You may not know this, but Korean fried chicken is the best in the world.

I never even liked fried chicken before I came to Korea. Now I want to eat it nearly every weekend, preferably with a pitcher or bottle of lager-style beer.

 
photo Daily Kimchi

This is already known in areas of New York, where Korean chicken restaurants are popping up everywhere in Queens and now Brooklyn and Manhattan. And according to this article, now in Pyongyang, where a South Korean businessman is opening a fried chicken delivery service, the first foreign-run restaurant in North Korea. My guess is they don’t deliver outside the capital.

Earlier in the year the NYT ran an piece detailing this, and interviewed the head of the Korea-based blog Zen Kimchi, who has been covering the topic for a while.

From the NYT:

Korean-style fried chicken is radically different, reflecting an Asian frying technique that renders out the fat in the skin, transforming it into a thin, crackly and almost transparent crust. (Chinese cooks call this “paper fried chicken.”) The chicken is unseasoned, barely dredged in very fine flour and then dipped into a thin batter before going into the fryer. The oil temperature is a relatively low 350 degrees, and the chicken is cooked in two separate stages.

After 10 minutes, the chicken is removed from the oil, shaken vigorously in a wire strainer and allowed to cool for two minutes. This slows the cooking process, preventing the crust from getting too brown before the meat cooks through. It also shaves off all those crusty nubs and crags that American cooks strive for.

After 10 more minutes in the fryer, the chicken is smooth, compact, golden-brown, and done. Then, it’s served plain (with a small dish of salt and pepper for seasoning) or lightly painted with sauce. When it’s done correctly, the sauce is absorbed into the crust, adding savor without making it soggy.

They don’t mention it in the description here, but Korean fried chicken has the slightest bit of sweetness to it. It’s more of an aftertaste, which, along with the genuine crunchy exterior, makes the chicken seem fresh. Like produce.

My personal favorite is KyoChon, which now has outlets in New York and LA and everywhere in Korea. For about $10 you can get a good sized box that’s just a bit too much for two people.

The article says most people eat it with a salt and pepper mixture. I prefer it with tabasco or hot pepper sauce. Others prefer mustard.

This is killing me, I need to end this post now.