Korean Popcorn Chicken

Are you a fan of K-drama movies? Korean Popcorn chicken must be so popular for you. Gochujang sauce has a unique taste for spicy lovers. I will tell you why! It tastes spicy with balancing subtle sweetness notes, which for sure will make you addicted.

Korean Drama and Movies

Is anyone interesting in watching Korean dramas or Movies? Because I’m lately into it. Recently, my activity doesn’t that much. The rainy season has come frequently, rather than a bright day. It is such perfect weather to say Netflix and chill, but since we watch Korean drama so we say k-drama and Tteokbokki 😀 or K-drama and Korean popcorn chicken ( if you have the right idiom please comment down below, thank you XD)

So, what movies do you watch now? I might recommend you to watch K-drama Reply 1988, Vincenzo, Crash Landing on you, Hospital Playlist. For the movie. A movie that stole my heart and catches my eyes is a movie about a spy who undercover as a fried chicken seller. I swear to you their visualization of the chicken is nice and tempting. Do not forget the ASMR of crispiness will make you want to taste it and go to Korea to buy their fried chicken. The title of the movie is Extreme job.

When I finished watching k-drama, the first thing that come out after I watch the movie is starving! Yes, their food always looks tasty delicious and on point, I can not wait to try them. I’ve been tried Tteokbokki, Ramyeon, Corn dog, rabokki, and they taste like magic, it hypnotized you. For now, I will try to make Korean popcorn chicken. This is quite easy because the Korean sauce especially gochujang sauce is something you can buy anywhere in the grocery store.

Korean Food and the sauces

Korean food characteristic is probably always tasty, full of spices with a reddish color that makes looks so tempting, hot, and spicy, yet the truth is not spicy. Also, Korean food is served in a big pan and has a big portion, so we can share the meal with the family. There are many Korean sauces we can find in Korean food that have a blend of sweet, salty, spicy, and one of them is gochujang sauce.

Gochujang Sauce

What is gochujang sauce? Gochujang sauce is one of the famous Korean cuisine ingredients. Gochujang’s name comes from the term Gochu means red chili and Jang which means paste. To make this sauce all you need is fine Korean chili powder, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice, and a pinch of salt. The texture of Gochujang sauce is thick and sticky from glutinous rice. Even tho the color of gochujang sauce is ruby dark red and looks very spicy, the truth is Gochujang sauce also has a subtly sweet and salty note. The sweet taste comes from glutinous rice fermentation, and the salty notes come from the soybean. It might be tricky and strong taste which make gochujang has a unique taste.

Gochujang is used in many Korean cuisines, besides Korean popcorn chicken, it is also used in marinade meat or seafood, to make soup and stews, to dress vegetables, and goes inside dishes.  Some Korean food that used gochujang sauce is Tteokbokki, Bibimbap, Kimchi jiggae, Maueun dakbal, Nakji bokkeun, Kimchi bookeumbap, Budaejiggae.

Recently, there are many variations from gochujang sauce for instance spicy gochujang, less spicy, beef seasoned gochujang, chicken seasoned gochujang, and many more. Luckily, we got all the instant gochujang sauce and you can buy it easily at a grocery store. To Add on some of the gochujang sauce has alcohol ingredients due to the fermentation, if you did not consume alcohol, you can buy the gochujang sauce with halal keywords or simply look at the ingredients behind the packages.

Let’s get started with the recipe for today.

Psst if you want to make popcorn chicken without any sauces, you check my previous recipe or simply click this -> Popcorn Chicken

The Ingredient of Korean Popcorn Chicken

Popcorn Chicken

• Chicken- I use tender chicken breast, Cut them into bite-size.  
• Flour – I use all-purpose flour. You can use cornflour or potato chips also if you like it.
• Cornstarch- I use cornstarch as final coating to give the crispy sensation.
• Seasoning– I use white peppers powder, salt, chicken stock powder.
• Water- for mixing the chicken and the flour
• Garlic powder – adding some spices to the batter to add the savory.
• Cooking oil – for frying in a deepfried popcorn chicken

Gochujang Sauce

• Gochujang Paste– Gochujang, a sauce from fine Korean chili powder, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice, and a pinch of salt. It has a thick and sticky texture from glutinous rice. Here, I’m using non-alcohol Gochujang, However, you can choose the paste to use alcohol or not based on your preference, it is not change the taste.
• Sesame Oil– for mixture the gochujang sauce with the popcorn chicken, you can add rice vinegar to add some sour taste, but do not forget to add water after that to keep balancing the gochujang sauce.
• Sesame seeds– for the garnish and add prettier looks to the chicken, you can add green onion too.

How to Make Korean Popcorn Chicken

Popcorn Chicken

First thing first, cut the chicken breast into bite-size. Add a pinch of salt and white pepper.

Next, In a bowl, combine all-purpose flour, I use white peppers powder, salt, chicken stock powder, and the dry ingredients except for cornstarch. The cornstarch will use in another bowl.

Mix all the dry ingredients.

After that, take a piece of chicken and coat it with cornstratch powder. Try and get as much flour in the cracks of the chicken.

Don’t forget to add the water into the chicken breast, to make the batter and chicken breast absorb the spices better. Stir and Coat the chicken with the dry mixture.

Next, to start making popcorn chicken, put the chicken one by one in a dry mixture. Make sure the chicken is even spreadly coating.

Now, start by lightly coating the chicken with flour. then coat with cornstarch.

Then, Do and repeat for the rest of the popcorn chicken

Heat the frying pan on medium heat. To make sure the heat is already ready to go, try to cook the tiny leftover from the mixture, If it is cooked and slowly rises to the top, you’re ready to cook the popcorn chicken

Start to fry the popcorn chicken. You can fry for about 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Don’t crowd the pan, fry the popcorn chicken in several batches. Then, store on a cooling rack to remove the excess oil from the popcorn chicken

The Gochujang Sauce

First, In a big bowl, insert the gochujang Paste with sesame oil.

Here, I add some tomato sauce a little bit, because the gochujang paste was too strong for me, So I add the tomato sauce to give a balancing taste. Try to combine the gochujang, sesame oil, and tomato sauce.

The next step is to stir the popcorn chicken into the gochujang sauce until evenly spread.

Lastly, before serving, sprinkle the Korean popcorn chicken with sesame seeds. It gives a prettier look like a garnish and adding some texture to food. you can add other garnish such as green onion too!

Finally, the Korean popcorn chicken is ready to serve. Enjoy this Yummy snack!

Recipe Notes:

• In coating the chicken, there will be smudges and flour clumps after the chicken are coating. You can divide flour for the secondary coating half in advance. Or you can use another bowl, so the wet and the dry flour will not mix and ruin the coating.
• Don’t worry about the heat temperature when you cook, the popcorn chicken is so small in size compare with fried chicken. So, it will make cooked quickly.
• I add some tomato sauce when making the gochujang sauce to give more balancing taste of the sour and salty from soybean fermentation. However, it is based on your preference. You can use the gochujang sauce and sesame oil directly or you add some other sauce to make the taste lighter.

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TRY OTHER SPICY FOOD TO ACCOMPANY YOUR LEISURE TIMES:

• Spicy Chicken Wings
• Korean Beef Bulgogi Meatballs
• Spicy Beef Chashu Ramen Noodles