You’re 30 minutes away from the crispiest, crunchiest, tastiest chicken wings ever. Korean fried chicken, if you’ve never tried it, is an extra crunchy double fried chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce. It’s like the best hot wings ever.
Years and years ago, in NYC, Steph and I discovered new-to-us Korean fried chicken and it was unlike anything we’d ever had before. Crispy, crunchy, spicy, sticky, and sweet; it was like a whole other level of chicken. We loved it so much we went on a quest to try every version in the city, from then-glossy chain BonChon to some strange third floor lounge in the fashion district overlooking a discount ticket seller where we were the only customers (spoiler, it was the best of 6-8 that we tried).
Korean fried chicken was so big in those days that David Chang did an east-v-west chicken feast; one whole Korean fried chicken vs one whole old bay southern buttermilk fried chicken, for some ungodly amount of money at the original Momofuku. We went to that too.
These days, Korean fried chicken is everywhere, provided you live in a large city with decent Korean restaurants. It’s a classic Korean beer/late night snack food. But nothing really beats making it at home, fresh and hot.
We’ve always loved the idea of making Korean fried chicken at home, but even with as much as we cook, deep frying is never fun, so we’ve never done it. Steph suggested using the air fryer, which I thought was a genius idea, and I developed this double air fry technique that produced a pretty darn crispy chicken that I think rivals the best of the best deep fried versions.
What is Korean fried chicken?
Korean fried chicken is classically double fried extra crispy wings and drummettes that are then coated in a sticky, sweet, and spicy sauce. It’s like buffalo wings amped up with the power of gochujang.
What is the sauce that goes on Korean fried chicken?
The magical sauce that goes on Korean fried chicken is a mixture of honey, brown sugar, gochujang, and ketchup. Really: ketchup is a very important ingredient if you want to keep things authentic. It’s important to note that this is just one possible sauce – there are other sauces for Korean fried chicken out there, but this one (in America, at least) is the iconic one.
What is gochujang?
Gochujang is very slightly spicy fermented Korean paste that goes great in everything. We also use it for our sweet and spicy gochujang honey roast chicken and potatoes, our 10 minute spicy beef weeknight stir fry udon, and our kimchi stew with mochi egg recipe.. Traditionally it comes in tubs, but these days you can find it in much more convenient squeeze bottles in the Asian aisle of literally any grocery store.
How to make Korean fried chicken in an air fryer?
The secret of Korean fried chicken is the double frying. Double frying in the air fryer works just as well as it does with deep frying, but way easier. The secret is to coat your chicken after the first fry using a spray/mist of oil. It’s not totally necessary, but it really helps. To make Korean fried chicken in an air fryer:
1. Coat the chicken. I coated the chicken first with oil to help with heat transfer, then salt and pepper, then corn or potato starch, which is what Asian-style chicken is classically made with for a lighter, crispier outer shell.
2. Air fry the chicken. 400ºF for 15 minutes. There’s no need to preheat the air fryer.
3. Make the sauce. While the chicken is air frying, make the sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients, then heating it up to a very slight boil (or even just microwaving it for a minute).
4. Flip the chicken. When 15 minutes is up, flip the chicken and continue air frying for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.
5. Double fry and sauce. After the chicken has cooled, spray it with oil again, then air fry it for the final time at 400ºF for 5 minutes. Remove and toss in sauce, then enjoy immediately.
What if I don’t have spray oil?
Spray oil is really good, cheap, and irreplaceable in the kitchen – especially if you have an air fryer. It’s not worse for you than any other kind of oil, as long as you know when to use it and its limitations. We like a nice high smoke point propellant free oil, but you can use any oil you want (except olive because of its low smoke point) and you can even make your own.
How to make Korean fried chicken by deep frying?
If you don’t have an air fryer (you should really consider getting one as they are great and cheap these days) you can easily do it the classic way: deep fry the chicken until golden brown, then remove and let cool a bit before dropping it back in for a few more minutes. Then toss in sauce, as usual.
Will this sauce work with any kind of fried chicken?
Yes! If you are feeling lazy, you can just make the sauce and toss it in grocery store or chain fried chicken. It won’t be as good or quite the same, but still pretty awesome.
On the other hand, while this might seem like more work than just ordering delivery, right after I made this chicken, we went out and tried a local Korean fried chicken to compare and contrast (this is a thing we do). Our version was both tastier and crispier. There’s no comparison at all; this is worth trying.
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3 tbsp corn starch
For the sauce
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp gochujang see note
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 0.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 0.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 0.5 tbsp ginger grated
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
Instructions
- Coat the chicken with the oil, then season with salt and pepper. Toss with corn starch.
- Spray the air fryer basket with oil or use a paper towel to wipe a thin coat of oil onto it. Arrange the chicken in a single layer and air fry the chicken at 400ºF for 15 minutes.
- While the chicken is air frying, combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until it comes to a brief boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
- When the 15 minutes is up, flip the chicken and air fry another 5 minutes, then transfer the chicken onto a plate or rack to cool for 5 minutes.
- After the chicken has cooled, spray the chicken with a very light coating of oil (optional), place the chicken back in the air fryer and fry another 5 minutes at 400ºF. Toss in the sauce, making sure to get every nook and cranny. Enjoy immediately with wedges of lime and slices of green onion.
Notes
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-Steph & Mike
This recipe looks amazing! What changes would you recommend if we used boneless chicken breast? Thanks!
boneless chicken breast will cook a lot faster, i’d try, 375 for 3 minutes, flip, then another 3 minutes, let it cool down, then do the double fry at 400 for another 5 minutes. it will definitely be not as moist as the wings though!
do you have a similar adjustment for chicken thighs i.e. to make a sandwich out of this? :)
hi colin,
for thighs, please check out this post: Air Fryer Chicken Thighs or if you just want a time, 12-15 mins at 360°, flipping halfway depending on size :)
Love this recipe, thank you! I would recommend adding the salt and pepper to taste in the ingredients list. I didn’t see it there and completely glossed over when reading the instructions. I would maybe leave the wings to airfare for 10 min rather than 5 min right before tossing the sauce. It didn’t seem like the corn starch completed soaked into the chicken.
I never leave comments but really need to for this. These were incredible. Like restaurant quality wings. Highly recommend, will make again and again. We didn’t really follow the times because we were making more and it took longer (we used a rack to make a second layer), we just air fried until they were done to our liking.
Loved this recipe and so did my ultra-picky parents (that’s saying something!) Thank you for making it so clear cut- never dreamed of making Korean fried chicken on my own! I had to cook in many batches as my air fryer is quite small, but it still worked great!