Korean fried chicken

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

Put the chicken pieces in a mixing bowl, along with the saké, sugar, celery salt and black pepper. Massage well to combine, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 1 hour. Remove and allow to come back to room.

Meanwhile, to make the glaze, combine the jocheong, ketchup, 2tbsp water, sugar, soy sauce, gochujang and garlic in a bowl, mix well and set aside.

Put the 1tbsp vegetable oil and gochugaru in a cold wok or frying pan and set it over a low heat to warm up, stirring constantly with a flexible spatula to prevent the gochugaru burning. In a few minutes, the oil will change in colour to a deep red and the gochugaru will start to bloom.

Swiftly add the glaze mixture from the bowl and increase the heat to rapidly bubble for around 2 minutes to thicken the sauce enough to coat the back of the spoon like runny custard – it should not be sticky and glue-like yet. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Prepare the batter by combining the plain flour, 30g of the rice flour and the cornflour in a bowl. Gradually add 150ml cold water to the mix, whisking to break up any lumps.

Toss the room-temperature chicken thoroughly with the remaining 40g rice flour, then add the chicken to the batter and give it a good mix by hand.

Prepare a cooling rack set over a roasting tray.

To fry the chicken, pour vegetable oil into a large pan suitable for deep-frying – it should be deep enough to submerge the chicken pieces but only come three-quarters of the way up the pan while you are frying.

Heat the oil to 160C, then carefully lower in a few of the battered chicken pieces and fry for 2–3 minutes until cooked through but only pale golden at this stage. Continue to cook the chicken in small batches, transferring each batch to the cooling rack once done to allow the steam to escape.

Increase the heat of the oil to 175C and fry the chicken pieces again, in small batches, for 2–3 minutes until they’re golden and crispy, making sure you don’t overcrowd the pan. Transfer each batch once more to the cooling rack so any excess oil drains off. Don’t be tempted to sit the chicken on kitchen paper as it will just steam and lose its crispiness.

Put the wok or frying pan with the glaze over a medium heat to warm up. As soon as the edges start to bubble up, toss in the fried chicken while energetically moving the pan around to glaze. Very quickly, the sauce will coat the chicken and thicken around the crusts.

Remove from the heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with pickles, if using.