Hey guys, it's Mike.
You know in Korea, when you mention KFC,
Nobody is going to think about the Colonel because here, KFC stands for Korean fried chicken.
Usually it's hot and crispy on the outside,
Tender and juicy on the inside, flavored with a multitude of sauces and spices.
Fried chicken here, it's a cultural phenomenon, so I figured before I leave, well, my homeland,
Let's go on a chicken tour. Let's go explore some of the most popular fried chicken places in Seoul.
My first stop is BB·Q Chicken in the popular area of Myeongdong.
This place is a really popular franchise, and supposedly the reason for that is
They use the top quality chicken and the top quality extra virgin olive oil to fry the chicken.
And it's really interesting because, I didn't know this, I didn't know chickens had a golden zone,
But apparently, they do. And only the chickens in the golden zone end up in this restaurant.
So I guess they're winners and losers at the same time? And I figured for my first fried chicken meal,
I'm going to go with the most basic, the most quintessential Korean fried chicken.
Also, I am going to go for the sauced fried chicken.
These two are the most basic types of fried chicken in Korea.
They're like the Coke and Pepsi flavors of Korean fried chicken.
So let's start with that before we get a little crazy on this chicken tour.
My chicken has arrived and just look at these two mountains, little mounds of perfection.
Let's dig in!
Mmm, did you guys hear that crunch?
The biggest difference, right away, when you bite into Korean fried chicken, is the batter and the chicken skin.
Because not only is it super crunchy (the chicken skin and batter), it's not too heavy.
It's not too thick; super light coating.
Look at how juicy this chicken is. You can see all the juice in there.
Watch, when I press down with my fork. Look at all that juice in that chicken.
And the first impression really is, this chicken is not heavy.
There's just something really fresh, and simple, and appealing about this.
The batter, slightly spicy, really clean, airy,
And after finishing my first piece, I don't- I don't feel bogged down.
I don't feel like I just drank a cup of grease.
You know that feeling you get after you eat at KFC or Popeye's?
That was dark meat, let's check out the white meat.
Look at this; the meat is just glistening on the inside,
And you guys see that juice?
Just flowing out of the meat when I'm pushing down on my fork.
That is tender, and that is juicy, and that it's how fried chicken should be.
White meat is actually my favorite, but more often than not, it's gonna be really dry.
But look at this.
Look at how much juice is oozing.
The outer layer of skin and batter almost tastes like Rice Krispies.
You know, a lot of times when I'm eating KFC or Popeye's, I just take some parts of the chicken skin off,
And I know, that's sacrilegious, but I do it because it's just way too greasy.
But this, it is juicy, it is oily,
But you don't feel like this is somehow clogging your arteries.
Next up: the sauce chicken.
This looks like it has some sort of sweet glaze on the outside, of course peanuts,
Alright this is good, but I feel like this is almost overly sweet.
The sauce chicken, I really don't feel like I can eat too much of it because,
every bite, it just feels like this thing is just gonna sit on my stomach for the next 10 years.
But this original chicken,
Yeah, I love this. But this chicken is so fantastically light- hang on, let me do a test real quick.
*Drops chicken*
Okay, I was kind of half expecting it to kind of just fly away or float away
And I've actually had a lot of Korean fried chicken in the U.S, and in comparison to the KFC's and the Popeye's,
Yeah, they do taste healthier, but they did not taste as good at this and this is fantastic.
I'm so excited because this is my first stop in my Korean fried chicken tour,
And it's already making me so happy.
Alright, I'm going to finish this up, and then we'll go to location number 2.
Location number 2. I am at Sticky Pot, which seems to be connected to a modern art Museum.
But their claim to fame here, is the Black Sesame Cream Chicken.
You've got to check this out.
And just looking at it, it's not the most appealing thing.
I mean it just looks like burnt charcoal.
It's super crispy on the outside,
There's some nuts garnished on the top.
