The BEST Air-Fryer Korean Fried Chicken with Kimchi Ramen on the side [VIDEO]
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This Air-Fryer Korean Fried Chicken is an amazing way to turn a crowd favorite healthier! Pair with a piping hot bowl of Kimchi Ramen and you have yourself an easy Korean-themed meal!
For someone who loves her air-fryer so much, it’s kind of shocking how little I’ve mentioned it on this blog. I’ve written about it I think exactly zero times, and I would like to apologize. To my air-fryer. Which I have named Russ– short for Russell because it’s a Russell Hobbs air-fryer. (And no, I do not think naming my appliances is weird. My camera is named Comet The Third. It’s a long story.)
It’s interesting how much I’ve grown to love Russ actually, because I only discovered the magic of the air-fryer last year, when I started cooking a lot more often. We’ve owned the thing for so many years but never knew how to use it properly.
Even though I often get aggravated because Russ’s basket tray thing doesn’t smoothly slide in and lock on the first try, it’s now currently on regular rotation in our kitchen, cooking stuff like this truly awesome Air-Fryer Korean Fried Chicken. I’m not exaggerating here, because damn, this is really good chicken. All the credit goes to I Am A Food Blog for the recipe!
As much as I enjoy eating Korean Fried Chicken, the prospect of deep-frying often turns me off. Sometimes, it’s simply a hassle to deep-fry. Plus, it’s just unhealthy. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Deep-fried foods are delicious but they’re not nutritious, and I love that we can circumvent all of that by using an air-fryer. Maybe the result is not 100% the same as deep-frying, but it’s closer than one might expect. Personally, my lazy butt almost always gravitates toward this alternative. (My health-conscious butt also does lol.)
Despite the lengthy list of ingredients, this Air-Fryer Korean Fried Chicken is pretty simple, and it gets double air-fried for some crunch! The sauce is where it’s at though. It’s that combination of sweet, salty, and garlicky that just seems to tug at all the right spots of the tastebuds. It’s also slightly spicy, with a nice sesame oil undertone that just kind of rounds everything up nicely.
The sauce has this gorgeous hue makes it more mouthwatering, and it sticks to the chicken without turning it soggy. Speaking of sticky, it’s also got that signature stickiness that makes you want to use your hands to eat.
To pair with the chicken, I decided to make a simple Kimchi Ramen. I was a little hesitant about sharing the recipe because I had some technical difficulties with it, but I made some tweaks. I’ll write more about it on the recipe notes area down below.
Frankly, it’s an uncomplicated bowl of ramen relying on seasonings and kimchi to give it flavor. It’s easy to make your own tweaks to it since it’s so basic. It’s comforting and a good pairing for something as flavorful as this Air-Fryer Korean Fried Chicken, which really becomes quite the highlight of a simple meal such as this.
I haven’t actually shared that many recipes for you guys to realize this, but I have been obsessed with doing all these meal pairings. I have filmed so many of them in the past few months but haven’t had time to edit. This is one of those really easy-to-make Korean-themed meals I’ve put together. Heck, it’s just really an easy meal pairing regardless of cuisine, period. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Recipe notes
- DON’T BE DAUNTED BY THE LONG LIST OF INGREDIENTS. While I was writing this post I realized both the chicken and ramen have a very long list of ingredients. The good news is most of them are seasoning ingredients and are probably already in your kitchen. Nothing about the recipes are complicated however.
- YOU CAN MAKE THE CHICKEN SAUCE IN ADVANCE. I made my sauce hours before I cooked my chicken. It’ll give the sauce some time to mature in flavor.
- DON’T SKIP THE DOUBLE AIR-FRY STEP. I know it seems like such a hassle to have to cook and rest and then cook the chicken again, but I promise you it’ll make a difference with the chicken. The skin will become nice and crunchy and more enjoyable to munch on!
- YOU CAN USE OTHER CHICKEN PARTS IF YOU DON’T LIKE WINGS. You may want to make more sauce however, because other chicken parts tend to be bigger and will require more sauce to fully cover. As for cooking time, in my experience, 15 minutes is enough to cook most chicken parts. Adjust as needed.
- 1 Tablespoon ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon gochujang
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ Tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ½ Tablespoon grated ginger
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- Sliced green onions, to garnish
- 450 grams chicken wings
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- Salt and pepper
- In a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients. Mix until well-combined and cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and set aside for now.
- Coat the chicken with the oil, then season generously with salt and pepper. Add in the cornstarch and toss the chicken to evenly coat. Make sure every piece is coated with a thin layer of cornstarch!
- Spray the air fryer basket with oil (or use a paper towel to wipe a thin coat of oil onto it), then arrange the chicken pieces in a single layer. Do not crowd! You have no choice but to air fry in batches. (Totally worth it, I promise!)
- Air fry the chicken at 350ºF (180ºC) for 15 minutes. (No need to preheat!) Flip the chicken and air fry another 5 minutes, then transfer the chicken onto a wire rack to rest for 5 minutes.
- After this resting period, return the chicken into the air fryer basket. Spray with a very light coating of oil if you want (I thought there was enough natural chicken oils released to skip this step) and air fry another 5 minutes. This is the air frying equivalent of double frying to achieve that nice crispy skin.
- Add the cooked chicken into a bowl and toss with the prepared sauce. Make sure to coat all over and get sauce into every nook and cranny of the chicken. Sprinkle generously with green onions on top. Enjoy immediately while hot and crunchy! I loved this with a warm bowl of Kimchi Ramen.
- USE A BROTH BASE FOR MORE FLAVOR. I made the mistake of using water for the soup when I filmed this video and I thought the ramen lacked flavor in the end, despite all the seasonings. Definitely use broth for more flavor, whether it be chicken or vegetable or dashi stock.
- COOK NOODLES AND SOUP SEPARATELY IF NOT SERVING IMMEDIATELY. In my experience, the ramen noodles tend to soak up the soup when it’s left in there even for a mere 3 minutes after cooking. Such that when it’s time to serve you barely have enough soup left! This is especially true if you use Ottogi ramen noodles, which are delicious but are like a sponge! To be on the safe side, you may boil the noodles and the broth in separate pots and put them together in a serving bowl right when you’re ready to eat. If you will be serving this immediately, then feel free to boil the noodles straight in with the broth. For filming purposes I actually had to make a separate pot of the soup to top off the ramen because it takes me forever to shoot these things lol. You can do that too!
- 3 cups broth of choice
- ½ packed cup well-fermented kimchi, plus a lot more to serve
- 1 Tablespoons white rice wine
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 to 2 teaspoons rice vinegar, depending on how sour your kimchi is
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
- ½ teaspoon Korean red chili flakes, or more if you like it spicy
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 portions or bricks of plain instant ramen (I like Ottogi)
- 1 scallion or green onions, sliced as desired for garnish
- Into a medium pot, add in all the ingredients except for the extra kimchi and scallions. Stir the soup well and bring to a boil and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes until ramen is your desired softness. Don’t cook too long or it’ll be soggy. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning if you find it too light. This soup is fairly light and relies mostly on the kimchi’s flavor.
- Divide the noodles among 2 to 3 bowls, ladle in the soup, and garnish generously with more kimchi on top, plus the scallions. Serve immediately! The noodles will suck in the soup faster than you might think! If you are not serving immediately, it’s a good idea to cook the soup and the noodles separately, then ladle the soup in just before serving. This ramen will taste best eaten with more kimchi on top, and with some Air Fryer Korean Fried Chicken on the side!
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