Bonchon Chicken, the South Korean-based international fried chicken restaurant franchise, doesn’t give away its secrets, naturally. But, in its website, it does proudly say that the glaze / sauce is brushed on the fried chicken fillets several times.
That was the starting point of how we deconstructed the recipe for Bonchon-style fried chicken. The rest we learned by watching too many Korean movies and TV series. I may not be a fan of Korean romcoms but the ones where food makes a special appearance, I watch — and rewatch, if necessary, just to pick up cooking styles and techniques.
Bonchon-style Fried Chicken
In this deconstructed Bonchon-style Korean fried chicken recipe, the thigh fillets are pounded, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, dredged in flour, dipped in a light batter and fried twice. Then, the cooked fillets are brushed with sauce.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili paste)
Fried chicken
- 6 chicken thigh fillets (with or without skin), each cut into two pieces
- salt
- pepper
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch or corn starch
- enough cooking oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Make the sauce by mixing together the fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger, honey, lemon juice and gochujang in a microwavable bowl.
- Microwave until bubbly. Set aside.
- Wipe the chicken fillets dry with paper towels.
- Using a kitchen mallet, pound the chicken fillets to a quarter inch thickness.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle flour on chicken; shake off excess.
- Mix the starch with enough water to make a thin paste.
- Pour the oil into a wok or frying pan and set the heat to medium (about 310F).
- Dip each chicken piece in the paste and fry for one minute per side.
- Transfer to a rack and cool for five minutes.
- Turn up the heat to high. Fry the chicken pieces for about three minutes per side or just until golden. Move the cooked pieces to the rack.
- Brush the chicken with the prepared sauce.
- Rest the chicken for two minutes and brush with sauce once more.
- Optionally, brush glaze on the chicken a third time after resting for one minute.
- Serve the Bonchon-style Korean fried chicken immediately.
Video
Notes
Although the chicken is initially coated with flour to make sure the batter sticks to the fillets, the batter is made with tapioca or corn starch. Wheat flour (the kind used for baking cakes) is not a good choice for making the batter as it does not provide the delicate crispness so desirable in this dish. What is an even worse idea is to add egg to the batter because egg and flour results in bread. So, since crispness is the goal, ditch any urge to add egg.
These boneless chicken fried steaks are already perfectly seasoned. However, if you still want a sauce to dip it in, simply mix together equal amounts of Japanese mayo and chili sauce.
Updated from a recipe first published on September 11, 2015.
Updated from a recipe first published on September 11, 2015.