If you didn't tell me what this was, and this was just laying on the ground,
I thought it'd just be days old poo or something.
It comes with a beautiful bouquet of homemade chips and of course,
The black sesame cream sauce.
Mmm, woah.
It's nutty, there's a lot of mustard in here, and a ton load of sesame.
And that makes the sauce extremely, extremely fragrant.
Let me just- ah, take a piece here off the top.
So inside this black, crispy, outer shell,
You see like,
Even the inside is a little gooey and black.
Mmm. That's what I thought.
I think the outer shell is made with black sesame and also squid ink.
Let's take a piece and dip it in this sesame- black sesame cream sauce.
You know, the thing is, I don't taste as much chicken as the black sesame squid ink batter.
I mean, just looking at it,
There's not that much chicken in here.
So it's almost like I'm eating crispy bread with a little bit of chicken.
Dipped in this creamy sesame sauce, which I really like.
This outer shell is definitely not thin, it's not light. I feel like half of it is just eating that crispy outer layer.
I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still delicious.
I just wish there was more of a fried chicken element in this fried chicken.
And every single piece is dark meat-
I wish they would put in a little bit of white meat in here.
So overall, really interesting fried chicken dish.
I mean I never seen anything like this,
I never heard of anything like this, so on a unique scale in terms of fried chicken,
This is a 9 out of 10.
Flavor wise, it's so much batter.
I feel like that the chicken is just really getting drowned out.
But you know that that greased-up feeling I was talking about at the first fried chicken place
I didn't feel like I had?
I got that after a couple pieces of chicken here.
I think the highlight of this dish is a couple things.
One, it is just incredibly crunchy, and despite the way it looks,
It's not burnt at all and I think the sauce is for sure the star here.
I mean this sauce could be good on any sandwich, burger, pizza.
If somebody would bottle it, I would buy it.
Fried chicken itself, not my favorite.
Alright, on to location number three.
Location number three- its a classic establishment.
Banpo Chicken has been around operating for 41 years,
And they basically created the garlic fried chicken.
And they cook it on the rotisserie until the outside of the chicken- the moisture is gone,
Then they just flash fire for 30 seconds, put loads of garlic on top, and it's ready to go.
And I just asked- yes, this is a whole chicken,
And it is a small chicken because they only use young chickens here,
And that's why their chicken is so tender.
As you can see, the chicken is not breaded at all, but it is glistening.
The outside, it's a little hard- It's not crispy.
If your mouth is not watering right now, you must have just ate here yourself.
That is,
Ridiculously garlicky.
Hmm. Just the way I like it.
My philosophy on life is: the more garlic, the better- which apparently is also the motto of this restaurant.
The chicken, on the outside,
Is lightly crispy, and that's just the skin. There's no batter whatsoever.
The flavor is really simple. What you're eating here, it's really about the texture and the garlic, I think.
And the test of a really good fried chicken- it's in the white meat.
This is the chicken breast, and let's just take a chunk.
Alright, the chicken breast: it's not as juicy as I would like.
I feel like the genius of this chicken is really in it's outer skin.
It's like the same way that Chinese people cook a dessert called “拔丝” (Básī),
Because once you fully cook the chicken and then quickly deep fried in really hot oil,
You're trapping all that juice, all that moisture inside the chicken,
And the skin just becomes such a crispy masterpiece.
And like I mentioned, there's really nothing too fancy about this chicken-
There's no eleven herbs and spices,
It doesn't have a creepy bearded dude as a mascot;
It's just delicious chicken with a fantastic outer crispy layer,
And just a ton load of garlic.
And unlike a lot of other garlic chickens that rely on garlic powder,
This is all fresh garlic here, and I really appreciate that.
It's not like I'm gonna kiss anybody anyway ( ⁍᷄⌢̻⁍᷅ ).
As you can see, we are at location number 4: Flying Chicken.
