Cooking Korean Food with Maangchi: Dak Kang Jung

Dak kang jung from Maangchi on Vimeo.

I love this woman. She makes very accessible Korean food and she takes it to the masses. Here's her recipe for Dak Kang Jung: a sweet crispy chicken dish.

1. Prepare 40 chicken wings or chunks of chicken, rinse them off in cold water and drain them.
2. Transfer the chicken into a big bowl.
3. Add 2 ts of salt, 1 ts of ground pepper, 2 eggs, and the mixture of ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of starch powder. Mix it by hand.
4. Deep fry the chicken wings in vegetable oil 2 times at about 350-380 degrees (F).

Sauce for coating:

1. Prepare a big wok or pan.
2. Place 1 cup of water in the wok and heat it up.
3. Slice 1 cup of ginger thinly after peeling the skin off and washing, and add it into the boiling water.
4. Add 2 TBS of soy sauce, 1 cup of brown sugar, ¼ cup of vinegar and boil it over medium heat.
5. 5 minutes after, add 1 cup of corn syrup and keep boiling over low medium heat about 30 minutes.
6. Raise a spoon of the sizzling sauce above the wok in the air and drop it until the sauce begins stopping halfway. Then turn off the stove.

Mix it up:

1. Reheat the sauce.
2. Add the deep fried chicken, 1 cup of peanuts (or any kind of nuts), 1/2 TBS dried red hot chili pepper, and ½ cup of toasted sesame seeds into the sizzling sauce and mix it with a spatula. The amount of sticky sauce will decrease while you are stirring. Then turn off the heat and you are done!

Tip: Before the chicken cools down, you may have to separate each piece of chicken wings to prevent them from sticking to each other.

For spicy food lover:
You can sprinkle 2 TBS of dried and crushed red chili pepper instead of 1/2 TBS.

For vegetarians:
Just make the sauce following the recipe above, and then add whatever dried ingredients you like and make candy! You can use sliced ginger, nuts (almond, walnuts, pine nuts, and peanuts), or sesame seeds.

1. Place plastic wrap on your cuttingboard
2. After mixing all the dried ingredients with the sticky sauce, spread it on the plastic wrapper on your cuttingboard. Wait a few minutes for it to harden.
3. Cut it into bite size pieces and enjoy!

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