How KFC, AKA Korean fried hen, took over the world

[ad_1] I nside a educating kitchen south-east of Seoul, I coat an entire hen – reduce into eight elements – in batter and dip the items rigorously right into a bowl of powdered combine till lined in a light-weight, fluffy layer.

A chef watches intently. “Don’t rub it,” he says. “Hold it delicate.”

The hen, already brined in what I’m informed is a secret marinade, goes right into a fryer crammed with an olive oil mix, heated to 165C. I slowly decrease the items a 3rd of the way in which, then drop them in away from myself to keep away from splashing. I set a timer for 10 minutes.

Korean fried hen is ready for frying That is Hen College, a sprawling campus with an enormous hen statue on the entrance. It exists to coach would-be house owners of the BBQ Hen franchise chain by a two-week residential programme. Greater than 50,000 folks have handed by its school rooms.

This humble dish is comparatively easy, and isn't even conventional Korean delicacies, however it's a part of a nationwide obsession that has gone international, each bodily and culturally as a part of the Okay-food wave. The nation has been solely half-jokingly dubbed the Republic of Fried Hen.

South Korea has round 40,000 fried hen eating places – only a few thousand wanting the variety of McDonald’s branches worldwide. Most are small, family-run operations. However now, Korean hen manufacturers function greater than 1,800 shops in round 60 nations, almost double the variety of shops a decade in the past. From London to Los Angeles, Korean fried hen seems on the menu.

About an hour south-east of Seoul, previous fields and factories, sits Hen College, a sprawling campus with an enormous hen statue on the entrance. {Photograph}: Raphael Rashid/The Guardian It's the most well-liked Korean meals amongst worldwide customers, in response to a South Korean authorities survey of about 11,000 customers throughout 22 cities, spanning Asia, Europe, the Americas and Australia.

From post-war import to Okay-food export South Korea’s most profitable culinary export just isn't historically Korean. Fried hen arrived with American troopers stationed within the nation after the Korean battle, however the approach that made it distinctly Korean emerged a long time later.

About 1980, a hen store proprietor within the southern metropolis of Daegu, Yoon Jong-gye, seen prospects abandoning their hen as soon as it grew chilly, when the meat turned dry. So he started experimenting with brining the hen to maintain it juicy and a glaze produced from chilli powder. A neighbourhood grandmother prompt including corn syrup.

The outcome was yangnyeom hen – candy, sticky and spicy – and nonetheless interesting at room temperature. Yoon by no means patented his recipe and died in December 2025 at 74, having watched his invention unfold far past his tiny store the place it started.

South Korea’s distinct tackle fried hen has developed over a long time, with a spread of recipes tailor-made to recipes around the globe. {Photograph}: Raphael Rashid/The Guardian Korean hen manufacturers had been increasing internationally for the reason that early 2000s, however the cultural breakthrough got here in 2014, when the Korean drama My Love from the Star turned a sensation throughout China.

A line from its lead character – that “on the day of the primary snow, it is best to have hen and beer” – reportedly triggered queues exterior Korean hen eating places, even throughout an avian flu outbreak.

Chimaek, the portmanteau that means “fried hen and beer” from the Korean phrases “chikin” and “maekju”, has since change into a cultural shorthand, even coming into the Oxford English Dictionary.

It describes as a lot an act of collective pleasure as a meal: mates gathered round a desk, with a plate of hen on the centre and draught beer inside attain. Each July, Daegu hosts a chimaek pageant that attracts greater than one million guests.

One defining function of Korean fried hen is how it's served. Kim Ki-deuk, who has run an unbiased hen store close to Korea College in Seoul together with his spouse Baek Hye-kyeong for greater than 20 years, places it merely. “In quick meals locations, they could promote one or a number of items,” he says. “Korean hen is one full chook.”

Kim Ki-deuk and his spouse Baek Hye-kyeong at their store close to Korea College in Seoul. {Photograph}: Raphael Rashid/The Guardian Approach is one other issue, although strategies fluctuate.

At retailers like Kim and Baek’s, hen is fried twice. “We fry it as soon as first, then when the shopper orders, we fry it once more,” he says. “In any other case it will get soggy. That’s what makes it additional crispy.”

The batter, sometimes made with potato or corn starch, holds up underneath the sauce – whether or not a sweet-spicy yangnyeom glaze or a soy-garlic coating – permitting it to remain crisp lengthy after it has been boxed up for supply.

Prof Joo Younger-ha, a cultural anthropologist on the Academy of Korean Research who specialises in meals tradition, argues that Korean hen’s international success stems from its simplicity.

“Not like pork, hen crosses spiritual prohibition boundaries,” he says. “And in contrast to kimchi, which is handled like a aspect dish, or bibimbap, which isn’t instantly apparent as a dish, fried hen is instantly recognisable as a meal.”

Past its international enchantment, fried hen’s rise in South Korea displays one thing about trendy life there. Prof Joo traces its rise to the Eighties and Nineties, when residence residing, dual-income households, and supply tradition had been reshaping Korean life. Fried hen, quick, handy, and boxed for takeaway, fitted the second.

The trade has lengthy attracted mid-career Koreans in search of a route again to revenue after leaving company jobs, although the market is fiercely aggressive and margins are skinny.

Again at their fried hen store, Kim Ki-deuk slides one other batch of hen gizzards, one other well-liked menu merchandise, into the crackling oil. “Similar as traditional,” one buyer says.

“It’s nice that Korean hen is thought worldwide,” Kim says, wiping down the counter between orders. “Hen is for everybody, younger and outdated.

“Korea is such a small place. One chook doing all this work, introducing our nation, our tradition. It’s fairly one thing.”

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