Crispy and crunchy fried chicken

Dakgangjeong 닭강정

Hi everybody! Today I’m going to show you how to make dakgangjeong, a crispy and crunchy Korean fried chicken.

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.

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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, my recipe for dakgangjeong with ginger slices (including a vegetarian version), and my yangnyeom-tongdak recipe which has been incredibly popular on YouTube! You’ll love all of them. And all Korean fried chicken should be enjoyed with pickled radishes!

dakgangjeong (닭강정)

Steps:

  1. Mix chicken with seasonings and cover in starch.
  2. Fry in hot oil for 7 to 8 minutes.
  3. Shake off, let sit, then fry for another 12 to 15 minutes.
  4. Coat in seasoning sauce.
  5. 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
  • 2/3 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)

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Directions

  1. 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.
  2. Put the chicken in a bowl and mix with salt, ginger, and ground black pepper by hand.
  3. Put 2/3 cup 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.
    Dakgangjeong (닭강정)chicken wingscrispy crunchy chicken

Make the sweet, spicy, and sticky sauce:

  1. 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.
  2. Stir with a wooden spoon until fragrant for about 30 seconds.
  3. Add soy sauce, rice syrup, vinegar, and mustard sauce (optional). Stir with a wooden spoon and let it bubble for a few minutes.
  4. Add the brown sugar and continue stirring. Remove from the heat. Set aside.Korean fried chicken (pepper)Korean fried chicken sauce

Fry the chicken:

  1. Put 4 cups of cooking oil in a frying pan or pot and heat it up for 7 to 8 minutes over high heat.
  2. See if the oil’s 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 cook for about 12 to 13 minutes, turning over a few times with tongs.
  3. Take the wings out of the oil and shake them off in a strainer. Turn off the heat, and let the wings sit for a few minutes.
  4. 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 cook them all at once, you’ll have to use more cooking oil.

Korean fried chicken_frying

Korean fried chicken_frying

Dakgangjeong (Korean fried chicken)

crispy-fried-chicken

Dakgangjeong (fried chicken: peanuts)

Coat the fried chicken with the sauce:

  1. When the chicken is done, reheat the sauce until it bubbles.
  2. Add the hot chicken and mix well with a wooden spoon to coat.dakgangjeong (댥강정)
  3. 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. You don’t need any dipping sauce, but it goes well with Baek-kimchi.

Posted on Sunday, January 26th, 2014 at 10:40 pm. Last updated on November 11, 2020.
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

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284 Comments:

  1. TaraMaiden Nottinghamshire, England joined 12/16 & has 26 comments
    Posted May 5th, 2018 at 2:22 pm |

    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…!

  2. Jhoy_melendrez14 philippines joined 10/17 & has 10 comments
    Posted April 16th, 2018 at 1:31 am |

    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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    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
      Posted April 16th, 2018 at 8:15 am |

      “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!

  3. ikaputri3 Brussels, Belgium joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted April 10th, 2018 at 12:15 pm |

    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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  4. supriyamallaya West Babylon, NY joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted March 17th, 2018 at 11:01 pm |

    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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  5. silver123x Montreal, Canada joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted March 4th, 2018 at 7:19 pm |

    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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    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
      Posted March 6th, 2018 at 2:34 pm |

      It looks very delicious! I’m so happy to hear that your family loved it!

    • Minheerat New jersey joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
      Posted March 7th, 2018 at 1:43 pm |

      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

  6. Cornelius B. Ecuador joined 12/17 & has 42 comments
    Posted January 22nd, 2018 at 12:27 pm |

    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 !

    • Cornelius B. Ecuador joined 12/17 & has 42 comments
      Posted January 22nd, 2018 at 9:23 pm |

      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!

  7. rna Singapore joined 1/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted January 22nd, 2018 at 5:45 am |

    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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  8. Rex Melbourne joined 1/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted January 20th, 2018 at 11:00 am |

    Hi Maangchi,

    Can I use a Chicken leg/thigh or Breast instead of wings for this?
    I reckon double fried chicken will be amazing!

  9. Ayla Australia joined 1/18 & has 2 comments
    Posted January 15th, 2018 at 4:50 am |

    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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  10. Kasper Denmark joined 8/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted August 25th, 2017 at 3:38 pm |

    Hello, maangchi.
    I would like to know if i could use maple syrup instead of rice or cornsyrup?

  11. Hendrik Groningen, Netherlands joined 8/17 & has 2 comments
    Posted August 17th, 2017 at 5:07 am |

    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?

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
      Posted August 23rd, 2017 at 10:55 am |

      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!

      • Hendrik Groningen, Netherlands joined 8/17 & has 2 comments
        Posted August 23rd, 2017 at 11:16 am |

        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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  12. Sabu Bhutan joined 7/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 4th, 2017 at 4:15 am |

    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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  13. Margarida Portugal, Santarém joined 7/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 1st, 2017 at 5:00 am |

    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!

  14. edmundhuber San Francisco joined 6/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted June 25th, 2017 at 9:04 pm |

    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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  15. HandsomeT1996 Alabang, Muntinlupa, Philippines joined 6/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted June 25th, 2017 at 7:22 am |

    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?

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