If you don’t follow me on Instagram (which you should) – you will have noticed that I have a slight obsession with fried chicken. In particular, I am obsessed with fried chicken burgers. Because England has yet to wow me when it comes to their beef, I have been sticking to chicken. Good news for me – their chicken is tasty. And the fried chicken burger I tried at Ma’Plucker was so delicious that I vowed to myself I would make something just as tasty. Because I am a student and cannot afford to eat out constantly.
However, you might also know that I love Korean Fried Chicken. More specifically their sweet and spicy mixture that uses gochujang. I have been dying to use gochujang in something so I figured the best way to do it was by making – you guessed it – chicken burgers! This recipe is for Korean Baked Chicken Burgers. You can bake these babies! Although you can just as easily fry them (in fact if I had the means I would fry these!). Unfortunately, I share a kitchen with 7 other people and I do not have the means (or energy) to fry things. Thus the majority of my recipes need to be oven or stove top friendly.
Thankfully my Korean baked chicken burgers are very simple to prepare and bake. They take little effort and you can whip up the sauce while the burgers are baking! You can also clean up, listen to a few tunes and scroll through Instagram while you’re at it. See, I told you, my recipes are going to be easy and time efficient!
KFC / K(BAKED)CHICKEN
The mixture for the sauce (that is integral to the dish) requires you to have gochujang. You cannot find a substitution – well you can – but then it won’t be as good and it won’t be Korean. So please go out and grab some! The rest of the ingredients are pantry staples (soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger etc…). Finally, you will need a mixture of flour and cornstarch for the dredge. In an effort to save some space in the recipe box I am going to give you a step by step breakdown of how to assemble the burgers so pay attention to this part 🙂
Assembling Instructions
- Begin by adding the marinade to the chicken and let it rest in the fridge overnight or allow the chicken to marinate for at least an hour.
- In a large bowl add all the ingredients for the egg mixture.
- In a large shallow dish add the dredge mixture (flour and cornstarch) as well as the requisite spices.
- Begin by dipping a chicken piece in the flour mixture. Make sure every inch is coated. Shake off the excess.
- Dip the chicken in the egg mixture. Let the excess run off.
- Place the chicken back into the flour and coat the entire area. Ensure that you shake off any excess.
- Frying the chicken: Bring a large Dutch oven filled with canola oil to the proper temperature (medium-high heat) and let the chicken cook for 7-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. If you find the outside is browning too fast and the inside isn’t cooking properly, first ensure that your oil has been heated to the proper temperature and then lower it to medium heat and allow the chicken to cook a bit longer.
- Place the chicken on a plate covered with a paper towel to catch the excess oil. Immediately assemble on a bun and drizzle the gochujang mixture. Eat it!
- Baking the chicken: Preheat the oven to 400F or 200- 180C. Dredge the chicken as indicated above and place in an oven-safe casserole dish lined with parchment paper, or cooking spray on the bottom. When the oven is properly preheated place the chicken inside and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked properly inside.
- Serve immediately on a bun and drizzle the sauce on top.
- If the chicken is too spicy, I like to offset the spice with some honey on top!
KOREAN BAKED CHICKEN BURGERS
gochujang. crispy chicken. sandwich style
Korean Baked Chicken Burgers
Crispy chicken, a sweet and spicy Korean style sauce. Bake them or fry them!
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade
- 2 chicken breasts cut into half for a total of 4 pieces
- salt + pepper
- 2 tbsp gochujang paste
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp chili flakes
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Egg Mixture
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk (you can use buttermilk!)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp vodka/sake/whiskey (optional)
Flour Dredge
- 1/2 cup corn starch *
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour *
- 1 tbsp paprika
- salt + pepper
Gochujang Drizzle
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin (can use rice wine vinegar instead)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar (can increase this if you feel it needs to be sweeter)
- 2 tbsp gochujang (can increase this if you feel it needs to be spicier)
- 1 tsp fresh grated ginger (if you're in a pinch substitute the same amount for ginger powder)
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tsp honey
Instructions
-
Place chicken breasts in a bowl and add the marinade to it. Allow them to marinate overnight in the fridge overnight. If you are pressed for time, allow the chicken to at least marinate for an hour or more if possible.
-
Assemble the dredge (as indicated in the section above), and begin to assemble the chicken. Remember that it goes flour, egg mixture, back in the flour again.
-
Either fry your chicken burgers for 7-10 minutes on medium-high heat or bake them at 400F for 30-40 minutes. Make sure the chicken is cooked through. Flip the chicken halfway through if frying or check the chicken in the oven to ensure that the flour isn't burning.
-
Serve immediately on a bun of your choice (I chose ciabatta) and serve the drizzle on top! The heat from the chicken will allow the mixture to enter every crevice of the chicken burger!
Gochujang Mixture
-
Place all the ingredients in a bowl or in a saucepan. Mix the ingredients and microwave it in 30-second increments until the brown sugar has melted (stirring between each session in the microwave).
Alternatively, you can cook the ingredients on a stop top on low heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture bubbles a bit!
Recipe Notes
* cornstarch will always yield a crispier coating. Plus it has a higher tolerance to being fried/baked and won't burn, unlike flour. You can easily switch the measurements if you're running low on cornstarch or omit it entirely from your mixture. You can also omit the flour and use the total sum of cornstarch instead!
***
HONESTLY I LOVE CHICKEN. AND I LOVED FRIED CHICKEN. AND I LOVE KOREAN SPICES. SO NATURALLY THESE THREE THINGS MERGE INTO THE GREATEST CHICKEN BURGER YOU WILL EVER HAVE!
I made a slightly different version of this recipe as I did not have the ingredients for the drizzle nor the time.
Instead I added a bit of buttermilk to the chicken mixture in addition to the other ingredients and left it to marinate overnight.
When frying it, I dipped it in flour, egg and then Pablo breadcrumbs and then into the frying pan.
As for the drizzle, I used an artisan honey from Greece that my daughter bought for me.
All in all, it tastes delish!!!
Thank you, Thousand Caminos for this inspirational recipe 👍🏻
Hi Sabo, thanks for your sweet message! I always encourage people to play around with my recipes to their liking. Nothing is set in stone. At the end of the day all that matters is that the food tastes delicious 🙂 I hope you continue gaining inspiration from my recipes <3