Korean Fried Chicken
Updated Jan. 22, 2024

- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1small yellow onion, coarsely grated
- 2cloves garlic, minced
- ½teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for coating
- ¼teaspoon black pepper, plus more for coating
- 8 to 10boneless, skinless chicken thighs, quartered, or 24 wings
- 3tablespoons gochujang paste
- 3tablespoons ketchup
- ¼cup granulated sugar
- 2tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, more for garnish
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Oil for deep frying
- ½cup all-purpose flour
- ⅔cup cornstarch
Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium-size bowl, combine grated onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Add chicken and toss to coat well. Cover and set aside to marinate for about 1 hour.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, stir together chili paste, ketchup, sugar, sesame seeds and lemon juice. Taste and adjust flavors to get a spicy-sweet-tangy finish. Set aside.
- Step 3
Pour oil into a large heavy pot to a depth of 1½ inches. Heat to 350 degrees. Combine flour and cornstarch in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Step 4
Working in batches to avoid crowding, lift chicken from marinade, dredge lightly in seasoned flour and cornstarch, gently drop into oil and fry for 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown and crisp. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining chicken, checking oil temperature between batches.
- Step 5
For wings only, when all pieces are done, increase oil temperature to 375 degrees and refry in batches for 30 to 60 seconds, until very crisp. Drain once more on paper towels. While chicken is still hot, brush all pieces thickly with chili sauce. Serve hot, sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Private Notes
Comments
Excellent Korean Fried Chicken recipe and I’m Korean-American. My only suggestion is in the chili sauce, It was a little too sweet and a little too ‘ketchupy.’ I also suggest using the sauce for dipping rather brushing it on. The chicken will stays crispier. I suggest: 1/4 cup gochuchung 2 Tbs ketchup 1 Tbs sugar 2 Tbs sesame seed juice of 1/2 of a lemon
Delicious as the other reviewers have noted. The sauce on its own is a simple revelation. In lieu of grating the onions, which is pure misery, I cut it into smaller pieces and then tossed it and the garlic/salt/pepper in the food processor and pulsed/scraped down for about 1 minute until it was a fine moist consistency. Definitely a make again.
I've cooked a lot of different Korean Fried Chicken recipes over the last couple years, and I was surprised this one didn't double-fry the chicken. You gotta do that to get the crispiest coating. And the sauce would benefit from like 4-6 cloves of fresh minced garlic.
1. Time estimate doesn’t include hour of marinating 2. This recipe requires batch cooking, I had to do 3 batches, hence 3x the cooking time. Took over 1.5 hours in total, for a weeknight, this was not a wise meal choice. Cooker, beware!
One that we will definitely cook again
We enjoyed this, but I’d skip the marinading step completely. We tried some of the fried chicken without sauce to see what it added, and we couldn’t taste the onion or garlic at all. Next time, we’ll just salt it.