By Honorary Reporters Mai El-Hattab and Aya Elhadidy from Egypt

Photos = Mai El-Hattab and Aya Elhadidy

Homemade Korean-style fried chicken. 

At first glance, sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken seems like nothing more than another variety of chicken, but this dish is one of the most popular in Korea. We decided to truly experience this chicken by cooking it like Koreans do.

The term "chimaek" is a portmanteau meaning "fried chicken with beer." The first syllable "chi" refers to chicken and the other "maek" is derived from the Korean word for beer, maekju. K-dramas have raised the global appeal of this dish through its frequent appearances, so we tried making the dish in our small governorate in Egypt.

Here is the gist of our experiment.

Aya: Have you eaten Korean fried chicken before?
Mai Of course, I personally love chicken and have tasted so many varieties. So I hope this tastes the same since we'll cook it ourselves.
Aya: I also tried it once at a Korean restaurant and it was delicious.
Mai: So let's move on to the recipe.

Quite a few steps are required to make the dipping sauce.

Aya: First, we make the dipping sauce using minced garlic, gochujang (red pepper paste), ketchup, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, sugar and syrup. We combine them and then put them over a flame for a bit.
Mai: Wouldn't it taste a little sweeter with honey and sugar? Or weird?
Aya: Yes, but it won't taste weird and the special thing about Korean chicken is that it tastes sweet and spicy at the same time.
Mai: I see, so that's what I didn't recognize when I tasted it last time. It tasted sweeter but I didn't know where it came from.

These are the steps for preparing the batter and chicken.

Aya: Next, we cut the chicken into medium-sized pieces and add salt, vinegar and black pepper to remove the smell of the chicken.
Mai: How about frying the chicken?
Aya: We make a batter with the frying powder and water, put the chicken pieces in the batter and cover each piece with a layer of the batter. Then we dip it in the batter, put it in hot oil and repeat the process until the quantity is finished.

Mai: Leave the frying to me this time.
Aya: I'll count on you.
Mai: Finally, we finished frying the chicken.
Aya: Now we pour the dipping sauce on the chicken.
Mai: It looks delicious. I really want to taste it (takes a bite). The delicious taste makes me feel like I'm in Korea. At least that's what I wish.
Aya: Yes, I understand more why Korean chicken is so famous, and deservedly so.