For a little over a year, I did a keto diet. It was awful, and I don’t want to talk much about it, but when I was putting myself through that ordeal, I realized that I’m not a huge fan of consolation recipes. Now – you may be asking yourself, “What are consolation recipes?” which is a perfectly reasonable question, since the term is totally made up, and I’m not even sure if I’ve ever even said it out loud.
A consolation recipe is a recipe for a dish that does not fit a diet restriction, but through substitutions and self-deception, approximates the final product and does not violate the rules of the diet. Some examples:
In my personal experience, it’s better to find dishes that suit the diet you’re following than to make a depressing version of a food you shouldn’t be eating in the first place. There are, of course, some exceptions to this, but generally speaking, I find its much more satisfying to enjoy a food the way its meant to be made and eaten.
Korean fried chicken is one of those recipes that just so happens to be gluten free by happy accident, traditionally using either corn starch or potato starch as the breading. The crunch and flavor delivered by this breading is so satisfying, that I would find myself torn if I had to choose between that and a classic southern fried chicken.
Even knowing that, I did find myself curious about how this could be. Surely, a single coating was not enough to deliver such an impressive crunch… Was it? Also recipes calling for “either cornstarch or potatostarch” were confusing to me. The ingredients are not the same, so an either/ or option left me wondering how different the two final products would be. I felt the need to experiment. So I did. And I’m not going to tell you the results here. You’ll just have to watch!
Here’s the recipe
Recipe
Korean Fried Chicken (5 ways)
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 lb Bone-in, skin on chicken drumsticks or thighs
- 1 qt Neutral oil
Cornstarch Coating
- 1 C Cornstarch
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Freshly cracked pepper
- 1 tsp Freshly grated ginger
- 2 Eggs Beaten. Only if double dredging.
Potato starch mixture
- 1 C Potato starch
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Freshly cracked pepper
- 1 tsp Freshly grated ginger
- 2 Eggs Beaten. Only if double dredging.
Batter
- 1/2 C Corn starch
- 1/2 C AP Flour
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/4 C Vodka If you don't have vodka, you can just use water.
- 1/4 C Water Plus more to thin batter as needed
Sauce
- 3 Tbsp Butter
- 1/4 C Honey
- 1/4 C Brown sugar
- 2 tsp Rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Gochujang
- 2 Tbsp Tomato ketchup
Garnish
- 2 Tbsp Scallions Chopped fine
- 1 Tbsp Sesame seeds
Instructions
Single dredge method (corn or potato starch)
- In a wide bowl or pie plate, mix all coating ingredients
- Roll/ toss chicken in coating until fully covered. Tap to remove any excess.
- Set coated chicken in refrigerator, uncovered, for 30 minutes – 2 hours
- In a large dutch oven, fry chicken in neutral oil at 350 degrees F, until internal temperature is 165. For medium sized drumsticks or thighs, this should take about 13 minutes.
- Remove and let cool on rack. Let oil get back to 350 degrees, if the temperature dropped.
- Fry chicken again until the coating is a golden color, about 5 minutes.
- Coat in sauce, garnish, and serve
Double dredging (corn or potato starch)
- In a wide bowl or pie plate, mix all coating ingredients, except eggs.
- In a wide bowl or pie plate, whisk eggs.
- Roll/ toss chicken in egg until fully coated.
- Roll/ toss chicken in starch mixture, until fully coated
- Repeat the egg/ starch mixture coating one more time
- Set coated chicken in refrigerator, uncovered, for 30 minutes – 2 hours
- In a large dutch oven, fry chicken in neutral oil at 350 degrees F, until internal temperature is 165. For medium sized drumsticks or thighs, this should take about 13 minutes.
- Fry chicken again until the coating is a golden color, about 5 minutes.
- Coat in sauce, garnish, and serve
Batter (Not gluten free)
- In a wide bowl or pie plate, mix all coating ingredients
- Roll/ toss chicken in egg until fully coated.
- Set coated chicken in refrigerator, uncovered, for 30 minutes – 2 hours
- In a medium bowl, mix batter ingredients
- Add water as needed to get desired consistency. Ribbons of batter from the whisk should disappear quickly when hitting the batter in the bowl.
- Coat chicken in batter and fry chicken in a large dutch oven with neutral oil at 350 degrees F, until internal temperature is 165. For medium sized drumsticks or thighs, this should take about 13 minutes.
- Remove and let cool on rack. Let oil get back to 350 degrees, if the temperature dropped.
- Fry chicken again until the coating is a golden color, about 5 minutes.
- Coat in sauce, garnish, and serve
For the sauce
- Add all ingredients for the sauce into a small saucepan
- Over medium low heat, bring to light simmer for ~30 seconds
- Remove from heat and set aside until needed.