Black Chefs try the ENTIRE Korean Fried Chicken Menu

The seasoning is great. It makes you want to go back for a bite and have the whole hood come out here. And when I go to Korea, I know what to eat. Wait, is he coming with you? You know what? I don't know. You want to come? I probably will. Where you going? These chefs are going to be eating the entire Korean fried chicken menu. Now, a few weeks ago, we invited two fried chicken experts, Chef Charles and Chef Kui, to try Korean fried chicken for the first time. But we messed up real bad. We gave them steaming takeout chicken and got shat on by y'all. You should have had them go to the restaurant to eat it fresh. Today, we're back in New York City with Chef Kui and Chef Charles, and we're going to be giving them the Korean fried chicken experience. We're at BBQ Chicken, a South Korean fried chicken franchise, and we're going to be eating the entire menu. Are you guys excited? Let's go. Let's do it. Let's get it. All right, let's go. This video is sponsored by Squarespace. Now, before we get to all of that, brief history lesson. Now, we've already covered the history of fried chicken in this video right here. But how did Korean fried chicken come about? Frying chicken in Korea is nothing new, and dates all the way back to the 15th century during the Goryeo Dynasty. Fried chicken, under the name hoge, sautéed in oil while sequentially pouring soy sauce, sesame oil, flour mixed with water, and vinegar onto the chicken. And it kind of looked like this. However, the common Korean fried chicken we see today actually comes from the Korean War in the 50s. When American personnels would fry chicken for Thanksgiving due to a lack of turkey. This cultural exchange not only gave birth to the modern Korean fried chicken, but also dishes like budae-jjigae, Korean army stew. But before we try the chicken, let's see how it was made. Nice meeting you. Jason. Chef Charles. How you doing, Jason? Nice meeting you. Nice to meet you. All right, so let's walk us through, Jason, about how Korean fried chicken has been. Okay. What I see in your video was the whole chicken fried in a skillet pan. Yeah. With a pan-fried process. Mm-hmm. So, I do want to lemonize that same chicken process, but in our way. Okay. Okay, let's start. So, this is our own chicken. This is already marinated for 24 hours. You guys can smell it. You can feel the marination, right? The seasoning. That's what we promised. You can see it. So, you get the chickens, and you cut it yourselves? Yes, we do. Okay. We cut every chicken by ourselves, so we can maintain our own quality. So, we put every chicken inside, and we toss them well. Oh, they got the little tools. This is a very, like... Oh, okay. So, hands-off. Yeah, hands-off. Okay. There's a hands-in process again. Hands-in process. We drop it in our powder. Your powder is seasoned? It is seasoned. Very seasoned. Yeah. Now, you're telling me you have layers of seasoning. That, I'm interested to taste now. In our original chicken, its identity is all about the curl. The outside crust, it's all about it. So, to make a good curl, you got to shake it well. You got to toss it well, and then straight to the fly. Okay. How's it looking, Chef? Anything similar? Very similar? Very similar. Very similar, yeah. He said that it's going to be seasoned to the bone? Yeah. I'm hoping the chicken is good, but the process is similar. I think the frying is where it differentiates a little bit. The deep-frying. The shallow-fired versus the deep-fried. And then we wait for 11 minutes, and that's what magic happens. 11 minutes, that's it. Yeah. That's what magic happens. See you when you watch the show. We do have our own manuals and our own process to make all the instant consistency. So, you batter the chicken, you throw it in the oil freely so it won't touch each other and cook with each other. Oh, okay. After a couple of minutes, when the skin is kind of hard, then you put it together. Yes. And then you do the next batch. All right. So, we do like an egg wash. We do an egg wash in the flour. Right. And this way, it's not a batter where it would stick together. Yeah. It's not caked up. Right. So, when the chickens touch each other, it won't clay off to each other like that. Because if you drop all of this in that deep fryer, it's going to come in a lump. So, this way, you separate it by blanching it first before you put it in there. This way, all of it is separated. Separated. Oh, got it, got it. The side does. I have an urge to shake it just a little. All of a sudden. It's like, oh, you guys did that real quick. Make sure. So, we cook it in a cast iron pan. The most you can fit in that pan is 25 pieces. 