Tenders take f light
Katie Workman pulls a chicken recipe with help from Korea.
In cities across the country with large Korean populations, you might find Korean fried chicken wings. With their shattery, thin crust and lacquered coating, they aren’t something you’re likely to eat just once and then say, “Well, that was satisfying, I’ll cross that off the old bucket list.”
You’ll probably dream about them until you eat them again.
But in these professional kitchens, making these amazing wings is a bit more arduous than we mere mortal home cooks are willing to take on. They are batter-dipped and then usually fried twice, which I can’t rationalize in my home kitchen, even during my most decadent moments.
So, I set out to make the whole thing more home-kitchen friendly and slightly healthier, or at least justifiable for a weeknight dinner. I used chicken tenders instead of wings, and traded in the batter for a dusting of seasoned flour. To get a lightly crispy crust, I blended some rice flour in with the all-purpose flour, but you can use 100 percent all-purpose if that’s what you have on hand.
The floured strips are pan-fried in a moderate amount of oil and then, instead of being enveloped in a glaze, they are served with a flavorful sauce designed to be very lightly “drizzled” (it’s a thick sauce, so sort of lightly dotted) over the tenders, or just used as a dip.
Proceed with restraint as you determine your threshold for heat. Gochujang is a Korean hot chili pepper paste found at some Asian markets. It’s also available online. Or just grab the Sriracha or other hot sauce. You don’t want to miss these.