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Chef Chris Cho holding a plate of soy garlic chicken wings — This is how you make Soy Garlic Chicken Wings!

These Soy Garlic Chicken Wings are the sweet and savory counterpart of spicy Korean Fried Chicken. It’s umami-filled and perfect for appetizers, game day munchies, or if you want a homemade Bonchon-style soy garlic fried chicken for your lunch or dinner!

Ingredients

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Chicken Wings, Brine, and Batter

Chicken Wings – For this recipe, you can actually use any chicken parts you like, what’s essential is to season it properly so it’s tasty on its own and the sauce is just a bonus.
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Mirin – This is sweet cooking wine that will complement the saltiness of the soy garlic sauce.
Potato Starch – I often use potato starch because it yields an extra crispy fried chicken.
Egg Whites – I used egg whites for this recipe because it expands as you cook them so you get more chicken skin that will be coated with the soy garlic sauce.

If you don’t have potato starch, you can also use this Classic Fried Chicken Wings recipe using flour and cornstarch.

Soy Garlic Sauce Recipe

Soy Sauce – For the savory-umami flavor
Sugar – For the contrasting sweetness
Corn Syrup – This helps turn the sauce into a nice glaze
Water – To temper the flavors from the soy sauce and sugar
Garlic, Scallions, Onion, Ginger, Apple – The aromatics that will naturally add sweetness and spice to the sauce
Peppercorn, Bay Leaf – For freshness that will bring balance to the sauce
Dashima – For depth of flavor without adding salt
Potato Starch Slurry – Combination of potato starch and water which will thicken the sauce and turn it into a nice glaze

The basic recipe comprises of soy sauce, corn syrup, sugar, water, garlic, and potato starch slurry. You can use this combination as is. The other ingredients mentioned are optional, but highly recommended because it will make the sauce super addicting!

How to Make Soy Garlic Chicken Wings?

Brine the Chicken

Since we are making a savory sauce, I made the brine very simple. Season the chicken with garlic, mirin, salt, and black pepper, then brine for a minimum of 30 minutes to 24 hours. The longer brines, the tastier it is!

Make the Batter

Add egg whites and potato starch in the brined chicken and mix well. Check the consistency–it should not be too thick nor too loose, just enough to coat the chicken thoroughly.

Double Fry the Chicken

Fill a deep pot with oil until about half of its capacity to deep fry the chicken. Heat it up on medium high heat. Once it’s hot, about 350F, let the excess batter drip off from the chicken and gently place them in the hot oil one by one.
Fry the chicken for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Remove the chicken from the deep fryer, and let it rest on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Do this until all your chicken are fried.
Give the chicken light taps to create air holes.
Turn the heat to high, and place back the chicken to the fryer. Fry them for 2 minutes.

Double frying the chicken will ensure maximum crispiness because as you create airholes from tapping, steam will be released, thus leaving space for the oil to make the skin crispier. However, if you wish to skip all the frying, feel free to use this Airfried Sriracha Chicken Wings recipe.

Make the Soy Garlic Sauce

Combine soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, and water in a pot and let it boil. Once boiling, add scallions, onion, ginger, apple, peppercorn, bayleaf, and dashima. Let it infuse for a couple of minutes.

Once combined and infused, strain to remove the solids and add the minced garlic. I like adding thoroughly minced or almost pureed garlic so that the kick is throughout the sauce and it looks uniform with no bits!

Place the sauce back to the pot, add potato starch slurry, and stir until thickened.

Coat the Chicken with Soy Garlic Sauce

Take your chicken and brush each wing with the soy garlic sauce. Do not dip or pour the sauce to keep its crispiness and also so you can control the amount you put in it.

There will be excess with the measurements I made here, so you can either double up on the chicken pieces or keep it in a clean jar and store it in the fridge for future use.

Serve Soy Garlic Wings

Serve the chicken immediately as a munchies like kimchi fries or sweet potato pancake for beer. This is also great with vegetable side dishes like water kimchi, radish kimchi, or spicy radish salad.

Expert Tips in Frying

For leftover oil, let it cool down, remove the food debris, and store in a clean container. You can still use this for 3 more times as long as the oil hasn’t changed in color or odor.
Be gentle in placing the chicken in oil so it doesn’t splatter. If you are afraid to use your hand, then use a tong.
Do not crowd your fryer. This will lower the temperature of the oil and will take the chicken longer to fry, turning it soggy.
Place your freshly fried chicken in a wire rack. Ensure there is enough space at the bottom so air can circulate, preventing your chicken from turning soggy.

Other Korean chicken dishes you might like:

Make sure to leave a rating, a comment, or tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok when you chop them up! Yeobosayo!

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5 from 2 votes