I’m very excited to release this recipe today! My previous Korean fried chicken recipes have been loved by my readers and their friends and families for years. Now I’m sure many people will love this recipe, too.
Last year I visited Korea and found so many of my fellow Koreans were crazy about honey butter flavored potato chips. I tasted them I liked them, even though I’m usually not a fan of butter. They were addicting! The company that makes honey butter chips is building a new factory to meet Koreans’ demand, and in the meantime there’s a shortage. It’s became a craze in Korea to give almost any kind of snack a honey butter flavor.
When I got back home to New York, I thought I could make something crunchy and sweet with a honey butter flavor, and I started experimenting with fried chicken. It took a lot of experiments until I was satisfied with the result.
It’s small pieces of crunchy sweet chicken with garlic, honey, butter flavor. So yummy! No wonder so many Koreans love this taste! It’s hard to stop eating them once you start! And this recipe is non-spicy, so everyone can enjoy it. Like my other Korean fried chicken recipes, we need to double fry the chicken to make it extra crispy, flavorful, and light.
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of chicken wings (or chunks of chicken)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup potato starch
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds (optional)
- 4 cups cooking oil (corn or vegetable oil)
For honey butter sauce:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup white or brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons honey
Directions
Prepare the chicken
- Put the chicken in a bowl and mix with salt and ground black pepper.
- Crack the eggs into the bowl and add starch, flour, and baking powder.
- Mix well by hand.
Double fry!
- Heat up a 12 inch skillet with the cooking oil over high heat for 5 to 7 minutes until it reaches 350° F. You can dip a tip of chicken into the hot oil to see if it is right temperature or not. If several bubbles come up, it’s time to fry.
- Put all the chicken pieces into the hot oil one by one. Let cook for about 5 minutes until the bottoms of the chicken turn a little crunchy. Then flip them over with tongs, splitting up any pieces that have fused together.
- Let cook another 5 minutes and then turn them all over.
- Keep frying and occasionally turning over for another 10 minutes until all sides are nice and crunchy.
- Transfer the crunchy chicken one by one into a strainer over a stainless steel bowl.
- Let the oil heat up for 1 minute and then put all the chicken back in. Cook for 7 to 8 minutes until all sides are crunchy and look golden brown.
- Strain the chicken and turn off the heat.
Make honey butter fried chicken
- Heat up a large skillet for a couple of minutes. Add butter and garlic and stir it up until the garlic turns fragrant and a little crispy. Add soy sauce, sugar and stir until well melted. Add honey and stir.
- Keep stirring until it bubbles vigorously.
- Add the chicken and the pumpkin seeds (if used). Mix and stir well to coat evenly.
- Serve right away or let cool to serve later.
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.
Hi Maangchi!
Can i use corn starch instead of potato starch??? It is hard to find potato starch near my area.
Yes, you can.
Hi Maangchi, I have tried your recipe few days ago! It is so good! I ate 20 honey butter chicken in 1 meal! (Very big appetite). Today I nailed it on making cheese buldak! Cant wait to try more of your recipes!
It sounds like you are really getting into Korean cooking these days!
Hey there :)
I have been given a school task called cultural banquet. Our task is to choose a dish from a different culture and make it in the span of two lessons. (2 hours altogether) I decided to do Korean and have chosen this dish :) I was reading through the instructions and decided i would be able to handle this, but i am wondering is there anything that i should look out for or common mistakes that can occur with this dish as i have to share it around with the class once i have finished making it, for it to be judged.
Thank you, Maddy :)
I just made this now :) it was delicious. I found another way to keep the chicken kind of crispy! I didnt double fry but immediately transferred to a rack in the oven something to catch oil underneath. I baked them at around 190/200 C until I finished the sauce.
See full size image
Wow, it looks great!
But next time double-fry, so the crunchiness will long last. : )
I made this for my family and it was a big hit :D My parents can’t handle spicy food so this was perfect to make for them. Sweet and crunchy, everyone was so happy with this– Thank you Maangchi!!
Hi Maangchi. Is there a spicy version for this recipe? If not will adding dried chile/pepper flakes be ok?
Hi Maangchi. I have tried this recipe two times now and I’ve encountered the same problem both times with the honey butter sauce. The sugar (I used brown sugar) didn’t seem to dissolve into the butter but kind of stuck together, so I can see butter and sugar separately in the “sauce”. The sugar turned into something like candy, and although it kind of adhered to the chicken, it was really sticky and hard and kept sticking to the teeth. Is this the way it should be or did I do something wrong? Should the sauce have the consistency like, say, the sweet and sour sauce in sweet and sour chicken? Please advise. Thanks!
I made this today and had the same problem with the sauce. When I saw the brown sugar wouldn’t dissolve, I tried adding a little water into the sauce. It looked like the sauce became candy for a few seconds and then it came out just fine! :)
See full size image
I plan to make this tomorrow with cut up boneless, skinless chicken thighs. But I like it spicy, so I will add 1/4 cup Korean pepper flakes. Do you ever do this???
I tried with Korean pepper flakes, but not spicy enough for me, so I used ground Thai chili. More spicy but I think Indian chili powder (very fine like pepper powder might taste and smell better.)
Maangchi, HELP!!
I tried to make this tonight. The chicken was DELICIOUS and perfectly crispy.
However, when I tried to make the sauce, the butter and sugar weren’t combining well ☹️
I tried this 2 times and both times the sugar burned too fast and would not mix. I have a non-gas stove and I was cooking on medium heat
It was soo good. My family loved it!!!
