Tag: #KFC
Chicken, Woman, Man, Soccer, Beer-Extra Points For Fried (KFC)

Chicken, Woman, Man, Soccer, Beer-Extra Points For Fried (KFC)

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The Hubster is still on his quest for the perfect fried chicken.  He is getting pretty darn close if you ask me.  This time a recipe for Fried Chicken Wings caught his eye, which was okie-dokie with me.  I love any kind of fried chicken.

KFC

When we were in Seoul last year (seems like forever ago), one of the first things we did was hit the streets looking for KFC, no,  not Kentucky Fried Chicken, but Korean Fried Chicken.  We found a place, there are zillions to choose from (there are more fried chicken stores in South Korea than McDonalds in the world, its not even close) that serves Chicken and Beer or Chimaek as it is called.  Apparently, back in the early 2000s, when South Korea made a serious run at the World Cup, Koreans ate a ton of fried chicken and drank a lot of beer while watching the matches.  Their love for KFC persisted after the soccer tourney and whenever a soccer match is broadcasted, chicken sales go crazy in S. Korea.

Yes, in Myeongdong Market, one of many restaurants, for chicken and beer.  My kinda town.

I don’t drink beer normally (I’m a wine gal) but it did go REALLY well with the sweet and spicy fried chicken.  Serve wings with savory crackers and radishes for a complete meal-protein, veggies, and starch.  See?

The Secret to Captain K-runch

KFC is super crunchy and crispy and the secret to the extra crunch, drum roll please, is twice-fried chicken.  The first fry is to cook and seal the chicken and the second fry is to give it that extra crunch.  The other secret is to use potato starch as part of the batter for the chicken to kick up the crispiness even more.

The chicken is marinated so its pretty tasty as is after frying, BUT what fun would that be?  I found a delicious sweet and spicy sauce for fried chicken from one of my favorite sites, Korean Bapsang.  We transferred the fried chicken into the sauce and rolled the chicken in the sauce to coat.  So good, it immediately transported me back to our visit to Seoul and having DakGangjeong in the street markets.  맛있는! Delicious!

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Korean Sweet and Crispy Fried Chicken (DakGangjeong)

How to make Sweet Crispy Crunchy Korean Fried Chicken Wings
Course Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine Korean
Keyword Crispy, Fried Chicken, Sweet and Spicy
Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 30 minutes

Equipment

  • Deep Fryer

Ingredients

Chicken and marinade

  • 2 to 2.5 lbs chicken wings
  • 1/2 tsp 2 3/4 g salt
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger minced
  • 1/2 tsp Gochugaru Korean chili powder
  • 1 tsp fresh garlic minced
  • 1 Tbsp yellow onion minced or grated
  • 1/4 cup rice wine or sherry
  • cooking oil to deep fry

Fry Mix

  • 1 cup 125 g potato starch can sub cornstarch for potato starch
  • 1 cup 125 g all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder optional
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp Gochugaru powder fine grind not coarse
  • 2 tsp granulated garlic powder
  • 2 tsp granulated onion powder

The Sauce

  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons rice wine or mirin
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon gochujang Korean red chili pepper paste
  • 3 tablespoons honey or corn or rice syrup
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon grated ginger
  • pinch pepper

Instructions

The Chicken

  • Combine marinade ingredients and add to chicken wings, get in there and mix the marinade into the chicken. Marinade in fridge at least a couple of hours to overnight

Fry Mix

  • Combine flour and starch and seasonings in a bowl. Mix well.
  • Remove 1/2 cup of dry mix to a separate bowl. This is for the batter. Add approximately 1/2 cup cold water to the 1/2 cup fry mix shoot for pancake bstter like consistency.
  • Heat vegetable oil in a pot big enough to hold a quart and half of oil. Or if you are lucky enough to have a deep fryer-ues as directed. (I don't have one so you are on your own)
  • As the oil heats to 350 degrees. Prep your chicken.
  • Set up your station like this: chicken, wet batter, dry mix, rack. Place chicken pieces in wet batter and coat thoroughly. Take each piece and roll it in the dry mix to coat well, pat down the dry mix on each piece. Place on rack and repeat with remaining pieces.
  • When the oil reaches 350 degrees add chicken a few pieces at a time to fryer. Fry approximately 7-8 minutes until a nice crust forms on the chicken. It will still be pale in color. Remove chicken to rack and continue to all the pieces are fried. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Fry chicken a second time until golden brown about 2 minutes.
  • You can serve chicken as is or coat pieces with the sweet and spicy sauce, my favorite.

