Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Gang's Korean Fried Chicken Recipe



Killer Pyongyang Gang Wings!
This is our first recipe that we put together as a team.  It is what really got Pyongyang Gang (PYG) into motion and it was our inspiration for the rest of the menu, the best damn korean food in the District of Columbia.  We took some inspiration from Bonchon, which is the originator and in my opinion one of the best who do Korean Fried Chicken.  We added a PYG spin by making it look similar to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken.  We researched many recipes and found that there are many recipes that will get you there.  David Chang from Momofuku has his own version, Danny Bowien from Mission Chinese Food has his own version both equally great.  Our recipe like most recipes took the best from each one and made it our own.   As you can see in the picture above, after we finished frying the chicken twice it looked just like this, delicious!


Recipe:
Mise en Place (Fancy french term for everything in its place)
Deep Fryer or Dutch Oven 
Two 2" deep pans or bowls
Cooling Rack
Flour Water (1 cup)
Chicken Wings (2 lbs)
Water (1.25 cups)
Salt and Pepper
Oil (peanut oil preferred, can cool down and save for later use) (1 gallon)

1. First season your chicken with salt and pepper, most important step! Heat your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Mix one cup of flour with one and one-quarter cups of all-purpose flour.  Dip the chicken in  the batter (shown below).  
Flour and Water batter
 3.  Take out your chicken and put it directly into the all purpose flour.   Make sure it is evenly coated. 
4. Drop about 4 to 5 pieces of chicken at a time into the fryer.  You do not want to overcrowd because the temperature will drop significantly.  
5. Fry the wings for about 6 minutes, you want them to be slightly browned.  Place on a cooling rack to cool.  Let the oil temperature get back to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

After the first fry, looking like the Colonel's chicken
6.  Once the oil is back up to temperature place wings back into the oil for another six minutes.  Take wings out of the oil and immediately coat in your own wing sauce or see below for the original PYG wing sauce!  It's important to coat when the wings are still hot because they will absorb the sauce better!


Recipe for Sweet and Spicy Wing Sauce!

Gochujang: 325g
Ketchup: 200g
Soy sauce: 500g
Mirin: 300g
Rice vinegar: 75g
Lemon jam: 20g
Oyster sauce: 215g
Corn syrup: 200g
Sugar: 500g
Sesame seed oil: 10g
Ginger powder: 4 teaspoon : 3 grams
Onion: 1 ¼ or 400 grams
Purred garlic: 200g


You will need a scale for this recipe and all of our recipes, we used a scale to ensure consistency in taste. If you don't have some of the above ingredients please feel free to swap out ingredients. Most of these can be found in korean grocery store called HMART. This sauce is great on wings but as we found it goes well with pretty much anything!

  1. Measure out all of the ingredients using a plastic wrapped scale.
  2. Boil the onions in boiling water for five minutes.
  3. After five minutes, take out the onions form the water and put it in a food processor with lemon jam and mirin until it is watery.
  4. Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix them well.
  5. Transfer the sauce into a pot and boil it for five minutes.
  6. Let the sauce cool down, make sure it has thickened and taste for seasoning.