Foodies,
For the TWEC ™ 3rd Champagne and Fried Chicken Night event which you can read about over in Wine Talk, I endeavored to make my first ever Korean Fried Chicken. Not just any mind you, this was a Korean Double Friend Chicken. No way I’m ever going back to a regular recipe again. 
KOREAN DOUBLE FRIED CHICKEN
- 3 pounds chicken pieces (Drumsticks, Wings, Breasts, Thighs)
- 2 TBSP Rice Wine Vinegar
- 2 tsp minced ginger root
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup rice cracker crumbs (blend rice crackers away in your blender to make this)
- 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- Oil for frying (I used a mix of Corn and Canola)
KDFC DIPPING SAUCE
- 3 TBSP fresh tomato puree (about 1 medium tomato)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 TBSP soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 habanero chili, minced
- 2 tsp liquid smoke
Marinate the chicken in the salt, pepper, ginger and vinegar and let it rest for a while.
While it’s doing that, blend away rice crackers in a blender until it becomes a fine crumbly powder. Mix this together with the flour, starch and bread crumbs. Put aside.
Make the dipping sauce by putting all the ingredient into a saucepan and bringing to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn off the heat and let it simmer away until cool.
When ready to fry the chicken, follow the steps below:
- Toss the chicken around in the marinade to make sure it is wet
- Put some breading mix into a bowl with cover, throw in the chicken pieces a few at a time and toss around to get a coating on the pieces. Repeat as needed to get all the pieces covered.
- Heat the oil in a deep pot to frying level which is about 190 C or 375 F
- Fry a few chicken pieces for 5 minutes in the pot. Do not overcrowd.
- Remove the chicken from the oil to a heatproof pan
- Add more breading mix to the bowl and immediately toss the just removed chicken again in the breading. You don’t want the chicken to cool when you do this step because you want the hot oil still clinging to it so the breading in turn will cling to the chicken again
- Put back into the hot oil and fry for 3 more minutes
- Repeat all these steps until all the chicken is done
The key to this process is the double frying and double breading technique. One pass through is not enough. You want to bread, fry, remove, bread again and fry again. Got it? Good. It’s not difficult and not messy at all if you’re organized in your kitchen. And you’ll notice that the overall cooking time is actually less overall than traditional fried chicken which is usually done for 15 minutes at 350 F. Just a bit higher heat and some good organized technique and those two chumps Col. Sanders and Popeye have got nothing on you. Once the chicken is done, you have the option of either tossing it in the sauce to coat it, drizzle it over, or just serve it on the side. Completely up to you. Enjoy.