Sweet and Spicy Sauce

  • In a pan large enough to hold the chicken, combine sauce ingredients, and stir well. Bring it to a boil. When it starts to bubble, reduce the heat to medium low, and simmer until it thickens slightly, about 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Add chicken to sauce mixture. Stir to coat and pour onto a platter. Garnish with sesame seeds and diced green onions.
The Sheldon Trifecta (Maui Eats Part 2)

The Sheldon Trifecta (Maui Eats Part 2)

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Are you a fan of Top Chef?

For those of you who are, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph.

For those of you who aren’t…shame on you! Just kidding. Hubby and I love this show and have been watching it religiously since it first came on the air. Taking advantage of the popularity of reality TV land competition, Bravo came up with a show pitting cooks against each other. Think of it as Survivor for Chefs.  Thirteen Chefs battle it out for weeks until “there can be only one”.

Every week a new cooking challenge results in the elimination of one of the chefs by a panel of judges. The judges include Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons and a rotation of guest chefs.  They and the guest chefs are all rock stars in the culinary world.

The Real Hunger Games

This isn’t your cook me something yummy and may the best dish win. This is, make me a Michelin meal out of ingredients you find in a gasoline station mini-mart or the office vending machine.

My favorite episode is restaurant wars.  They divide into teams, come up with a concept, build a dining space to match the concept and menu, and boom make it happen on a limited budget of both time and money.  Needless to say, it’s quite entertaining.

One of my all-time favorite contestants is Sheldon Simeon from Hawaii. Sheldon is the classic island boy, laid back, and cooks straight from the heart. His grandmother served as his inspiration. His food roots, Asian/Filipino/Hawaiian home cooking with a twist that elevates simple to sublime.  I jumped on Team Sheldon early and was totally bummed when he did not win. He went home to the islands back to  Star Noodle on Maui.

So, of course, it became my mission on this trip to eat at there.

Star Noodle

Put Star Noodle on your Maui bucket list.

The food is delicious, it is down-home comfort food that starts with impeccable ingredients and finishes with a contemporary flair.  The chicken wings were sweet, salty, spicy, crispy, and light. The garlic noodles are simple but packed with flavor.  If you like pork belly…get the Pinoy version of Bacon & Eggs, sizzling chunks of pure porky goodness with a perfectly cooked 6-minute egg that oozes over the pork, yum.  Elvis would be jealous.

The malasadas, come to the table as little pillowy bites of sweetness accompanied by chocolate and caramel sauces.  If Leonard’s malasadas had hipster kids, these would be it.  Ironically I thought the ramen was just ok, but then again I’m from Cali y’all where good ramen can be found everywhere.

Star Noodle Malasadas

Halfway between Kaanapali and the Maui Airport, sits Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop. It’s across from the beach off of Honoapi’ilani Hwy (try to say that 10 times real fast) in an unassuming strip, if you blink, you will miss it.  On my way to a Henry Kapono and Friends concert, I made a pitstop at Leoda’s.  I chose the banana cream pie, Island Lime Pie, and 2 savory hand pies.

Bananas for Banana Cream Pie

The standout was the banana cream pie. Yum.  The hand pies had too much crust and not enough filling.  I LOVE crust so this was surprising me, wishing for a bit more filling.  I kept the banana cream pie to share with the birthday girl.

So there we were Pam, Randi, and me sitting on the lanai overlooking the beach, eating pie, fresh mangoes, and papayas, sipping on our morning coffee-paradise found.

Checked out Henry of Cecilio & Kapono.  One of the best-known musical duets from the islands, folk meets island music. While my friends were dining at Roy’s I was enjoying the music of Henry Kapono which immediately transported me back in time to my first visit to the islands.

On the way to the airport…because I can never get enough island grindz, we stopped at Tin Roof.  We were fifth in line before the joint opened.  Might have been first if we hadn’t stopped for gas..just sayin’.  Tin Roof is Sheldon’s casual eatery, actually, it’s strictly take-out.  There is a bench in front but that’s where everyone sits waiting to get in.  Life’s 1st world island problems…

The star of Tin Roof is the bowls.  Poke’, Pork Belly, Mochiko Chicken.  You can choose to have the mains with rice or garlic noodles.  I liked the poke bowl the best. The food here is fresh and flavorful, broke da mouth not the bank good.  He has these vegan-like dessert Pono Pies that for me were just meh.  I’d rather head out for shaved ice at Ululani’s instead.

All I can say is so many places to eat, so little time….my review of Sheldon’s eats was totally objective and professional…I am not at all starstruck and I offer proof.

HOLY JUMPING CATFISH, SHELDON WAS AT TIN ROOF!!!!  So I asked to take one photo, yeah..I’m a groupie.