Last weekend, I wrote about the excitement around a new food option for the US Open this year. Simon Kim’s Korean fried chicken restaurant, Coqodaq, will deliver stadium fare to the onsite fans during the tournament. One of the items on the menu is the “Golden Set with 24 karat,” which tops a six-piece order of Kim’s signature crispy chicken nuggets with caviar, black truffle shavings, and truffle mayo.
That post included a link to a recipe for “Gochujang Fried Chicken Nuggets,” which the “Today” morning talk show shared following Kim’s appearance on a segment last month. One of the side effects of this blog is my newly discovered joy of recreating iconic food served at the major tennis tournaments at home. I have found that it enhances my television viewing experience of the matches. Since ESPN broadcast qualifying rounds last week as part of “Fan Week” at the US Open, that was an excellent excuse to get a head start on the culinary experience this year.
It was an adventure. The recipe for Gochujang Fried Chicken Nuggets is complex and requires a high degree of planning. The chicken is brined for 24 hours before the dish is made. The breading is accomplished by dusting the chicken pieces with a flour mix, dipping them into a batter, and then dusting them with flour again. In doing this, I discovered that this recipe also creates an opportunity to clean up stray flour dust and battered fingerprints off counters and cabinets. Fun times.
Additionally, the nuggets are cooked using a two-stage process. They are fried for three minutes and then removed from the oil to allow it to heat back up to a target temperature before repeating the process. This may have been a concession in the recipe to accommodate the limitations of stovetop deep frying. The only photo I remembered to take while trying out the recipe was one that captures the difference in color between the two stages.
I also underestimated how difficult it would be to source Korean ingredients in Wichita Falls, which is where I was when I undertook this recipe. While I eventually obtained everything needed or reasonable substitutes, I discovered the result wasn’t materially different from the pre-made bottled Gochujang dipping sauce I found in one of the local grocery stores. I will probably use purchased sauce as a shortcut going forward with this recipe.
It calls for two pounds of chicken, which is more than two people can reasonably eat in one sitting. Consequently, I had the opportunity to experiment with freezing the nuggets for later use. I found that reheating them straight from frozen in an air fryer at 300 degrees for 9 minutes worked very well. I stored the sauce separately and tossed the nuggets in it after they came out of the air fryer.
The frying process was so involved that I don’t think cooking less than the original proportions makes sense. In fact, armed with the knowledge that freezing works, if anything, I would double the recipe for future use. However, if you attend the US Open this year, I highly recommend standing in line at Coqodaq, no matter how long it is. Ultimately, that will take significantly less time than making this dish at home. It is worth it either way.
As one final footnote, I can also confirm that the nuggets go very well with the Honey Deuce cocktail.
