Garlicky Fried Chicken in Korean Style

Saturday afternoon we planned to watch movie home and my pal would like to have fried chicken. Compared to the typical way of frying chicken, I like it in Korean style, which is to coat the chicken with cornstarch. In this way, the fried chicken is much crispier and won’t easily get burnt when frying. The crispy coating is thinner and less greasy. The chicken can keep crispy even when they turn cold.

This fried chicken is garlicky, sweet and savoury. In this recipe, I use boneless chicken thigh and chicken breast. Usually I would prefer any meat with bones. But sometimes I prefer not to have messy fingers. In this way I would just use a folk.

Ingredients –
Boneless chicken thigh, about 450g;
Chicken breast, 1, about 220g;
Cornstarch, or potato starch, green bean starch, about 1 cup;
Garlic, 5 cloves;
Ginger, 15g;
Olive oil, salt, sugar, black pepper, white vinegar, light soy sauce, ketchup, toasted sesame seeds, paprika and red chili flakes(optional).

How to do –
1. Chicken washed then cut into big bite size;

2. Put in the chicken chunks in a big mixing bowl, mash the garlic and ginger with a garlic press, also put in 1tsp of salt and black pepper. Mix well and keep in fridge for half an hour;

3. Now let’s start cooking. Prepare the oil first. I am using a medium size deep pot so that I don’t need too much oil. Heat the oil in high heat. While the oil is heating, prepare the chicken. Put in a generous amount of cornstarch in a plate, coat the chicken chunks with cornstarch, pat gently to shake off extra powder, then put in the boiling oil and fry. Keep the surface dry otherwise coat more starch on;

4. Fry the chicken in medium high heat. Don’t worry too much, the chicken won’t easily get burnt. I would fry two batches with this amount of chicken. When the chicken turn light golden, take them out. They are not very crispy at this stage. Don’t worry, they would be fried again;

5. Heat the oil in high heat, put in the chicken and fry again. You would see the colour gets darker and you could feel they get crispy now. They are tasty enough right now since they have been seasoned. But I would make a sticky sauce to go with them;

6. If you have some nuts home, such as peanut or walnut, fry some as well, just put them in the boiling oil and fry for 10 to 20 seconds;

7. Now let’s prepare the sauce. In a small mixing bowl, put in 3tbsp of light soy sauce, 3tbsp of ketchup, 1tbsp of white vinegar or any vinegar without colour, 5tbsp of sugar, a pinch of paprika and red chili flakes if you like it a little spicy, add some water to dissolve the sugar, about half cup. Mix well and put the sauce mixture in a big frying pan, bring to boil and reduce the sauce till it turns sticky. Have a taste and adjust with sugar or salt. The sauce should taste sweet so a bit more sugar would be no wrong. Heat off;

8. Put the chicken and walnut in the sauce, flip till all sauce coating evenly on the chicken;

9. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top and serve with cold beer or whatever you want.