25 pieces per pan. But we like to do 20 per pan to get a better cooking, better quality. Because you know more chicken brings down the heat. So, you have 80 in one fryer. We could do more, but it's not going to be good. No, I understand that. It's not going to be good. At this oil level, 80? That's how we do. I love it. So, right now, what I'm doing is like, there's a blood pocket in the leg. So, you got to poke it. So, let it bleed out. You got to poke this to let them out while they're frying. So, for all your legs, not your thighs. For your legs. All right, cool. So, and that's where we jump in differently on situations. We are very similar when it comes to poking holes in our chicken for that purpose. Now, I've never seen no one take a knife and get the leg like that before. No. That's the first time I've felt that. So, the main character of the Korean flavor is about savory and sweetness. We call it banchan. All right, slow that down. What else is that? Banchan. Banchan? Yes. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, it is. Oh, hey, hey, hey. You're Korean. So, it's all about savory and sweetness. We balance it out, and we could add a little bit of spice to it, which is like secret sauce. And if we add a little bit of tanginess to it, it could be like gangjeong or like gangnam style. It's all based in like sweet and savory. So, it's a little tweak that'll make it gangjeong and gangnam style. Yeah. I'm telling you, my niece in Korea is proud of me. I'm speaking a little bit of Korean. Okay. Deja. Good for you. But I love just a little tweak that can make a flavor go a long way. But the chicken by itself, it's all about like seasoning. Seasoning. All the marinations. Yeah. I agree. I agree with that. All right, let's do it. Okay. Korean chicken is all about the different sauces and different flavors you get. Like for the southern fried chicken, it's all about like plain fried chicken, and a collard greens, and a mac and cheese, and like a little bit of cornbread on the side. You've been to my house before? No. Our chicken is now ready. It's ready to serve. Oh, let's walk in. Okay. All right. You guys want to go eat? Let's go. Okay. Let's do it. Let's start with some Korean fried chicken. We got our staples right now. Okay. Here's your classic. And this is golden original. Yeah. And secret sauce. And this is gangjeong. Gangjeong. Yeah. And this is soy garlic. Soy garlic. So these are the traditional Korean fried chicken. It is. Yes, it is. Right from Korea. So this is actually a franchise spot. Came out from South Korea. And then these are some of the staples that they have. Which one do you guys want to start with? Well, I do want to start with the original. The original. Can we also do a beer? Beer and a soju? Maybe. No problem. That's where you go. Chicken and beer. When you're having a Korean fried chicken, you've got to have Korean beers. Oh, we've got Korean beers. Another thing straight from Korea. Terra. Terra Korean beers. So we've got that. We've got that. We've got soju. It's kind of a milder version of vodka. Yeah, it's a milder version of vodka. Can you do the tornado thing? No problem. Okay, look. So this is how they open the can. So the tornado is a bit of a thing. And then we pour it up here. You go one third of it for soju and fill it up with your beers. And then the rest is filled up with beer. I don't know if you guys can see it in the front. But do you guys want to try a little bit of soju just on its own? Yeah, let's do that. While we fill it up with the beer. Cheers. Okay. Like it? And also, here. I can do it. Korean culture usually, they're a very, how do you say, a very traditional culture. Right? So a lot of the times, the younger people will pour for the elders. And then we do it with two hands. And when you receive it, you will receive it with two hands. Right? So I will pour for you. And let's say my cup is empty. Right? Then I wouldn't pour for myself. You would then pour for me. Yeah, that's not what we do. I'll pour some beer for Chef right here. And then this is kind of the drink that we make. Is there a name for this drink in particular? It's like Somaek. Somaek. Maek. Maek is beer, right? Yeah, Maek is beer. Oh, so we take the two words and then we combine it. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, yes. True, true, true. You're better than me. You got me on that. You got respect. Thank you. Okay, all right. So we got the beers ready. We got the soju and the beer. Now it's time to dig in. I'm going to take a look. This is Chef first. And then I'll take a… Do I have to serve this between you guys as well? No, no, no. I think we're good. I think we're good for now. Fried chicken. Look at that. Oh, no, no. How about the looks? The looks? By the looks, it looks great. It does. Yeah? Yeah, it looks great. By the touch and the grab, the density in the chicken and the sponginess, like, it looks great. I'm anticipating the bite to be amazing. Okay, all right. Let's dig in. I just do not see any seasoning on top. But usually, like, Korean fried chicken to add a little bit what differentiates it. It's a sauce. And what do we say? We got to get saucy, y'all. Saucy, y'all. That sauce. Okay, all right. Let's take our bite. Good chicken. Taste the seasoning. That's the main thing. Oh, you taste the seasoning. The seasoning is great. It's a great seasoning. Got a little kick to it. But it's very good. A little pepper, a little cayenne, something like that behind it a little bit. A little kick. Yeah. Very moist. Very tender. It's a winner for me. It's a winner for