Dakgangjeong (닭강정)
This moreish Korean fried chicken is a crowd pleaser, and I make things with wings pretty regularly. The classic chicken thigh nugget form factor goes well over rice, or as pictured, as a next-day bento box for lunch.
Ingredients:
500 grams boneless, skinless chicken thigh
2 teaspoons ground ginger
15 millilitres mirin (or other rice wine)
5 grams salt
5 grams black pepper
100 grams cornflour/cornstarch
1 serving of gochujang glaze
Method:
Dice your chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and place into a bowl (or sandwich bag) with the ground ginger and the rice wine.
Rest in the fridge for as long as you can - at least 30 minutes.
Put the cornflour into a bowl or a deep baking tray, and season with salt and pepper.
Coat your chicken pieces in the cornflour, and be patient with it - do it one or two pieces at a time to avoid introducing moisture into the batter.
In the meantime, pre-heat your deep-frying implement of choice to 170°C.
Do not over-fill it with oil -- avoiding house fires is your responsibility, not mine.
Deep-fry the chicken pieces, and ensure to not over-crowd the pan. You want a nice, even temperature of 170°C for this first fry, adding too many pieces at once will drop the temperature of the oil and make us both sad.
Two minutes at this temperature should give a pale crust to your chicken.
Drain on a wire rack.
Crank up the heat on your deep-fryer to 190°C.
Turn your once-fried chicken into twice-fried chicken - it should only need a minute or so to go deep brown and crunchy.
Drain again onto a wire rack and hit them now with some additional salt while they're still hot.
Get the chicken into a large bowl, pour a heavy helping of glaze over, and toss to combine.
Serve over jasmine rice with some bok choi, choi sum, or spinach.
