Koreanfried chicken or KFC, usually called chikin in Korea, refers to a variety of fried chicken dishes created in South Korea, including the basic huraideu-chikin and spicy yangnyeom-chikin. In South Korea, fried chicken is consumed as a meal, an appetizer, anju, or as an after-meal snack. Korean fried chicken differs from typical American fried chicken because it is fried twice; the skin is therefore crunchier and less greasy. Furthermore, Korean-style chicken is not characterized by the crags and crusty nubs associated with American fried chicken; it was described by Julia Moskin of The New York Times as a "thin, crackly and almost transparent crust". The chicken is usually seasoned with spices, sugar, and salt, prior to and after being fried. Korean fried chicken restaurants commonly use small- or medium-sized chickens; these younger chickens result in more tender meat. After frying, the chicken is usually hand-painted with sauce using a brush in order to evenly coat the chicken with a thin layer. Pickled radishes and beer are often served with Korean fried chicken.
Terminology
The Korean word chikin refers to fried chicken, while the name for the domesticated fowl is dak. The word is shortened from peuraideu chikin, which is a transliteration of the English phrase "fried chicken". According to the National Institute of Korean Language, the wordchikin refers to "a dish made by coating chopped chicken with flour, and frying or baking it". Fried chickens that are not chopped before frying are called tongdak. Both chikin and tongdak are occasionally referred to as dak-twigim. The unshortened form peuraideu chikin, despite being the "correct" transliteration, is not as popular in Korea. The more commonly used form, huraideu-chikin, may have been adopted in Korean owing to residual influence from the Japanese convention that persisted in Korea in the 1970s. The phrase huraideu-chikin is often shortened to huraideu and refers to a fried chicken dish without the added seasonings post-frying. This is often used to differentiate it from yangnyeom-chikin. The National Institute of Korean Language does not recognize huraideu-chikin as the conventional name, but insists on the transliteration peuraideu-chikin, which it also insists should be "refined" to dakgogi-twigim.
History
The concept of frying chicken in Korea has its beginning during the Korean War, when American troops were stationed in South Korea during the late-1940s, and the early-1950s. Traditionally, Koreans steamed chicken for consumption, and chicken dishes usually came in soups and broth. This all changed however, when Americans began placing stalls selling soul-food American fried chicken, focusing on the four areas of Seoul, Busan, Pyeongtaek and Songtan. The modern trend of eating chicken began in Korea during the late 1960s, when Myeongdong Yeongyang Center in Seoul began selling whole chicken roasted over an electric oven. The first Korean fried chicken franchise, Lims Chicken, was established in 1977 in the basement of Shinsegae Department Store, Chungmu-ro, Seoul by Yu Seok-ho. Yu stated that his idea of selling smaller, individual pieces of fried chicken in Korea came along in 1975 when he went to gostudy abroad in the United States. He began frying chicken there, and received accolades for creating 'ginseng chicken'. He started his business in Korea with six pieces of fried chicken between ￦280 to ￦330, and sold around 900 pieces as his beginning career. The well-known variety with spicy coatings, also known as yangnyeom-chikin, had its history begin in 1982 by Yun Jonggye, who was running Pelicana Chicken at Daejeon. He noticed that customers in his restaurant were struggling to chew on the hard, crisp layers of the fried chicken, and led to inconveniences such as scraped palates. Yun decided to pull a twist on the traditional fried chicken to soften the hard shells of the chicken, and appease more Korean customers by marinating it sweet, and spicy. Yang states that despite the spicy flavor, the very first yangnyeom-chikin did not include gochujang as one of their marinating ingredients. In recent years, owing to market saturation in Korea, many of Korea's major fried chicken chains, such as Mexicana Chicken, Genesis BBQ, Kyochon Chicken and Pelicana Chicken, have expanded to set up new presences in the United States, China, Canada, and Southeast Asia.
Varieties
By seasoning
Huraideu-chikin – often simply referred to as huraideu, this is the basic fried chicken.
Yangnyeom-chikin – fried chicken coated in gochujang-based sweet and spicy sauce.
Banban – shortened from yangnyeom ban, huraideu ban is often used to refer to chicken that is served half seasoned and half plain.
Ganjang-chikin – fried chicken coated in ganjang-based sweet and savoury sauce, which is often also garlicky.
Padak – fried chicken topped with or smothered with a large amount of thinly shredded scallions.
By style
Tongdak – also called yennal-tongdak, this is a 1970s-style whole chicken deep-fried in oil.
