Korean Spicy Fried Chicken - a tingle on your tongue

Deep fried chicken fillets in a spicy Korean Gochujang sauce

Korean Spicy Fried Chicken

Tender strips of chicken, coated in seasoned flour which puffs up into a crispy batter when deep fried, then warmed with a spicy Korean chilli and salty sauce – the definition of yummy.

The sauce uses gochujang paste, which is a Korean staple of fermented rice, chillies, soybeans and other pungent edibles. It’s lovely and gives the genuine smoky taste and deep fermented flavour. It keeps ages in the fridge and can be used in a lot of recipes. My son gave me a tub of it for Mother’s Day – an unusual but very thoughtful present; also a big hint.

I had a good look for recipes and have slightly adapted one from Nicky at Kitchen Sanctuary for this dish, she has some gorgeous, tasty-looking and speedy recipes to offer, thanks Nicky.

So, this is what I made for him, street food from Seoul.
 
Serves 4               Timings:  2 hours (or more to marinade), 30 minutes to cook

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into strips
• Vegetable oil for the deep frying – using either a deep fryer or a large pan with a good depth of oil
• For the marinade: 250ml buttermilk mixed with:  ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon white pepper, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder
• For the batter coating:  180g plain flour mixed with: ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon celery salt, ½ teaspoon powdered mustard, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, salt and black pepper
• For the sauce: 2 tablespoons gochujang paste (available on line and from Korean/Eastern grocers), 2 tablespoons runny honey, 4 tablespoons brown sugar, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 6 tablespoons orange juice, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 2 cloves garlic crushed with salt, 2cm fresh ginger, peeled and cut very fine.
• Topping:  bunch fresh spring onions chopped fine, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds.

 
Mix the marinade ingredients with the cut-up chicken and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Make the sauce by putting all the ingredients in a small pan and warming through, mixing well as the sugar and honey dissolve.  Taste and add more soy or orange juice as you like. You are looking for a thin sweet, sour, salty, spicy coating sauce.  Let it cool down and leave while the chicken marinates as this will also intensify the garlic and ginger flavours.

When you are ready to cook, first heat up your oven to 170°C. Mix the flour and batter ingredients together in a deep dish. Take the strips of chicken out of the marinade and coat well with the flour, putting each strip onto a plate or baking tray when done. I found you have to coat each strip twice as they are quite moist from the buttermilk and the moisture leaks through the first coating quite quickly. It’s the depth of flour on the chicken strip that makes the lovely crispy batter so it’s worth double dipping.

Heat up the oil in the deep fryer or pan.  Start to warm up the sauce now too in a large pan.

Fry the chicken strips in the hot oil for only a few minutes, turning in the pan. Don’t put too many in the pan at once or the oil will cool down too much, so fry a few at a time and keep the completed ones warm in the oven on a baking tray.

When they are all done, tip them into the pan with the sauce and stir quickly to coat. Sprinkle with the chopped onions and sesame seeds.

Serve with plain rice and maybe spicy pak choi or other oriental vegetable.
 
Credit to Nicky Corbishley at Kitchen Sanctuary.com