This Korean sweet soy glazed chicken wings dish is called "Gangjung dahk." I'm not quite sure exactly what Gangjung means but it means something like "candied." Anyways, I remember I tasted the best sweet soy glazed chicken wings at a local farmers' market in Incheon, Korea when I was little and just fell in love with it and so I gained 10 pounds from eating those a little too much everyday over a winter break.
1. Pour milk into chicken wings. Milk will get rid of any bloody flavor of chicken and make it taste smooth.
2. Add 2tbsp of minced garlic and sprinkle some black pepper.
3. You let the wings get marinated into milk for 20 minutes.
4. Then drain out the milk, preserving the garlic pieces.
5. Pour 3tbsp of sake (rice wine) into the wings.
6. Sprinkle some smoked paprika powder and ginger powder.
7. Mix it around and you need to put this in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
8. Now it's time to start making some batter. It won't be much of liquid batter. Instead, add 4:1 ratio of flour and corn starch to the wings and mix them around.
9. Now prepare a container with corn starch.
10. Throw chicken wings into corn starch and let the powder get onto the meat thoroughly. Make sure you do this quickly and throw it into the hot oil for frying while the corn starch is still dry on the outside. Once the chicken soaks up the powder, you will not get a crispy clothing after you deep fry them.
11. Deep fry the wings for the first time. Do not make the oil extremely hot for the first time. You can leave the oil in medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes before deep frying. This way, you get to slowly cook the chickens thoroughly all the way inside for the first time. Take about 10 minutes to cook. It's always a good idea to take a sample to see if it's been fully cooked, though.
Once you take the chickens out, you will have nice and crispy wings. You can still eat the wings at this stage, however, normally chickens are fried for the second time to make sure it gets very crispy. If the chickens are crispy enough for your taste at this stage, and the chickens are fully cooked, you might as well skip second frying.
This is what it looks like after deep frying for the second time. 
Have a closer look.
12. Now, let's make the sauce. First you heat up minced garlic over a hot pan.
13. Add about 3 table spoons of soy sauce to the pan.
14. Add about a cup of water and then 2 table spoonds of sesame oil and corn starch.
15. Then add corn starch. You need to dissolve the corn starch in a cup of cold water before adding. Directly mixing the power will result in forming chunks.
16. Little bit of brown sugar.
17. Then add finely chopped onions.
Finally, either dip your fried chicken wings into the sauce or pour the sauce over the chickens. Garnish the dish with crushed peanuts or cashews, and dried red chili. Enjoy!
2 comments:
fyi: "gangjang" simply means soy sauce in korean
Soy sauce is called "ganjang". Gangjung is a type of fried sweet dessert made out of rice powder, nuts, fruits and honey. Because gangjung chicken is supposed to be crunchy and sticky with sweet flavors similar to gangjung, the chicken is called gangjung chicken.
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