Hi everybody! Today I’m going to show you how to make dakgangjeong, a crispy and crunchy Korean fried chicken (aka “kfc”).
Many of you probably know that I posted it once already, years ago, but the version I’m showing you today is a little easier than the last one, and will be faster to make: I don’t mix a batter, I just coat the chicken in potato starch powder. I also skipped the ginger slices so we can cook the sauce faster. It has an incredible crunch!
In this recipe, both the peanuts and the chilis are optional.
Both versions are delicious in their own way, and both of them are authentically Korean, they’re just two ways of making the same dish, kind of like there are many ways to make pizza. Take this chicken to a party and everyone will give you compliment. “Whoo ah~ this crispy chicken is crunchy crunchy like candy!”
If you love fried chicken, I strongly advise you to try this recipe and my other Korean fried chicken recipes like dakgangjeong with ginger slices (including a vegetarian version), and my yangnyeom-tongdak recipe (aka yangnyeom chicken) which has also been incredibly popular on YouTube! You’ll love all of them. And all Korean fried chicken should be enjoyed with pickled radishes (aka chicken-mu)! If you drink alcohol, it also goes great with beer (“chi-maek” in Korean, which means “chicken and beer”).
Steps:
- Mix chicken with seasonings and cover in starch.
- Fry in hot oil for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Shake off, let sit, then fry for another 12 to 15 minutes.
- Coat in seasoning sauce.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds over top and serve immediately.
Ingredients
- 3½ pounds chicken wings (about 1.6 kg), washed and drained
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- ⅔ cup potato starch or corn starch
- ⅓ cup peanuts (optional)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 to 4 large dried red chili peppers, seeded, cut crosswise into ⅓ inch pieces (optional)
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup rice syrup or corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon mustard (optional)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- Grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil, peanut oil)
Directions
Prepare the chicken
- Cut off the tip of each wing and chop the wing in half. After this is done you should have about 3 pounds of chicken, with 24 to 26 pieces.
- Put the chicken in a large bowl and mix with salt, ginger, and ground black pepper by hand.
- Put the potato starch in a bowl and dip each wing in the powder to coat it, one by one. Squeeze each wing to press the coating to it tightly.
Make the sweet, spicy, and sticky Korean fried chicken sauce:
- Heat a large non-stick skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons cooking oil, minced garlic, and the dried red chili pepper (if used).
- Stir with a wooden spoon until fragrant for about 30 seconds.
- Add soy sauce, rice syrup, vinegar, and mustard sauce (optional). Stir with a wooden spoon and let it bubble for a few minutes.
- Add the brown sugar and continue stirring the mixture. Remove from the heat. Set aside.
First fry:
- Put 4 cups of cooking oil in a frying pan or pot and heat it up for 7 to 8 minutes over high heat.
- See if the oil temperature is ready by dipping a test wing into it. If the oil bubbles, it’s hot enough to start frying. Slide the coated wings one by one into the hot oil and deep fry for about 12 to 13 minutes, turning over a few times with tongs.
- Take the wings out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer or let them drain on a wire rack. Turn off the heat, and let the wings sit for a few minutes.
Second fry:
- Reheat the oil and fry the wings again for another 12 to 15 minutes until they all look golden brown and feel super crunchy through the tongs. If your frying pan or pot is not large enough to fry all the chicken at once, divide it into batches like I do in the video. If you use a larger frying pot to deep fry them all at once, you’ll have to use more cooking oil.
- If using the peanuts, place them in a slotted spoon or a small mesh strainer, carefully dip them into the hot oil, and fry for 15 to 30 seconds, just until light golden brown. Transfer to a small bowl.
Coat the fried chicken with the sauce:
- When the chicken is done, reheat the sauce until it bubbles.
- Add the hot chicken and peanuts (if using) and mix well with a wooden spoon to coat.
