leanhfood: Sweet and Spicy TongDak

Yangmyeom tongdak (양념 통닭) must be the most popular snack food in Korea. There are many restaurants that offer free delivery service to your home with no tipping. Many companies deliver their food until midnight, and this fried chicken is always a popular choice in Korea. Whenever people have to be up late into the night watching the Olympics, World Cup, or other big events, the fried chicken restaurants will be very busy. lol This chicken is nicely battered and fried with a slightly sweet and spicy sauce. Try it someday.

Yield: 2-3 Servings

Short Korean Lesson

ChinGu (친구) = Friend
ChinGuDeul (친구들) = Friends

Video Instructions

Main Ingredients

2 lb Chicken (About ½ Chicken)
⅛ Cup Milk
¼ tsp Salt
⅛ tsp Black Pepper
1 Pinch Ginger Powder (Optional)

Batter Ingredients

¼ Cup Potato Starch or Cornstarch
¼ Cup Frying Mix or Flour
½ Tbsp Korean Curry Powder
2 Pinches Salt
2 Pinches Black Pepper

Sauce Ingredients

¼ Cup Ketchup
3 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste
2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Minced Onion
½ Tbsp Soy Sauce
½ Tbsp Minced Garlic
½ Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Directions

Combine 2 pounds of chicken, ⅛ cup of milk, ¼ tsp of salt, ⅛ tsp of black pepper, and 1 pinch of ginger powder (optional) in a bowl. Marinate it for about 10 minutes. This step (especially the milk) helps to reduce some of the bad chicken flavor.

If you don’t want to use milk to get rid of bad chicken flavor, here is another way to marinate the chicken; mix the chicken with 1 tsp of minced garlic, ¼ tsp of salt, ⅛ tsp of black pepper, and 1 pinch of ginger powder (optional). Add 2 Tbsp of water or cooking wine for some moisture.

To coat the chicken, mix the following in a big plastic bag: ¼ cup of potato starch or cornstarch, ¼ cup frying mix, ½ Tbsp of Korean curry powder, 2 pinches of salt, and 2 pinches of black pepper. Shake the bag to mix everything together.

Add all of the marinated chicken to the flour mix and shake the bag: so the chicken will be evenly covered with the powder.

Take out the chicken from the bag and set the pieces aside while the oil is heating. You will have some leftover flour mixture in the bag; save it for later. In this step, pour the cooking oil in a deep frying pan and heat it on high.

By the time, the oil becomes hot, the flour coating of the chicken will become soggy.

Coat each piece of chicken again with the remaining flour mixture right before frying them.

Drop a little piece of the flour mixture to the heated oil, if it floats immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry the chicken. Carefully put the chicken into the oil.

Fry the chicken on high for several minutes (8 to 10 minutes) until the pieces become light brown. We will fry them twice, so you don’t have to fry them too long in this step. Take out the chicken, drain the oil, and set the pieces on a kitchen towel.

For the second frying, fry the chicken in hot oil again for several minutes (5 minutes) until they become golden brown. This time, make sure that the chicken is completely cooked. You can take out one piece and cut it in half with a knife to check if it is cooked.

Meanwhile, add all of the sauce ingredients together in a pan, except for the sesame seeds: ¼ cup ketchup, 3 Tbsp red pepper paste, 2 Tbsp corn syrup, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp minced onion, ½ Tbsp soy sauce, ½ Tbsp minced garlic, and ½ Tbsp cooking oil. Cook it on medium. You can use sugar instead of the corn syrup, and you can reduce the amount of red pepper paste if you do not like spicy food.

Once the sauce starts to bubble, cook it for one more minute. The sauce amount is enough for only half of the chicken, so mix in half of the fried chicken into the sauce. Turn off the heat and cover the chicken with the sauce. If you want to season all of the chicken, double the sauce recipe.