Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Korean fried chicken burger with all the trimmings

This Korean fried chicken burger with pickled cucumber and spicy mayo would be a great treat for someone you love this Valentine's Day

It is St Valentine’s Day on Sunday. A day when all the restaurants are usually booked out and a bunch of red roses will cost you an arm and a leg. It will be different this year of course. There will be no dining out, and the florists are all closed too. Everyone will have to get a little more inventive, and perhaps there is no harm in that.

I must be honest; I am not a fan of Valentine’s Day. I have always found it to be a bit too forced, a bit formulaic. Being married to someone with a deep aversion to any kind of performative displays of love and affection has not helped. Over the past twenty-one years I have learned not to expect the expected. In all that time I have never received a Valentines Day card and a bunch of flowers on the fourteenth of February. Such tokens are instead more likely to arrive unexpectedly, be it a bunch of flowers on rare occasions or more often something he spots that he knows I will enjoy. Displays of affection are spontaneous, and rarely given if expected. I have come to really value the spontaneity of that. There is a thoughtfulness involved that is very lovely, and it is always nice to be surprised.

So, we do not do Valentine’s Day. Maybe this year we might though, or at least I might. After twenty-one years of not doing it, then doing it would be unexpected maybe? And we all need as many distractions and little celebrations as we can get right now. What the heck, I think I will go for it. No cards though, or flowers. Instead, I will cook him one of his favourite meals. One that always makes his eyes light up when he hears I am planning to make it. Why not do the same for your someone special? It does not have to be fancy, just a favourite. Something that brings joy.

I am going to make this Korean Fried Chicken Burger with all the trimmings. I will serve it in a brioche bun, with pickled cucumber, gochujang mayonnaise, crisp lettuce and grated vintage cheddar. I will go all out and make up some ssamjang, another lovely Korean chilli sauce, and serve my own take on patatas bravas, Korean-style, with a sweet and spicy sauce of their own.

You can buy gochujang from most Asian Supermarkets, though it is also very easy to make at home. I gave a recipe here in this column for it a few weeks back, and it is also on my Instagram page if you fancy making it yourself. I highly recommend that you do, it is a beautiful chilli sauce.

This recipe serves four, just reduce everything down by half if you are cooking for two.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• 30ml rice wine
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 250g cornflour
• 4 brioche buns
• 8 medium sized potatoes
• 4 tbsp Mayonnaise
• 4 tbsp Gochujang chilli sauce
• 3 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 50g honey
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• Little gem lettuce
• Grated vintage cheddar

For the Ssamjang (optional)

• 80g Korean soybean paste or miso
• 2 tbsp gochujang
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1tsp honey
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 20g flaked almonds
• ½ apple, cored and finely chopped
  

  Method

  Flatten the chicken breasts a little. I use a rolling pin to do this, just pound them gently to make them a uniform thickness. Grate the garlic, pop it into a bowl with the rice wine and ginger. Cut the chicken breasts in half, add them to the bowl and stir to cover with the marinade. Let them marinate for about 30 minutes. Now make the pickled cucumber. Warm 60ml rice or white wine vinegar in a small pan, add one teaspoon of sesame oil, one teaspoon of Korean red pepper flakes or ordinary chilli flakes and one tablespoon of caster sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Thinly slice a cucumber, pop it into a bowl and pour over the vinegar mix.

Pop all the ingredients for the ssamjang into a food processor and blitz until smooth. This will only take a minute or two. It is optional, but it really adds something special to this dish.

Peel a few potatoes per person and cut them into two-centimetre cubes. Toss them in a little olive oil and roast in an air fryer or oven at 200c until golden brown. Heat one litre of sunflower oil to 180ºC. Dredge the chicken pieces one at a time in the cornflour. Carefully lower them into the hot fat, one-by-one. Do not crowd the pan, you will need to do this in batches of three pieces or so at a time. Fry them for five minutes. After five minutes, let the chicken drain on a rack over a tray or on some kitchen paper. 

While the chicken is frying, toast the burger buns lightly. Make a sauce for the side serving of chicken and the potato by mixing the ketchup, two tablespoons of gochujang, two grated cloves of garlic, the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, and sesame oil in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the mayonnaise and the last two tablespoons of gochujang. Now fry the chicken again for another two minutes. Plate up.

Put some lettuce on each bun along with some pickled cucumber. Next, put on a piece of chicken, add some of the gochujang mayo and some grated cheddar. Toss the potatoes in a little of the sauce you made earlier. Sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds and some chopped spring onion. Serve on the side along with another piece of chicken and a little dish of the sauce.