See full size image
It looks amazing!
I love this recipe – made it for me and my sister who’s a very fussy eater and she ate it all and came back or seconds. THANK YOU MAANGCHI!
See full size image
I’m happy to hear that you impressed your sister with your honey butter chicken! : )
I made it few weeks back. It was so good that I finished all of it on my own. The chicken remained crispy until the next day. Thank you for the excellent recipe.
See full size image
Your honey butter chicken looks absolutely crunchy and delicious! “The chicken remained crispy until the next day.” That’s right! I’m so happy to see this photo!
So so so delicious..even better than KFC. Thumb up!!!
See full size image
You made sweet, crunchy, and buttery honey butter chicken! Yum!
hello maangchi. i made this today with maple syrup instead of the honey and sugar. It turned out delicious
See full size image
It looks and sounds great!
Hi Maangchi,
I found your video on YouTube and I just tried it today. It’s so delicious, my daughter love the coating sauce.
Thanks alot!
See full size image
Another wonderful recipe. I love the crispiness of the chicken paired with sweet and savory flavor of the sauce. I’ve made this recipe a few times now.
Hi Maangchi! Love love love your recipes! <3
I am planning to prepare this fried chicken early, can I know how long it can stay crunchy for with the sauce?
What can I do to prepare earlier? If I leave mixing in the sauce till when I want to serve it, and the chicken double fried earlier, will it stay crunchy longer?
Thank you soo much!
It should be ok up to several hours but not overnight.
Fry the chicken once and kept them in the freezer but fry them again before serving. Double frying is very important for this recipe because we want very crunchy chicken.
Just tried this and I must say it is delicious!
See full size image
I just made this today following the recipe exactly and even double fried. It tastes delicious but it was not crunchy, even as I was taking it out of the oil I noticed mine was not crunchy =( I’m not sure what happened but it was delicious nonetheless. I’ll be trying it again soon! Thanks for the delicious recipe.
My husband is addicted to these chips and has his mother and friends ship these chips to us all of the time because the ones with this flavor at our local Hmart are not the same as the ones he likes. I think this definitely needs to be the next thing I try to make. Already going to the grocery store tomorrow, so looks like I should add chicken wings to my list!
Hi Maangchi,
My wife and I made these the other night and they were delicious! Really love the recipe. Will be making these again.
See full size image
Hi Maangchi, I can’t wait to try this recipe. Potato starch is really hard to find here. Can I use corn starch or tapioca starch instead of potato starch?
I love you and your recipe so much.
Cornstarch will work well, too.
I made this last night and oh my was it delishious thank you for all the great recipes Ive loved them all
Made this last night! Was so good and I had a lot of fun making it. Definitely want to try it with the pumpkin seeds next time. Love your recipes Maangchi!
See full size image
Alycia, you had fun making this! : ) It looks sweet and crunchy! Cheers!
망치 안녕하세요!! i made this for dinner tonight (finally) and it’s absolutely crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and super delicious. maangchi’s double-fry technique is truly daebak! thank you for your recipe, we truly enjoyed it!
See full size image
yes, it looks daebak (huge success)! : ) Congratulations!
Hi Maangchi!
I checked out your other Fried Chicken recipe they only use potato starch to coat the chicken. For this recipe you add all purpose flour and also egg, is it because you looking for different crispy texture?
Can’t wait to try the recipe~ :)
yes, I wanted to make this chicken batter a little fluffy without losing crunchiness. I hope you like this chicken, too. : )
Hi Maangchi! Finally made the chicken for dinner, I forgot to take the picture because me and my wife are already so hungry.
I don’t have all purpose flour so I use combination of potato starch & premix frying flour, the chicken came out fluffy and crispy :) but the highlight of the chicken is the honey butter sauce! It’s taste so goooood, especially with steamed rice. Thank you Maangchi! :D
Made this tonight…was really good! Think that time should be adjusted for chunks of chicken, though, as it was a bit dry after the frying time was done per the recipe.
See full size image
Hi Maangchi! Is there much difference using this batter (egg, flour, potato starch) instead of just potato starch like your other chicken recipe?
I make something similar but add gochujang to the sauce. I love sweet and spicy wings.
I’ve just cooked it, It is just wonderful and crunchie!!! I’m a big fun of you and your recipes. It is not so easy to find Korean products in my town but I manege.
See full size image
I made this for dinner last night using chunks of boneless chicken breasts. My boyfriend gobbled it up! It was so delicious! Served it with white rice and some kimchi on the side. The crunchiness made my mouth so happy :)
Congratulations! As long as you knew how to make your chicken crunchy crunchy, the result will be awesome!
Hi Maangchi, I tried this recipe today. Wow debbak….I love the taste of the chicken even before I put the sauce on. But for the sauce I put more soya sauce as it too sweet. Thanks for the recipe, you’re the best.
Thank you for this recipe. I look forward to trying it soon. I need to purchase a cleaver first to “chop-chop” the chicken like you do. ;) We like spicy … what can we add for the spicy? Love your recipes!
See full size image
Hey Mamma’Maangchi I wan’t to make “Butter Honey Chicken” Can I use cornstarch instead of potato starch?
-Thank you so much for sharing all of this good stuff with us! :)
Yes, you can use cornstarch instead of potato starch. good luck!
Hi maangchi, I am a huge fan of your korean recipes.
I was thinking of what to have for dinner, and as soon as I saw the recipe for honey butter fried chicken, I just had to try it.
See full size image
It looks amazing!