Ever since I saw Marc Morris cook a cheese stuffed Korean fried chicken wings on MasterChef UK, I’ve been on a mission to try out something similar at home. Korean Fried Chicken is one of the best foods of the world. Double fried to create a very crispy coating, marinated in a spicy marinate for extra kick and served coated with a spicy gochujang sauce. I can eat buckets. And I mean BUCKETS of it. And then I saw Marc stuff it with cheese. I didn’t think you can make it any better…. So here I am, sometime later, after much research about a) how to make Korean Fried Chicken at home and b) how to stuff it with cheese without the cheese leaking out successfully. I’m super happy to be sharing the result with you. If you want to feel free to skip straight to the recipe, but I thought I’d add a few words about the method first.

What makes Korean Fried Chicken different to other fried chicken is the double frying method, which makes it super crispy. I made two batches – chicken thigh fillets which I stuffed with cheddar cheese, and just some standard chicken drumsticks which is the standard style you’d usually see. When researching how to best marinade it, usually it’s a mix of soy sauce, chilli, garlic and sesame oil. I opted for a more of a fusion approach and used milk and lemon juice (couldn’t find buttermilk) and a decent helping of gochujang paste and sriracha. I marinated the chicken overnight for maximum flavouring. When frying, you don’t want to add the chicken until your oil is nice and hot and you want to make sure that you adjust the timing of cooking depending on the cut of meat – 7 minutes for the burgers or 12-15 for chicken thighs or drumsticks. If all goes well, the cheese should just ooze out of the burger when you cut it! Finally, I made the burgers using chicken thigh fillets but it’s easier to work with chicken breast as they are larger and easier to handle. I didn’t double fry the burgers as I was worried I’m pushing my luck with the cheese. However, if you are making it without the stuffed cheese – once you’ve cooked the chicken once, just pop in the hot oil for an extra 2 mins after the chicken has somewhat cooled. This post was super helpful in guiding for how long different cuts of chicken should be cooked for and I used TwistedFood for some inspirations on how to approach the burgers themselves.

More in burgers: Gochujang Chicken Burgers with Potato Wedges | Nathan Outlaw’s Burgers | Smoked Tofu Dirty Burger

Cheese Stuffed Korean Fried Chicken Burgers

Serves 4 | Prep 30-40 mins + overnight marinating | Cook 10 mins
A little effort

You’ll need:

  • For the chicken:
  • 4 chicken breasts or thigh fillets;
  • 60g cheddar, cut into 4 squares;
  • 300 ml buttermilk;
  • 2 tbsp gochujang paste;
  • 2 tbsp sriracha
  • 100g plain flour;
  • 100g cornstarch;
  • 1 tsp baking powder;
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • For the gochujang sauce:
  • 4 tbsp brown sugar;
  • 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar;
  • 3 tbsp ketchup;
  • 2 tbsp gochujang paste;
  • 1 tbsp garlic, finely chopped;
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce;
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

    For the burgers:
  • 4 burger buns;
  • burger cheese;
  • kimchi;
  • salad

First prepare the chicken. If you are using a chicken breasts, cut through the middle to butterfly them – creating one larger fillet. For either the butterflied fillets or the chicken thighs, place underneath a layer of cling film and bash with a rolling pin until they are flattened. Place a square of cheese in one half and fold over the other half of the fillet. Bash again with the rolling pin to seal them. This is much easier with a butterflied chicken breast than a thigh fillet but it works with both. In a medium bowl, mix the buttermilk, gochujang and sriracha. Place the chicken in the marinade, cover and leave to marinade for at least 4 hrs, ideally overnight.

On the day of cooking, make the gochujang sauce. Heat a small saucepan on a low heat. Add the sugar, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, sriracha, gochujang, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil and bring to a boil, whisking to combine. Set aside and keep warm.

Prepare the chicken: combine the plain flour. cornflour, baking powder, salt and white pepper in a bowl. Shake the chicken dry of the buttermilk then toss in the dry ingredients. Remove from the flour mix and leave for 10 mins. Fill a large pan a third of the way with vegetable oil and heat it to 170C. If you don’t have thermometer, test the oil by putting a cube of bread inside – it should crisp up straight away. Carefully pop in the chicken a few pieces at a time and fry for about 7 mins until they are crisp and golden and cooked through. Dip the chicken in the warm gochujang sauce and layer your burgers.

Toast the burger buns. Layer some salad, carefully place the covered chicken, add a slice of burger cheese, some kimchi and voila! I served this with some chips, salad and ‘standard’ Korean fried chicken. If you are making normal Korean fried chicken you can use the same marinade (make more as appropriate) and same gochujang sauce. Just make sure you use the guide above to guide you on your cooking times.

Enjoy!