- Remove from the heat and transfer the coated chicken to a large platter. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over top and serve immediately. This chicken won’t lose its crunchiness, even by the next day, and you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. You don’t need any dipping sauce, but it goes well with white kimchi (baek-kimchi) and pickled radishes (chicken-mu) are the perfect garnish.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Annyong,thank you for your fried chicken recipe,my family loved it,
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Wow, congratulations! Your chicken looks sweet, juicy, and double crunchy! I should make dakangjeong soon! : )
I’ve made this a few times now and I love it. I just made it tonight using honey instead of corn syrup and it worked great. Thanks again I love everything you cook!
Hi Maangchi ,
First of all i wanted to say that your recipes are AMAZING !!! in the above recipe can i make the chicken without the sauce ( like the ones ypu see in the korean dramas….)
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve been making it for over a year now and my fiance gets so excited every time, she says it’s the best chicken she’s ever had!
Been following you for awhile and bought your book, I hope you’re doing great!
Wow what a nice compliment! I’m so happy to hear you and your fiance enjoy my recipe!
Hi Maangchi! I LOOOOOOVE your page! My mom is Korean but I don’t get a chance to learn all the recipes from her. So I go to your page when I don’t have her. I love that you don’t use dashida but only fresh real ingredients! I made this chicken for my family and they all loved it!!! I have a BIG family…6 Kids and a very hungry husband, hehe! They raved about this dish. I appreciated that it is “breaded” with potato starch as many of us are gluten free. I subbed honey for the syrup and used boneless skinless thigh meat which I sliced and it turned out great! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ♥️
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Such a great table! I can imagine you are constantly making hearty and delicious food for your large family! Good luck with your cooking!
Maangchi, if we eat it the next day, what’s the best way? re-heat, or eat cold? I think cold, don’t you? Re-heating could spoil the texture…!
I made this for our lunch today..i fell in love with this recipe and my family love this too! I’m so happy every time i cooked Korean food my family like it very much, I’m so blessed to know this site and really help me with my cooking, I’m a working mom but i make sure to have time to cook healthy and tasty food for my family. My kids are Picky eater but this recipe made them ask for more..thanks maangchi!!
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“I’m so blessed to know this site and really help me with my cooking” I’m also blessed to know a passionate cook like you through my website. You make food for your family, and they are happy, that’s all I need to hear to make me happy, too.
Continued good luck with Korean cooking!
Dear Maangchi,
Thanks for sharing your excellent recipes: I cooked a lot of Korean food recently using your recipes: Gimbap, Japchae, Yangnyeom-tongdaek, Mandu and Dakgangjeong!! They were so delicious. Thanks you for sharing with us. My next project is making your traditional Kimchi. I hope I’ll make it :-)
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You made wonderful, crunchy crunchy chicken, so I’m sure your kimchi making will go well too!
안녕하세요!! I love your blog and YouTube channel. It is super easy to follow and very inspiring. This is the first dish I tried out but I made a few changes to cater to my family’s taste (my sister is diabetic so I had to cut down the sugar drastically. I also make dak-mu to go with the dakgangjeong. It came out amazing. I’m making mung bean sprouts following your method to add to my miso ramen.
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Wow it looks good but I’m wondering how it tastes without sweet sugar? How did you make this so shiny?
Hello Maangchi,
Made this recipe yesterday with my mom for dinner and it was delicious! We couldn’t find dried chili peppers so we used fresh ones and they worked perfectly, we also used honey instead of the rice syrup. My family loved it and I will definitely make this recipe again, thanks a lot!
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It looks very delicious! I’m so happy to hear that your family loved it!
안녕하세요 ^^
I fried the chicken in batches. But I was wondering if there was a trick to prevent the burnt small specks from attaching to the other chicken batches. After the first batch was cooked I noticed that the other batches came out with burnt little pieces from the first batch on it and it was ruining the taste
I made this one last weekend: was super deliciousss! In my Korean grocery store in Quito, they only sell the dried peppers in a huge bag, which would last me for 10 years, so I just added a little Gochu-Garu to the sauce instead. But when it was done, I felt something was missing. So instead of using the ginger for seasoning the chicken wings, I put it in the sauce: perfect !
