Oven Baked Korean Fried Chicken

Oven Baked Korean Fried Chicken - made November 14, 2019 from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen

I was so enamoured of my first attempt at Korean Fried Chicken that I had to make it again. Only this time I wanted to avoid the mess of deep frying and try out this oven-baked version.

This one didn't turn out quite as well but I think that was more user error than anything to do with the actual recipe. Ideally, this recipe would work best with chicken wings. Except when I was at Costco, the chicken wings seemed way more expensive than they should've been. The chicken drumsticks were cheaper so my thrifty little soul went with that.

I dutifully went through all the breading instructions: coat in flour, dip in egg, roll in bread crumbs, dip in flour then egg again, dredge in panko crumbs. It was a bit messy but not the same mess if I had been deep frying.

And once you put them in the oven, you can forget about them until they're done. Which makes oven-"fried" an appealing alternative. Except the breading was heavier than the deep fried version and I have to admit, it wasn't as light and crunchy as the first KFC I made. So there are trade offs.

Because the drumsticks were so much bigger than chicken wings and drummettes and because I didn't make any alterations to the sauce recipe, I ended up with too much chicken and not enough sauce.

What sauce there was though was pretty good. Probably would've been a bit better with deep fried chicken but that would've defeated the purpose of oven-fried. So if you don't want the mess of deep frying, this is a good option. Not sure I would bill them as that much healthier than deep fried though, given all the breading. I'm going to have to try an air fryer version and see which works best.

2 lbs chicken wings and drummettes (I used drumsticks)
3 cups flour
3 cups plain bread crumbs
4 cups panko crumbs
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
5 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup gochujang (Korean chili paste)
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
sesame seeds for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top.
2. Place flour, eggs, bread crumbs and panko in separate shallow bowls. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Whisk eggs with 4 tablespoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons water. Mix the panko with the oil.
3. Thoroughly dry the chicken with paper towels. Coat each piece with flour then dip in egg wash then bread crumbs. Dip the chicken back in flour, again in egg wash then in panko. Transfer the coated chicken to the wire rack.
4. Once all the chicken is fully breaded, bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown at this point. Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and continue to cook for another 20-30 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Remove from oven.
5. Meanwhile, make the sauce: in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine ginger, garlic, gochujang, honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and pour over the chicken. Toss to coat completely. Garnish with sesame seeds if desired.