Hongdae Street Food Strip ★ 4.1
The Hongdae strip around Hongik University generates dense street food every evening: chimaek, takoyaki, and Korean corn dogs from the university exit.
Try: Chimaek (Korean fried chicken and beer), takoyaki, crepes
History
Korean fried chicken descends from American military fried chicken introduced to Korea after 1945. The yangnyeom (seasoned) version with the sweet-spicy red glaze was invented in 1982 by Yun Jonggye at a fried-chicken shop in Daegu. Seoul mass-adopted the dish in the 1990s through chain outlets like Pelicana and BBQ Chicken. The portmanteau chimaek (chicken plus maekju, beer) describes the now-essential pairing; the 2014 K-drama My Love from the Star pushed chimaek into Asian pop-culture canon. The defining technique is the double-fry, which removes moisture from the skin and gives the see-through crackle.
Common allergens: Gluten, Soy, Sesame
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 1.5kg chicken wings, separated into drumettes and flats (or boneless thigh pieces)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 thumb fresh ginger grated
- 2L neutral oil for deep-frying
- For the batter: 200g potato starch (or cornflour)
- 50g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250ml ice-cold water
- 1 large egg
- For the yangnyeom sauce: 4 tbsp gochujang
- 4 tbsp ketchup
- 3 tbsp rice syrup (jocheong) or honey
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp gochugaru
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- To finish: 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, 4 spring onions sliced, pickled daikon cubes (chicken mu)
Method
- Toss chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder and grated ginger. Rest 30 minutes.
- Whisk batter ingredients to a slack pancake-batter consistency. Keep ice-cold.
- Heat oil to 170C in a heavy pot.
- Dip each chicken piece in batter, let excess drip. Fry in batches of 8 for 7 minutes (the first fry; sets the crust). Drain on rack.
- Rest 10 minutes; the chicken cools, the residual moisture inside the crust evaporates outward.
- Heat the oil to 190C.
- Fry the chicken a second time, 4 minutes per batch, until very deep golden and audibly crisp. Drain on rack.
- Make the sauce: heat sesame oil in a wide pan. Add garlic, sizzle 30 seconds. Add gochujang, ketchup, rice syrup, sugar, soy and gochugaru. Whisk; simmer 2 minutes until glossy. Off the heat, stir in rice vinegar.
- Toss the still-hot fried chicken in the sauce, just enough to lacquer (do not drown).
- Plate. Scatter sesame seeds and spring onion. Serve with pickled radish and cold lager.
Tip from the editors. Potato starch beats cornflour for the batter; it stays crisper longer because it has less protein and shatters more cleanly when bitten.
Where to eat korean fried chicken (yangnyeom chikin)
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