BTW: I never fancied either chicken wings, or eating chicken with my fingers very much, but since I tried Dakgangjeong (also made Yangnyeom-Tongdak with chicken wings), I completely changed my mind!
Hi Maangchi, thanks for your recipe. It was my first attempt to make this. I used cashew nuts instead of peanuts. It was very delicious
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You made perfect looking dakgangjeong! Crunchy crunchy!
Hi Maangchi,
Can I use a Chicken leg/thigh or Breast instead of wings for this?
I reckon double fried chicken will be amazing!
You’d need to adjust the fry times, it would take significantly longer for other parts of the chicken to be cooked through.
Hi!
I made this today. It was my first attempt at fried chicken of any sort so I was nervous. I’m not a big fan of chicken wings though so I substituted breast instead and it still turned out great! (I was so relived) your recipes are easy to follow and so tasty! Thank you!!
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It looks great! Congratulations!
Hello, maangchi.
I would like to know if i could use maple syrup instead of rice or cornsyrup?
Yes, you can use maple syrup if you like that flavor.
This looks very good and I’ll try to make it alongside some other dishes from this site. Since I will be making various dishes I will start out with these chicken wings first. What is the best way to keep the wings when I make them 4-5 hours before eating? How should I reheat the wings?
You don’t have to reheat these. They will also keep crunchy for several hours at room temperature, so you can make them in the morning and then serve later. You can even keep the leftovers in the fridge overnight and they will still be crunchy!
Thank you for the reply, last week I made these chicken wings together with Yukgaejang, Yeon-geun-jorim and Oi-muchim. It was my first time cooking Korean but it turned out good. When I finished with the chicken wings my guests arrived so they were served hot and very crunchy. We were with 5 people and even though I made 4 dishes and also served kimchi and rice the chicken wings were all finished in no time.
Thank you for the great recipes, the videos really helped to see how it’s done.
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Wow it looks like a great party! If you have another photo from before eating please send it to me, I’d like to share this in my upcoming Sept 1st newsletter, along with your story (if you don’t mind)! send it to maangchi@gmail.com
dear Maangchi…i am a very big fan of you..i love cooking though i am working in a company i do not get much time yet i tried cooking dakgangjeong and it really taste awesome..thanks for the recipe..
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I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my recipe! Is the green bits green chili pepper?
Hiii!
I’ve installed an application for my Ipad called “Korean recipes” with so many recipes and I made this one first for my sister’s birthday and everyone loved it, they said that it was better than in a very famous restaurant here and my mom even said that she wanted me to try more korean recipes and she didn’t like it before.. I made it exactly how it shows on your video and it came out delicious, the chicken was just like you said crunchy outside, tender and juicy inside I loved it, now I’m going to try egg bread wish me luck!
Yes, I wish you good luck with making delicious gyeranppang!
Hello Maangchi, thanks for this recipe.
The first time I made this, I used smaller wings (from a pack of cheap “party wings”). With ~20 – ~30m fying time total, the chicken ended up very dry.
I think it’s very important that the wings you use look nice and fat, and preferably come whole, not in halves. With ~10m first fry, and ~3m second fry, the chicken came out juicy and tender.
We made sure we used ssalyeot and not mulyeot, and it ended up tasting a little *too* much like rice. Maybe this had to do with the brand of ssalyeot we used.
With ~10m first fry, and ~3m second fry, the chicken came out juicy and tender. It might be helpful if the recipe had oil temperature, I was kind of winging it (ha ha!).
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Thanks for the great tips! Many people will find them useful. And your chicken looks perfect!
Maangchi, i made this a while ago. The glaze was very tasty and it went well with the chicken. Any tips to make the chicken very moist and crunchy?
Hi maangchi, im kasih from malaysia.
I really love your fried chicken recipes and i always make for my family.
