KFC: Korean Fried Chicken

Serves: 4
Course: Starter
Cooking Time: 0 hr 25 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves 4
  • For the wings:
  • 16 chicken wings
  • 125g flour
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • Half a tsp baking powder
  • A generous pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
  • Sunflower oil, for frying
  • For the sauce:
  • 8 cloves of garlic, finely grated
  • 1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
  • 6 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 10 tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
  • 4 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 6 tbsp dark brown sugar

Crispy chicken in a sweet and spicy aromatic sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds, leads to some seriously addictive chicken wings. Gochujang, a Korean chilli paste, is worth sourcing from an Asian food shop, but you could replace it with some sriracha sauce. In a small saucepan, whisk together the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, gochujang, rice vinegar, sesame oil and brown sugar.

Place the saucepan on a medium heat and bring this to a low simmer, cooking until the sugar is just dissolved – about three minutes.

Fill a medium-sized pot with the sunflower oil until it reaches a depth of roughly six centimetres. Heat over a medium heat. The oil needs to come to a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius and you’ll need to check it with a thermometer.

Whisk together the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt with 125ml of cold water. Coat the chicken wings in this batter.

Working in two batches, carefully add the chicken wings to the oil, one at a time, shaking off any excess batter as you go. Fry for eight minutes, until the wings are golden brown and cooked all the way through. Drain, using a slotted spoon, and place on a plate lined with kitchen paper.

When all the chicken is cooked, toss it with the warm hot sauce until completely coated. Serve the wings sprinkled with sesame seeds.