Ever since we were introduced to Korean corn dogs, we never made the American version again. Extra crispy with lots of variations possible, they aren’t hard to make at home.
Strictly speaking there is no “corn” in these corn dogs because the coating is made without cornmeal. Instead, the skewered hotdogs are covered with a light yeasted dough and rolled in panko before they are deep fried. Then why call it corn dog? That’s not what it’s called in Korea but that’s the name by which it has become popular among English-speakers.
Yeasted dough, however, is not the only mixture that the hotdog can be covered with. Some cooks dip the hotdog in a thick pancake-like batter with baking powder and no yeast. In the case of kogo, the skewered hotdog is coated in dough / batter then rolled in chopped frozen French fries. Another variation is to coat the dough / batter with uncooked instant ramen.
Hotdog isn’t the only thing that can be coated in dough / batter and fried. Cheese is popular too. In Japan, there’s pounded chicken stuffed with cheese! Street food in Asia is just so varied and exciting.
At home, we’ve made (well, my daughters have) Korean corn dogs at least four times. Each time, with a different dough / batter formula — in one instance, glutinous rice flour was among the ingredients of the dough. Not all were documented so, for this recipe, we’re sticking with the documented formula.
Korean Corn Dogs
Equipment
- bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- 12 jumbo hotdogs or a combination of hotdogs and mozzarella (see notes after the recipe)
Dough
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm milk (water is okay too but it still has to be lukewarm)
To complete the corn dogs
- 1 ½ cups panko (you may need more)
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
- cooking oil
To garnish
- Japanese mayo
- plain mustard
- ketchup
Instructions
- Take the hotdogs out of the freezer.
Make the dough
- In a shallow bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
- Make a well in the center and pour in the milk (or water).
- Mix until everything just comes together (the dough will be soft, wet and lumpy but it will smoothen after resting).
- Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rest for an hour.
Prep the hotdogs
- Place the hotdogs on a plate line with a stack of paper towels.
- Cover with more paper towels and press to remove surface moisture.
- Thread each hotdog into a skewer.
Fry the Korean corn dogs
- In a wide frying pan, pour in enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least three inches. Start heating the oil (it takes time to heat up that much oil).
- Take a skewered hotdog and lower sideways until it touches the rested dough.
- Start twirling the hotdog until the dough sticks to it then lift a couple of inches and continue twirling until completely covered with dough (do not overdo this because the dough will still expand during frying).
- Roll the dough-covered hotdog in panko (pressing the crumbs lightly into the dough helps make them stick better) and, optionally, in sesame seeds.
- Fry the hotdogs in batches (two to three per batch depending on the width of your pan). With cooking chopsticks or tongs, roll them around the hot oil for even cooking. It takes three to four minutes for the dough to get cooked through.
- Rest the cooked Korean corn dogs on a rack and continue frying the rest.
- Serve your home cooked Korean corn dogs immediately.
Notes
How long do they stay good in the fridge? Two days. They should last longer in the freezer but since we haven’t tried freezing cooked Korean corn and cheese dogs, I’d rather not make a guess about how long they can stay there before the texture of the bread deteriorates.