me, too. Wow. Look. Let the facial expression do all the talking. Yeah. I'm going to have a whole hood come out here. Specifically talking about our style of chicken, our pan-fried chicken. Right. You can tell by your fingertips. If you look at my fingertips right now, it's oilier than it would be in our chicken. Right. So I know it was deep fried. The look of it, the texture, it's cooked perfectly. Yeah. Like so, this is good without the sauce right now. Yeah. You know what? Good food breaks barriers. It doesn't really matter who cleans it first, who did it first, as long as it's here now. Yeah. I'm interested in trying this sauce right here. What sauce is this again? Secret sauce. I'm getting a little barbecue feel for this right here. Not even? Not even. Okay. Oh, look at that. Sticks right on your fingers. Coats the chicken perfectly. Let's dig in. Dig in. Oh, that's great. Yeah? We kind of recreated by like sauces. We got our gochujang, which is like Korean traditional chili paste, and kind of like sweetening ingredients and a lot of ketchup and stuff like that. And they made it like a little bit tangy, a little bit spicy so that they can enjoy like at the end of it. Yeah. Oh, so this is kind of like what you were saying about the greasier kind. They just put the sauce instead, right? Yeah. And then is the chicken marinated in the same way as original? It is, yeah. It is marinated as original. Okay. What's up? You like this though, huh? Take me home now. And this is first time coming down in Koreatown to try Korean fried chicken for the first time. Never walked down the block at all. Never seen it at all whatsoever. It's crazy. You guys are from the same city. Uh-huh. But two vastly different worlds, right? And we keep it different. Have you been home? No, not yet. You gotta go to Korea. I've walked by and I've walked down this block. There's no reason for me to at all. Right, right, right. But when we drove down here, I'm seeing so many different Asian spots like that. Right, right, right. So yeah, this is amazing. And this is good. Once they find out about this right here, you've been We only hit two spots right here. The sweet and sour sauce I like because it's not barbecue sauce at all. It looks like it's barbecue sauce but it's not barbecue sauce at all whatsoever. But it gives you that sticky, funny taste. It's not sweet. It's not spicy. It's just wonderful coated flavors in your tongue which is fried for chicken. It's time to go get my chicken. Yeah, he loves it. I've come back here, yeah. I like that. Alright, next up. Let's do the spicier one. Let's do the soy one first. Let's change it up a bit. I can taste the ginger. Yeah. Not my favorite sauce. Yeah? The taste of it. The previous one a lot better. It was calm. I expected a bigger punch from this sauce right here but it was like oh, I love you. And I'm not a heavy soy person though. Right, right, right. But it's still good though. Yeah. Okay, alright. Let's try the last one of the classics and this is called the Ganjeong. Is it similar, more similar to the soy garlic? No, it's like because I have distinctive flavors it's kind of savory and tangy. I'm always the last one to eat. You're the youngest. Huh? You're the youngest. It's a fact. This is closer to this than to the soy. I like it because many sauces are abrasive. Right, right. But the sauce is like it hits you like oh, I'm here and I'm leaving. Give me some more. Yeah, yeah. You said you're going to take it back. I think we'll go with the classics. I favor those three. These three? Yeah. These three are your favorite? All three? All three. Everything is good. It is good. But if I come to order it'll be between these three here. Wow, that's crazy. Okay. I think we'll go for these. Alright, let's go with the specialty rounds. Jason, can you do a breakdown for us for the specialty rounds? For this round you're getting like more diversity. So that's the Cheesling over there which is like different from other flavors. You got powdered sauce on the top. It's got like cheese flavor. A little bit stinkier but you gotta taste it. I grew up eating cheese doodles. So if I eat something it's good to go. And for the next one it's Galbi. There's kind of a variation called Galbi. It's kind of like similar flavors. You got a little bit of smoky flavor. You got a savory. It's kind of that. It reminds me of that And this is Gangnam Style. This is like pan-fried sauces. Kind of similar to Chinese flavors which is like what do you call it? Wok? Stir-fried? Stir-fried things. It reminds me of that. And this is Honey Garlic our popular sauce. You got garlic flavor. You got savory. You got sweetness and everything. Number one seller. Alright, let's hold that to the end. Let's go from right to left. This is personally one of my favorites. Oh. It's good. It has that funnel cake powdery flavor that we got into it. Like a mild cheese doo-doo kind of situation when it comes to the cheese. Nice and crunchy. And that cheese is good. It's great. It makes you want to go back for a bite. Is that the cheese real quick? Let me try it again. Alright, enjoy a nice cold tea. You got a little cold