurants—for example, KyoChon chicken saw huge success with its signature soy garlic chicken + lightly breaded exterior in the 90s.
In an interview with Chef Yoon (윤종계) who is credited for inventing the red, spicy, and sweet Korean Fried Chicken sauce known as yangnyeom chicken sauce (seems to be the popular sauce used by many restaurants serving Korean Fried Chicken in the States), he stated that he created this sauce after trying to find ways to make fried chicken still tasty even after it’s cooled off. Being a Korean native, Chef Yoon automatically thought of kimchi, and how the red sauce mixture adds flavor. He stated it took about 6 months to create the sauce, and the crucial, game-changing ingredient is Korean corn syrup known as mul-yeot (물엿). Yangnyeon (양념) simply means spice mix in Korean.
Now, I know the idea of adding corn syrup can be a real turn-off to many. Of course, you can substitute it with agave syrup, honey, or even just plain old sugar to get the thicker consistency for the sauce…but the end result will not be as “authentic.” Sorry!! To quote one of my favorite Korean food bloggers, Maangchi, in her cookbook Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking, “when refining the recipe, at first I tried not to use corn syrup or ketchup, replacing them with more wholesome, less sugary ingredients, but I was never satisfied with the result. To get the authentic taste, corn or rice syrup and ketchup are essential.”
Please do buy Korean-style corn syrup to make this recipe if you decide to use corn syrup. American-style corn syrup you find in a grocery aisle (e.g., Karo) often has some molasses-like flavor included in it, which then clashes with Korean flavors. You should be able to find mul-yeot (물엿) easily in any Asian grocery store that sells some Korean ingredients but you can also find them on other e-commerce sites like Amazon.
<photo> My homemade + “Americanized” version of Korean fried chicken using the classic yangyeon (양념) sauce. This version visually looks similar to Korean dak-gang-jeong (닭강정) due to my choice to use small pieces of boneless chicken cut up into bite sizes. Dak-gang-jeong (닭강정) is a variation of Korean fried chicken that is widely accepted as banchan (side dishes to eat with rice), so sometimes you can buy them at your local banchan store. Often, my mother would serve me dak-gang-jeong (닭강정) cold, straight from a fridge…which I sometimes didn’t enjoy. Later, I realized many people eat Korean dak-gang-jeong (닭강정) either at a room temperature or cold—like any other regular banchan.
*The hyperlinks embedded in the article are NOT SPONSORED content; they are ONLY meant to help you visualize what these very popular dishes may look like in South Korea.