What Should I Have for Dinner Tonight?: World Cup Food Recipes

Friday 20 June 2014

World Cup Food Recipes - South Korea

South Korean fried chicken thighs in spicy sauce

South Korea kicked off their World Cup Finals campaign on Tuesday with a 1-1 draw against Russia. With matches still to come firstly against Algeria and subsequently against Group H favourites Belgium, their World Cup future remains very much in the balance. Today I look at South Korean food and provide the recipe for a tasty dish which is perfect for preparing and enjoying while watching the World Cup. This was last night's dinner for me but I ran out of time last night to get the details published.

South Korean Fried Chicken Thighs Recipe

Korean Fried Chicken probably isn't the first thing people think of when they think KFC. This almost authentic recipe will hopefully give you an alternative chicken meal suggestion when you hear or see this acronym in future. I have made two significant changes to the majority of recipes I have seen around the Web. The first is that I have used chicken thighs (my favourite part of a chicken) instead of wings. Chicken wings recipes are generally very easily adapted to chicken thighs recipes or even chicken drumstick recipes, so this is a great way of adding variety to any relevant dish. The second change was sort of forced upon me in that the authentic recipe calls for the use of Korean chilli paste and I couldn't get it. I instead used tomato ketchup and chilli powder with what I at least believe to be very good results.

South Korean spicy sauce ingredients

Ingredients

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon medium strength chilli powder
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 inch piece ginger root, peeled
4 chicken thighs, skinned
3 tablespoons plain/all purpose flour
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons self-raising/rising flour
4 teaspoons cornflour/corn starch
Freshly chopped parsley to garnish

Ingredients ready for blitzing to make South Korean spicy sauce

Directions

Put all the sauce ingredients in to a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth. Pour in to a bowl, cover with clingfilm and set aside.

South Korean spicy chicken sauce

Make sure you take the chicken thighs from the fridge an hour in advance of cooking to let them reach room temperature. If they have not already been skinned, you will find the skin should very easily peel off in one piece.

Peeling skin from chicken thighs

Put the self-raising/rising flour and the cornflour/corn starch in to a large bowl. Season with salt and slowly begin adding cold water, whisking with a fork until a batter the consistency of thick cream is formed. Put the bowl in the fridge for fifteen minutes to let the batter rest.

Mixing batter for chicken thighs

Bring a deep fryer or deep frying pan of oil up to a medium to high heat. Add the plain/all purpose flour to a plastic bag and season well with salt and pepper. Add the chicken thighs and twist the bag closed, trapping as much air in it as possible. Very gently shake/invert the bag to cover all the thighs evenly in flour. This will help the batter stick.

Chicken thighs are floured and battered for deep frying

The chicken thighs are going to be fried twice. When frying them the first time, I fried them two at a time.

Take one thigh at a time from the flour bag and dip in the batter making sure it is evenly coated. Let any excess briefly drip off back in to the bowl and lay carefully in the hot oil. Fry for three minutes each side until the batter is just starting to turn golden. Drain on kitchen paper and leave to cool for five minutes.

Starting to deep fry battered chicken thighs

The oil should be a bit hotter for the second frying of the chicken thighs. Again, they are fried for three minutes on each side, by which time the batter should be an attractive dark golden colour and deliciously crisp.