beer. And then set up perfectly for our next one which is the Korean Galbi. You want a shot? Galbi. It's giving me sesame chicken vibes throughout the sesame seeds on it. None of these are impressed at all. Not at all. They're good. We got to keep our chicken juicy. That's juicy. You know what? Come with us. We're going to cook some chicken for you. We'll be home one day. Chicken breast will be good. Okay, let's move on to the Gangnam Style. I'm anticipating this one right here. Do you know what the Gangnam Style is though? You know what? I'm going to talk about some dude I saw dancing. Oh yeah! It was that. Chicken so good that it can make you dance. That's the slogan for this chicken right here. I had to learn that dance. Oh, I know Gangnam Style. But then you got soy sauce filled up. Yeah, yeah. Very resembles a stir fry. Yes. When I heard the Gangnam Style, I thought it'd be like spicy. I thought I'd eat it and be spicy sweet for that situation. Don't worry. We'll have a little spicy. It didn't even take me a little bit. Can't complain. Just eating, right? Enjoying it. Very much. So how big of a culture shock is it for you to see fried chicken done in this form? I love the fact that we are so similar and yet so far apart. Like, we're in New York and I've never been here before. He's in New York and he's never been in MySpace before. So the food and the people are similar because we're so close but so far apart. So I love that because we're bringing it together. I love how we are mimicking each other. Even fighting to the point where, oh, you got it for me, you got it for me. I'm loving the culture clash. I'm loving the resemblance of what we have. I'm loving the uniteness of a family because food brings us together. If we all sit down, we will love each other's food and realize that we all are one people. So that's what I'm getting when it comes to this, right? Right. You feel the sense of culture when you eat through each bite. Definitely. To do something like this, I think it's wonderful. You know, I like to join just together. This feels like home. This style of cooking, I never thought that I would come to a restaurant to see, you know, eat something so close to what I cook. Yeah. And this is very close to what I cook. Okay. All right. Let's bring us together with another delicious chicken which is the best selling one. Chef. You guys are not full at all? No, no, not yet. I'm like, I ain't gonna lie, I'm like getting there. Now, I was anticipating this chicken right here. The best seller you said, right? Yes, it is. Honey and garlic. The sauce is excellent. Excellent? We have the sauce of the chicken. Say no more. But I'm loving that every sauce we've had is not overpowering the chicken. Not overpowering the chicken. There's a hint of it. So they're not using it to substitute any flavors to match anything up. It's like, yo, food is good. Put a little sauce on it. And then, yeah, this is good. But it has a little kick on the regular original chicken. I'm gonna say, I agree. The original is the best. Yeah. The original is the best. And this one, I'll take this for the best one. This is number two right here. So we're gonna do it this year. Yeah, I'll take this for number two. Wow. And I agree with you too on that one. Definitely. Spicy round? Oh, it's a spicy round. We're gonna have a little bit of fun now. We're gonna have a little spicy round. Okay, so this is, do you wanna tell us the name of it? So it's Spicy Original. And this is Hot Spicy Chicken. And this is like Wings of Fire. That's it. Straight to the deep end. You guys good with spice, right? Yeah. Okay, let's start with the one on the right. I don't know how you guys are eating this much. No, no, no. It's like a 0.1% spicier than the original. So it's not burning your mouth at all. But you're getting that. Oh, okay. I got it. It's here. You're there. I can take it though. A little spicier than the one on the first. And the first one a little more seasoned than this one. Inside the meat it was more seasoned. It also might be because of the fact the spice probably overpowers a little bit against the pepper. So it kind of blends in together. But you can feel that kick on the back end. Yeah. A little bit of that kick. But you can handle it though. I can. Yeah. No, I think we've done videos where I've eaten like I have a bad experience with spicy food. I should say that. Alright, let's move on to the second one which is called Hot Spicy. Alright. Hot Spicy one. Oh, we got the wing right here. Alright. Let me show you a little bit of it right off the bat. If you have a bite you can inhale the pepper real quick. Yeah. But it's still not a killer though. It's not hell. You got more spice tolerance than me, man. I'm starting to feel it. It's the back of the throat. Man, you guys are good with your spice. It's not as spicy as I thought it was going to be. Yeah. I can't eat spicy, spicy, spicy. You can't eat spicy? Now I feel like I can't eat spicy, man. Now you can feel it. Yeah. Now you can feel it. But when you're eating it, you know, it don't hit you right away. Yep. Let's be real though. Yeah. Hell is coming