Fermented - Kimchi Fried Chicken/Tofu Sandwich

Kenji’s Recipe - https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/07/kimchi-fried-chicken-sandwich.html

This is a fun take on fried chicken and of course delicious - it’s fried chicken, why wouldn’t it be? The combination of red chili glaze and the spice mix sprinkled on after frying makes this extra spicy. Some people in the recipe comments complained about ROI based on the amount of effort to make it. I didn’t think it was terribly more involved than making regular fried chicken. The extra components (glaze, spice mix, mayo) don’t really take that much extra work to put together. That said, I don’t think it’s so much more amazing than regular fried chicken that I’d make it again.

A few of the special ingredients required. Kimchi (and also gochujang, not pictured here) is pretty easy to find in most good supermarkets. The black sesame seeds and gochugaru chile powder were a quick order from Amazon. I won't be running out of either any time soon.

I made a vegetarian version following all of the same brine and batter protocol as the chicken but with firm tofu instead. I probably should have used extra firm tofu instead. The tofu was a little bit delicate to work with and really get well coated. Here it is coated as much as I could while keeping it intact and waiting for the fryer.

Tofu out of the fryer and applying the sauce & spice mix. This turned out to be a solid vegetarian alternative.