Korean fried chicken facts for kids

Korean fried chicken
Ganjang-chicken (coated with soy sauce), huraideu-chicken (regular fried chicken), and yangnyeom chicken (coated with spicy sauce) with a glass of beer.
Quick facts for kids Korean name
Hangul	치킨
Revised Romanization	chikin
McCune–Reischauer	ch'ik'in
IPA	[tɕʰi.kʰin]

Korean fried chicken, often called chikin (치킨) in Korea, is a popular dish from South Korea. It includes many types of fried chicken, like the classic huraideu-chicken (후라이드 치킨) and the spicy yangnyeom chicken (양념 치킨, meaning "seasoned chicken").

In South Korea, people enjoy fried chicken as a main meal, a starter, a snack with drinks (called anju), or even as a late-night treat.

Julia Moskin from The New York Times described Korean fried chicken as having a "thin, crackly and almost transparent crust". The chicken is often seasoned with spices, sugar, and salt before and after it's fried. Restaurants usually use smaller, younger chickens, which makes the meat more tender. After frying, the chicken is often brushed by hand with sauce to make sure every piece is coated evenly. Pickled radishes and beer (or soda) are commonly served with Korean fried chicken.

What is Korean Fried Chicken?

The Korean word chikin (치킨) means fried chicken. It comes from the English word "chicken". The word for the actual bird (the animal) is dak (닭).

The most common type of plain fried chicken is called huraideu-chikin (후라이드 치킨). This name is often shortened to just huraideu (후라이드). It means fried chicken without any extra sauce added after frying.

Another very popular type is yangnyeom-chikin (양념 치킨). This means "seasoned chicken" and refers to fried chicken that is coated in a sweet and spicy sauce.

If the chicken is fried whole, without being cut into pieces first, it's called tongdak (통닭, meaning "whole chicken").

How Korean Fried Chicken Became Popular

People in Korea have been frying chicken for a very long time, possibly since the Goryeo Dynasty (which was around the 15th century). In the early Joseon dynasty, a dish called "Pogye" was made by frying chicken with a special sauce of vinegar and soy sauce.

Eating chicken became a big trend in Korea in the late 1960s. At that time, a place in Seoul called Myeongdong Yeongyang Center started selling whole chickens roasted in an electric oven.

Modern fried chicken, like we know it today, began to appear in Korea in the 1970s. This was when cooking oil became widely available.

The First Fried Chicken Franchise

The first modern Korean fried chicken chain was Lims Chicken. It opened in 1977 in a department store in Seoul. The founder, Yu Seok-ho, got the idea in 1975 while studying in the United States. He started selling smaller, individual pieces of fried chicken. His business quickly grew, and fried chicken became a popular food to eat with draft beer. This pairing is so famous that it has its own word: "chimaek", which combines "chicken" and "maekju" (the Korean word for beer).

The Invention of Spicy Yangnyeom-chikin

The well-known spicy yangnyeom-chikin was created in 1982 by Yun Jonggye. He ran a fried chicken restaurant in Daegu. He noticed that his customers found the crispy fried chicken hard to chew, and it sometimes hurt their mouths. So, Yun decided to make the chicken softer and more appealing to Korean tastes by marinating it in a sweet and spicy sauce. Interestingly, the very first yangnyeom-chikin did not use gochujang (Korean chili paste) in its sauce.

Fried chicken became even more popular when Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) opened its stores in South Korea in 1984.

Growth and Expansion

In the late 1990s, during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, many people who lost their jobs opened fried chicken restaurants. This helped the number of chicken restaurants grow a lot.

Today, there are so many fried chicken restaurants in Korea that many big Korean chains, like Mexicana Chicken, Genesis BBQ, Kyochon Chicken, and Pelicana Chicken, have opened new restaurants in other countries like the United States, China, Canada, and Southeast Asia.

By 2013, there were over 20,000 fried chicken restaurants in South Korea. By 2017, this number grew to 36,000! Almost one-third of all the chicken eaten in South Korea is fried chicken. It's a truly common and beloved food.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the international chain Bonchon was one of the few restaurant chains that continued to open new stores.

Types of Korean Fried Chicken

Banban (half seasoned and half plain) chicken

By Seasoning

• Huraideu-chikin (후라이드 치킨, "fried chicken") – This is the basic fried chicken, often called just huraideu. It's usually plain or lightly seasoned.
• Yangnyeom-chikin (양념 치킨, "seasoned chicken") – Fried chicken coated in a sweet and spicy sauce, often made with gochujang.
• Banban (Hangul: 반반; Hanja: 半半, "half-half") – This means you get half yangnyeom chicken and half huraideu chicken. It's perfect if you can't decide!
• Ganjang-chikin (간장 치킨, "soy sauce chicken") – Fried chicken coated in a sweet and savory sauce made with soy sauce. It often has a strong garlic flavor too.
• Padak (파닭, "scallion chicken") – Fried chicken that is topped with or covered in lots of thinly sliced scallions (green onions).
• Honey-Chikin (허니 치킨, "honey sauce chicken") – Similar to soy sauce chicken, but it's sweeter and stickier because it uses honey.

By Style

• Tongdak (통닭, "whole chicken") – Also called yennal-tongdak (옛날통닭, "old-time whole chicken"), this is a whole chicken deep-fried in oil, popular in the 1970s.
• Sunsal-chikin (순살 치킨, "pure flesh chicken") – This means boneless chicken pieces.

Popular Korean Fried Chicken Brands

Many different brands sell Korean fried chicken. Here are some well-known ones:

• bb.q Chicken (stands for “best of the best quality”) – This brand has been featured in many famous Korean dramas like Guardian: The Lonely and Great God and Crash Landing on You.
• BHC
• Bonchon Chicken (본촌치킨)
• Buloman Sutbul Barbecue (불로만 숯불 바베큐)
• Chungman Chicken (충만치킨)
• Dasarang (다사랑)
• Goobne Chicken (굽네치킨)
• Jadam Chicken (자담치킨) – This was the first and only Korean fried chicken brand to use chicken from farms that follow Animal welfare standards since 2017.
• Kyochon (교촌)
• Mexicana (멕시카나)
• Nene Chicken (네네치킨)
• Norang Tongdak (노랑통닭)
• Puradak (푸라닭)
• Gcova Chicken (지코바치킨)
• Han's Chimaek (한스 치맥)

Images for kids

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  Ganjang-chicken (coated with soy sauce), huraideu-chicken (regular fried chicken), and yangnyeom chicken (coated with spicy sauce) with a glass of beer.

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  Banban (half seasoned and half plain) chicken

See also

In Spanish: Pollo frito coreano para niños