I gotta commend the love that Koreans have,
Of putting cheese on everything. I do; it's the lovely behavior that I think we all should adopt.
I am really gonna enjoy this chicken.
Ooh, extra spicy by the way.
Look at how tender this chicken meat is.
Super juicy, let's get some sauce in there, some onions in there, some scallions,
And let's wrap it in some cheese.
This is how we do it.
Look at that. Tell me you don't want this. That's a beautiful bite.
Mmm. I feel like this gonna be really tough for a lot of you. For right now,
It's in my happy spice zone.
And guys look at this, look at all the spices in here. We also got onions, pepper, scallions.
I mean, this- this is spicy chicken.
Oh, guys, look what I found: a little sweet potato.
I never had spicy sweet potatoes before but, maybe I should start.
This is by far,
the spiciest,
most overly flavorful,
Funnest chicken dish I've had all day. And this is a winner.
When you guys are here in Seoul,
Definitely come here and get this dish.
Location number five: still in the popular area of Hyundai.
And if you guys thought the last dish I had was hot,
This one is literally on fire.
This chicken is literally on fire. I mean, it's not going to get any hotter than this.
This massive behemoth is- is garlic chicken.
There's a bunch of things on this plate.
We got regular chicken, garlic chicken, French fries- different types of French fries, wiry coleslaw,
Pasta and Alfredo sauce.
Okay, the flaming chicken sounded really good,
I was really excited about it, but the flame only lasted for,
I counted about five to six seconds, so, a little anticlimatic.
But the good thing about this place is that
Apparently they get a shipment of chicken in every single day,
and they use up that particular shipment of chicken.
So, every single day, it's a fresh batch of chicken
They're making this with, so in theory, this fried chicken should be really good.
This is the regular fried chicken. Let's take a look.
Alright, it's dark meat; dip it in the mustard sauce.
That is really tender.
This doesn't really tastes like Korean fried chicken.
It tastes more like a chicken dinner that you'd find in the States,
Because there's a lot of grease here.
Let me try the garlic fried chicken.
There's some kind of sweet sauce in here.
I can see little chunks of garlic.
That's actually not bad.
The chicken, again, really tender, very garlicky, very spicy.
I don't love how sweet the sauce is, but everything else about this is pretty good.
It is extremely garlicky and extremely spicy.
I mean, the fire element- that's just pure gimmicky, but the garlic chicken is off the hook.
I don't know about the rest of this ensemble though.
I mean, for 18,000 won or about 16, 17 dollars, do I really need a potato wedge the size of a tree?
Also, tons of French fries and this is really weird,
Why pasta on your plate?
I think maybe, I don't know, it's just not enough carbs on this plate; they had to add some pasta.
Definitely could have done without the pasta.
And on the bottom of this pile of French fries, looks like a giant piece of toast and the white sauce on top-
This is some kind of Korean white pasta sauce.
I do like the toast, but I think this whole plate-
This is too much. This is way too much grease, way too much carbs.
I mean, the garlic chicken itself tastes really good,
I just can't foresee myself going out to lunch and like, you know, eating a plate of this.
That's like a heart attack on a plate.
I think actually, this will be fun if you go out with a bunch of friends,
Maybe four or five people and share a plate of this; I think this is perfect for that.
So if you guys ever come down here, I would recommend getting the garlic pepper chicken.
That is indeed really, really good.
And then, you know,
Have them light it on fire,
Take a picture for your Instagram account,
And call it a day.
I would definitely stay away from the rest of this stuff.
But guys, that's it for my Korean fried chicken tour of Seoul.
I wanted to try out a bunch of places that were either popular
Or really unique,
And some of the places that I went to today were definitely hit or miss,
And I know there are a lot more awesome Korean fried chicken places in Seoul that I haven't been to yet,
So hopefully when I come back, let's do a part 2 of this video.
Guys, thank you all so much for following along, and until we eat again, I'll see you later.