next. Okay. That's what I know. Let's do it for the last one. We got the spiciest one of them all. But do you know what's even easier than eating Korean fried chicken? That's right. Making a beautiful website with Squarespace. Now I know you guys have heard this a million times before, but Squarespace supports our channel financially and makes all these videos possible. But do you know what else they make possible? That's right. Making a beautiful website. And Squarespace made this so much easier with their new feature Design Intelligence, a cutting edge AI technology to help you build a personalized website tailored to your unique needs. Just to prove it to you, I'm going to build a website from scratch to show you how simple it is. All you need is to fill in the title of your website, then pick a brand personality. This is where the AI comes in. 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But not only that, you'll save 10% off on your future subscription if you continue using Squarespace after the trial. So what are you waiting for? Go make that dream come true and build your website with Squarespace today. Just use our link in the description box below. And now, back to the video. So what I thought is like, it is lack of the sauce. I just felt like he did that shit. You know what, Sean? I'm going to take the top one. I dare, I'm going to take first. I'm going to take left in this one. No, I'll join you, I'll join you. But you still give me that sweet. You're still showing me love, hell. Still showing me love. It's kind of like a toxic ex-girlfriend, you know? You show me that love but you also kick your ass in a few seconds. It's always, it's always the beginning, you know? It's always nice, you know, friendly. Right? The more you get to know her. He's telling his love story. Any nice ladies out there, please come on down and show her how you can be. But notice I said ex-girlfriend, right? My girlfriend watching right now, it's not for you. It is hot. It is coming, right? But I can taste where it's from. Yeah. It's not our southern soul food hot. No. It's not scotch-brownie Jamaican hot. I can taste the hotness that the flavor is through. The Korean red chili pepper. Damn. Yes. Oh, it's there. The thing is, I just... Oh, you guys handle it well though. Yes. You guys handle it well though. I'm like... No, definitely good. Definitely good. Yeah? But I do taste the Korean spice. When I go to Korea, I know what to eat. Yeah. Wait, is he coming with you? You know what? I don't know. You want to come? Probably. When are you going? We're going next year. All right, let's do it. Let's do it because we can eat at this exact same location in Korea and you'll be able to taste the consistency of the food. All right. That's fire. Flash on, what are we working with here? That one's Caribbean spice. Okay. So like, it might not be authentic like what you guys are thinking but it's kind of like Koreanized like Jamaican flavors to it. This hot mala. Mala is numb and like la is spicy, right? It's a numb spiciness to it. Do you guys like Jamaican food? Yeah. Oh, Jamaican food. So you guys do jerk chicken? We do jerk chicken. This is the fusion. These are both of different cultures but they're taking a little bit of their flavors and meat. Okay. Let's do jerk chicken. All right. We're going back to the hot pot. All right. Mala. Right away. I can taste that flavor again. I can taste that flavor again. Wow. But then I have to ask you though because this is your culture. Do you taste it? Yeah. Spice is very different from the red chili pepper spice. The only thing that I don't taste that much of is particularly the numbing sensation and maybe that's because we ate the spiciest one so then like my like What the hell already? But the way that they did the mala flavor a little bit of their own twist to it but I would say this is like yeah I can taste the influence here. And that's it. I think we've tasted essentially the entire menu out here. So what were your thoughts? I always like to ask similarities between cultures instead of differences. I think differences divide a little more. What are kind of the similarities you would find between this and you know Southern fried chicken? You know the cook the cook of the chicken. You're right. I'm glad we came here and ate it here because what I got before wasn't the same. Every piece of chicken that we had was cooked perfect. I think everything was cooked to perfection. Everything was great. The chicken you know it wasn't like you say it wasn't overpowered. It wasn't tough. It wasn't you know it was well cooked and you know it was great. And what's one thing that Chef would you say that surprised you about it? Because you had Korean fried chicken last time but now we're here. But here it surprised me because it tastes like Southern kitchen. It tastes like Southern cooking. That's what surprised me. Let's do it. It's all about the sauce. Got that saucy. Got that sauce y'all. Alright guys if you guys enjoyed today's video make sure to click here to watch these two chefs try hot pot for the very first time and click here for a video that you'll love. Peace.