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Chef Chris Cho making Tangsuyuk — This is how you make Tangsuyuk!

Tangsuyuk is the Korean-style sweet and sour pork! It is made of crispy pork and colorful vegetables coated in a thick, sweet, and tangy sauce!

If you are fond of Chinese takeout, you probably know the bright red, Chinese-style sweet and sour pork. This Korean-style recipe is adapted from that classic dish. Typically, this would be served with Jajangmyeon or Jjampong. And sometimes, you can alternatively choose to have Kkanpunggi if you want a spicy kick to your meal.

Tangsuyuk is a very popular dish solely because of the crispy fried pork where you literally hear the crunch from the batter yet the meat remains soft and juicy. It’s flavored and balanced by the sweet and tangy sauce that you either pour or dip and then share with everyone. This perfectly harmonizes with the noodle dishes stated above leaving you fully indulged and satisfied.

Ingredients

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What meat to use for Tangsuyuk?

The most typical meat choice for tangsuyuk is pork tenderloin. However, this recipe is very versatile so you can also use chicken thighs, beef tenderloin, shiitake mushrooms, or even firm tofu. This would fit any diet such as halal or vegan.

The meat will be coated with batter made from potato starch, water, and oil. Potato starch is a type of starch that I like to use because it yields an extra crispy skin for any fried dishes.

Korean-style Sweet and Sour Sauce

Seasonings

The sauce is a simple mixture of soy sauce, apple vinegar, sugar, water, and potato starch slurry. It’s straightforward and uses a combination of savory, sour, and sweet flavors all thickened up by the slurry. You can add a bit of apple jam for an additional layer of flavor.

Vegetables

The sauce also contains vegetables such as carrots, cucumber, wood-ear mushrooms, and pineapple. You can also add onion, peppers, and apple slices according to preference, simply mix and match or use what is available to you. These will add color, freshness, and additional crunch to the dish.

How to make Crispy Tangsuyuk?

As a quick tip, some of the steps in making tangsuyuk may overlap like waiting for the potato starch to set or heating up the oil, so best to read through the procedure first and find the best rhythm that works for you. All the best and enjoy!

Prepare the Meat

Slice your meat into strips to retain the classic appearance of the Korean-style sweet and sour recipe. Remove any fat as this dish is already oily from being fried. If you’re using chicken, season it with salt and pepper. If you’re using pork, there’s no need to season it as the pork is already flavorful in itself. Set this aside.

Make the Batter

Removing excess water from potato starch batter

Crumbling potato starch batter into the meat

Combine potato starch and water and mix it thoroughly. Set it aside for 30 minutes and let the hydrated potato starch settle at the bottom and you’ll notice that excess water will come up. Throw out the excess water and it will leave a clay-like batter. Crumble some of it into the sliced meat.

Deep Fry the Pork

Pack meat pieces with potato starch batter

Now heat up 2 quartz of oil until it reaches 350F. You need this much to ensure the pork is deep-fried, and it needs to be hot enough to cook the pork properly.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of room-temperature oil to make the remaining batter runny, mix, and coat the meat one by one with it. Place each meat directly into the hot oil to cook for 2-3 minutes. Do this gently and as close as you can so the oil doesn’t splatter. The higher you put the meat in, the more it will splash!

As you cook, the batter may stick to each other but don’t worry as you can separate it later on. The pork will float on top which indicates that it is done.

Double Fry the Pork

To make Tangsuyuk extra crispy, remove the pork from the fryer, then place it in a bowl to do little taps to separate each piece and to create air holes that will allow the steam/moisture to escape and make room to crisp up the batter even more.

Increase the heat of the oil and once it reaches 375F, place the pork back into the fryer and fry them for 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the fryer and leave on a wire rack to keep all sides of the pork crispy.

Make the Sauce

Cucumber, pineapple, wood ear mushroom, and carrots

Prepare the vegetables as such:

Hydrate wood ear mushrooms with hot water, then slice them into bite-size pieces.
Make 3-4 small v’s on the circumference of the carrot, then slice thinly to make flower shapes.
Remove the seeds from the cucumber then slice thinly.
Drain pineapple juice from the can and slice pineapples into tidbits.

Combine water, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar in a pan, then mix until the sugar is dissolved and bring to a boil. Place the vegetables into the sauce to cook, but don’t let them overcook, just boil them until it is pliable while still retaining their crunch.

Combine 1 tablespoon of potato starch dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water to create a slurry. Mix it with the sauce gradually until the thickness is reached. Taste and adjust the sauce and add more sugar, vinegar, or soy sauce depending on your preferred taste.

Eating Tangsuyuk: Dip or Pour?

Korean Sweet and Sour Pork is best served with Black Bean Noodles or Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup which are very famous delivery items in Korea!

Tangsuyuk is best enjoyed freshly cooked when it is still crispy. Hopefully, you don’t have any leftovers as it may turn soggy when it cools down. Nevertheless, to reheat, you can try to refry or air fry them but the meat may turn tougher.

In eating this, there is a debate among Koreans on how they would like to have tangsuyuk. One side is “dipper” or people who like to only dip the pork pieces into the sauce before eating it, while the other side is “pourer” where they just pour the sauce into the pork to coat everything.

While either way would retain the crispiness of the pork, some people still prefer the extra crunchy texture when they dip as opposed to when it is poured. What do you think?

Other Korean dishes you may like:

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