Korea (post-Korean-War invention)
Korean Fried Chicken
Twice-fried, glass-thin crust, glossed in soy-garlic or gochujang — the Korean answer to American fried chicken, eaten with pickled radish and beer.
Two fries, thin crust.
American fried chicken wants a thick, craggy crust; Korean fried chicken wants a thin, glass-like one. The technique is a double-fry — once at low heat to cook the meat through, once at high heat to seize and shatter the crust. The interval lets steam escape and the coating dehydrates, which is what makes the surface stay crisp under a wet sauce.
4 · Plate
Korea (post-Korean-War invention)
Korean Fried Chicken
Twice-fried, glass-thin crust, glossed in soy-garlic or gochujang — the Korean answer to American fried chicken, eaten with pickled radish and beer.
A modern Korean dish. American servicemen during and after the Korean War (1950–53) brought fried chicken with them; Korean cooks took it, lightened the batter, double-fried it, and added the glaze — and by the 1970s yangnyeom-chikin (sweet-spicy glazed) had been invented at Myungrang Hot Dog’s predecessor and spread to every Korean neighbourhood.
The two canonical glazes split the menu: yangnyeom (gochujang-based, sweet-spicy, fluorescent red) and ganjang (soy-garlic, glossy brown). Most chimaek shops serve a banban — half-half — so the table doesn’t have to choose. The chicken, in either case, is brittle to the bite and warm-juicy on the inside; if your sauce has fogged the crust, the kitchen rushed the second fry.
Chimaek — chicken and beer.
*Chi* for chicken, *maek* for *maekju* (beer). The Korean drinking-snack pairing — eaten in front of a baseball game, in a fried-chicken-and-beer shop, with a cube of pickled white radish on the side to cut the grease.