Desserts

Korean corn dog

Iksan City 48 Korean Style Fried chicken. Korean fried chicken was described by Julia Moskin of The New York Times as a “thin, crackly korean corn dog almost transparent crust”. The chicken is usually seasoned with spices, sugar, and salt, prior to and after being fried.

The unshortened form peuraideu chikin, despite being the “correct” transliteration, is not as popular in Korea. Korean owing to residual influence from the Japanese convention that persisted in Korea in the 1970s. The Japanese forced occupation only ended in 1945. The recipe for frying chicken was already a form of cooking in the 15th century, so it is presumed that it has been cooked since the Goryeo Dynasty. The modern trend of eating chicken began in Korea during the late 1960s, when Myeongdong Yeongyang Center in Seoul began selling whole chicken roasted over an electric oven. The first Korean fried chicken franchise, Lims Chicken, was established in 1977 in the basement of Shinsegae Department Store, Chungmu-ro, Seoul by Yu Seok-ho.

Fried chicken was further popularized when Kentucky Fried Chicken opened stores in South Korea in 1984. The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s contributed to the number of restaurants selling fried chicken as laid off workers opened chicken restaurants. By 2013 there were more than 20,000 fried chicken restaurants in South Korea serving fried chicken and by 2017, 36,000. Smithsonian calls it a “ubiquitous staple”.