SAVEUR Korean Fried Chicken–Recipe Test

Have you ever come across a recipe and wondered how it would turn out?  But…you don’t really have the full motivation to try it.  I’ll call you “efficient” in waiting for a good friend to make it and then report their findings.  🙂 

A few weeks ago in my google reader My Geek shared an article with me from Saveur…Korean Fried Chicken.  Good morning!!  You have my attention.  I love all things Korean (and so should you!), I loved Fried…there, I’ve said it, and I love Chicken.  Mostly because there are so many ways it can go wrong that when it goes right, it’s really right.  Am I right?  (Ok, that was probably too much)

Saveur is a great place for recipes.  They do require a little more work at times or more sophisticated ingredients, but totally worth the results.  Gordon Ramsay pronounces it “Sah-Vare” and that’s what I’m going with…Saveur. 

I tried this recipe over the weekend as an appetizer of a larger Asian meal that we shared at the Woo’s house.  More on THAT dinner in a few days.  It was very easy to make the sauce, which is really the star.

The “fried chicken” is actually a wing recipe.  So these are Asian-kicked chicken wings.  Check out my cook’s notes below the pictures.

I have the ingredients I used pictured here, but I would still recommend printing the original recipe in the link above.  A shout out to my friend, Tara V who always comes to my rescue.  Me: “Tara, do you have any gojujang, Korean chili paste”.  Tara:  “Yes, I have a whole jar, it’s all yours!”  She’s a much better friend than me.  I would have said, “OH! Because I’m Korean you think I’d have this fermented chili paste…well, yes, I do and it’s all yours.”

Above is the version suggested by my friend from Burma.  She was a little skeptical that it wouldn’t work tossed on the wings as suggested by Saveur Magazine.  Ok.  What do they know?  🙂

Here’s the final version of the Korean Fried Chicken.  This was really, really good and I would recommend making these just as written in the recipe or with notes below.

Cook’s Notes:

• We seasoned the wings with salt, pepper and chinese five spice (Excellent palate, Matt P by the way)
• The flour and cornstarch and water mixture makes a batter that you coat on the wings.  These go in the oil.  This actually turns out more tempura-ish, but it was still very good.
• We did not measure the heat of the oil AND we only did one fry on them, so they were kind of pale, BUT the next day they crisped up and browned up just perfect on a reheat/bake of them (unsauced)
• TIPS for Taking these to a football party:  I would do the frying in batches the day before.  Get them cooked through, but the coating not all the way perfectly brown.  Cool and cover in the refrigerator.  Day of the party, or better yet AT the party, tray up and bake until golden and warm again.  Toss in the sauce just before serving OR serve sauce on side OR you can toss in the sauce and then reheat/bake and the sauce gets really into the coating and looks really great.
• My VEGGIE friends, anything you’ve had in tempura batter and liked (sweet potato slices, green beans, firm tofu, shoelaces, whatever!) fry it up and try it in this sauce.  Tell me how it went.  I can’t wait to hear.  🙂

These are more or less just wings.  If you have a food processor and know how to operate it, in the very least just buy wings and toss in your own homemade Korean sauce.  Get crazy!  Tell Buffalo you’ve had enough and it’s time to span the globe!  Let me know how they turn out.

Thank you to RETROSPECTIVE for adding me to your blogroll.  You have such a strong following already, so I am grateful for your mentioning me.  I hope my 5 readers will add you to their reader right now and be moved to keep writing ANYTHING as I am when I read your stories.  Lastly, Old-Fashioned Man, thank you for the creative common license language, it was simple to add and I really appreciate the time you’ve taken in giving me tips and tricks.