Honey butter fried chicken

Heoni-beoteo-chikin 허니버터치킨

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.

Posted on Monday, October 17th, 2016 at 6:35 pm. Last updated on November 11, 2020.
Tagged: crunchy fried chicken, fried chicken, honey butter chicken, 허니버터 치킨, Korean chicken, Korean cooking, Korean cuisine, korean food, Korean fried chicken, Korean honey butter fried chicken, Korean kitchen, Maangchi's fried chicken recipe, sweet and crunchy chicken

87 Comments:

Spider Canada joined 7/20 & has 1 comment
Posted July 28th, 2020 at 8:19 pm | Log in to reply.

Made this tonight! Decided to use chicken breast instead and it came out amazing! The sauce is delicious and the chicken was nice and crunchy
Jessicaf North carolina joined 6/20 & has 14 comments
Posted June 19th, 2020 at 12:08 pm | Log in to reply.

This is the best fried chicken recipe ever. Like chicken candy. The sauce is amazing. I have even used this sauce with sautéed scallops.
waiyin Malaysia joined 6/20 & has 3 comments
Posted June 8th, 2020 at 12:23 pm | Log in to reply.

Ever since I bought both of your cookbooks weeks ago and been watching your YouTube videos ever since, I have been trying new recipes every week. 1st attempt on Honey Butter Fried Chicken and the outcome is awesome! My son loves it. Thanks Maangchi! I enjoyed reading your books and love all your recipes. Hope you will publish another new book soon…XOXO.

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ilovepastry Toronto, Canada joined 5/20 & has 16 comments
Posted June 8th, 2020 at 11:02 am | Log in to reply.

Thanks Maangchi! This is the fourth chicken recipe that I’ve tried of yours. Super delicious~ Crunchy exterior, moist and tender inside, and the sauce is addicting!

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MissNatoo France joined 4/20 & has 1 comment
Posted April 21st, 2020 at 3:40 pm | Log in to reply.

Thank so much for this recipe !!! And thanks for sharing such flavourful and delicious cuisine !!!
Even with my trip been postponed ( hopefully for next year ), I have been able to travel thanks to your recipe.
Working so well with my favourite vegetal ( broccoli )
Eager to try cooking other dishes !

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
  Posted April 22nd, 2020 at 3:12 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Having honey butter chicken with broccoli is such a great idea! : )
- suzie5270 Portland, OR joined 5/20 & has 1 comment
  Posted May 2nd, 2020 at 4:22 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Hi Maangchi,
  Please help learn how to print a recipe . Ive tried everything I can think of to print Spicy Garlic Fried Chicken. Thanks so much. Big fan of yours
lenggai Saudi Arabia joined 3/20 & has 2 comments
Posted March 11th, 2020 at 4:42 am | Log in to reply.

Tried this and my husband loved it!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
  Posted March 16th, 2020 at 10:48 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Awesome!
Eva-Alice Tucson, AZ joined 1/20 & has 3 comments
Posted January 12th, 2020 at 10:54 pm | Log in to reply.

Maangchi, you are a life saver. I am hosting a young (13 years old) exchange student from Ulleungdo, South Korea, and she is not a fan of American cuisine. Thankfully I found your site and I made this dish tonight and it was a huge success! Not only did our guest like it, but so did my family, and we will definitely be adding it to the rotation of regular meals. I did as another commenter suggested and added just a touch of gochujang, because we like it spicy in our family. It was seriously the bomb.com. I served it with white sticky rice and sautéed mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots. The best part is that I made this gluten free (I can’t have gluten) and it tastes just like it’s full of delicious gluteny goodness. All I did was use gluten free soy sauce and Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend. The potato starch is naturally gluten free. I’m super excited about this because now I know that I can make breaded chicken for other Asian dishes! This discovery will be life changing. Thank you, Maangchi!

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gasley Philippines joined 8/19 & has 1 comment
Posted August 11th, 2019 at 7:56 am | Log in to reply.

Hi!
I love watching your videos and tried your fried chicken recipes. Today I had made the honey butter chicken and my family loved it (Sorry no time to take pictures, it was gone right after I took it out of the pan ) . I will be trying your other recipes soon.

just a question regarding the honey butter sauce, the sugar should be melted? (Am I right? ) comparing to your video it was different, the sugar did not melt, its like Im cooking an island I dont know what happened, I had followed the instruction but its not the same on the video and no bubbles after I added the honey hahaha, though the outcome is good.

I dont know if I had missed something??? Does it have to do with the butter? Thank you
joieyooo Philippines joined 2/19 & has 1 comment
Posted February 20th, 2019 at 12:20 pm | Log in to reply.

Hi! How do I make it a little spicy and a little sweet?
- SAHMummy Malaysia joined 5/20 & has 1 comment
  Posted May 14th, 2020 at 5:19 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Maangchi, thanks so much for this recipe. My kids loved it. Sorry, no photo as the dish was finished by the time I had washed the utensils! Slight problem was because I used chicken breast without the skin. So it didn’t turn out as crunchy but still was good. By the way, I added sesame seeds instead of pumpkin seeds. It made the chicken more fragrant. Looking forward to trying more recipes soon.
  - Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,051 comments
    Posted May 20th, 2020 at 5:45 pm | Log in to reply.
    
    Awesome news!

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Honey butter fried chicken
Korean name: 허니버터치킨
Romanized: Heoni-beoteo-chikin

Categories: chicken, fried chicken, main dish, non spicy, snack
Made with: baking powder, butter, chicken, chicken wings, cooking oil, corn oil, egg, flour, garlic, ground black pepper, honey, potato starch, pumpkin seeds, salt, soy sauce, sugar, vegetable oil,