But i hope you make more fried chicken recipes… please..
My first wife was Korean; my wife now is Thai. Thanks to your website she can cook both Korean and Thai. You are one of the greatest asset to the Culinary Industry, and if I could give you the Nobel Peace Prize, I would.
I can’t wait to try this! I finally discovered a Korean supermarket that’s going to help me cook all of Maangchi’s awesome recipes.
To anyone reading this: Do you strain and keep the oil or discard after using like this? Is there a specific reason for using grapeseed oil or will any vegetable oil lead to the same result?
Finally made this with my cooking partner, Wow. Just. Wow. It was soooo good! This recipe beats 2 other KFC recipes we tried. Maangchi’s version is so awesome!!
– Marc & Joe
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Hi Marc & Joe,
You made awesome chicken! Congratulations!
maangchi, me and my family love so much this recipe. I made it time to time. I’ve a plan to sell it btw, could you give me an idea what’s the name / brand for me? :D thank you so much.
Thank you Maangchi for this amazing recipe! I made this tonight with breast fillet as I wanted leftovers for the kids school lunch box, which would be a bit easier for them than chicken wings. My kids LOVED it! Thank you so much – I will definitely try it with chicken wings next time!
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Hello Maangchi. Can you also do this recipe with chicken feet?
hi Maangchi,
Can I use rice oligo syrup instead? will it be different taste ?Thanks
Yes, you can use oiligo syrup, too.
Hi Maangchi
Finally i gave tried your Crispy and Crunchy Fried Chicken.
Wow.. it was so good, delicious n the important one is so Crispy n Crunchy as what u taught. Thanks a lot for your clear recipe.
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Great recipe and the sauce is awesome. It tastes just like the soy garlic sauce Korean fried chicken you’d get from the Korean restaurants in my city!
Oh wow! This looks amazing. My wife is gluten free, so with tamari instead of soy sauce, I think I can actually make pretty awesome chicken like this! I can’t wait to try!
First off thank you for creating this website. My wife, who’s Korean, and I love it and use it all the time.
My number one question: can this be done without frying? I’m thinking keep the grill or over at or above 450 F to get crispy skin. I think this would work with the starch as well. Your thoughts?
If you have time:
What about sweet rice flour instead of potato starch? Am I sacrificing or gaining anything there?
Do you have a suggestion for a fresh pepper to use instead of a dried red chili? I want spicy but not too spicy.
Thank you in advance. Anyone’s opinions are welcome.
Coating with a starch will create a specific crispiness. You could substitute corn starch for potato starch without much difference. Sweet rice flour has a high starch content, so it might work also.
To create “fried chicken” in the oven, coat as usual and spray with cooking spray. Cook at 375. There are many recipes online that you can take this technique from and apply to maangchi’s recipe. Just google “oven fried chicken.”
Hey Maangchi!
So I’m guessing that Gochugaru (powder) can be used in place of red chile peppers, but can Gochujang (paste) replace any part here?
If I used gochujang (paste) to replace the chile peppers, being that it has a distinct flavor, what else would I have to remove? I really want to try to make this version of Dakgangjeong but it’s the only one I’ve seen without either or both of those ingredients
안녕하세요 Maangchi!! ^^
I really love 한식 and love to watch your videos!
Here’s my fried chicken, my husband and friends loved it =P
Thank you!! =)
here^^
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Your dakgangjeong looks very crunchy and tasty! Thank you for sharing the photo!
Maangchi does sweet garlic soy sauce Korean fried chicken contains mustard? I’m a bit hesitant to add it but I do love mustard. I think I’ll add it. What mustard would u recommend, normal yellow mustard like French’s yellow mustard? I’m cooking the chicken tomorrow. Btw I have tried several of ure recipes like ure japchae, Dakjjim and Korean spinach salad and yangneom-tongdak and they were a hit!
Maangchi, I want to make this with thigh or drumstick – is the cooking time still good? Can’t wait to try! And I love your videos so much!