Chef Jae Lee's must-try recipes for Korean fried chicken, burger, rice cakes and more
Chef Jae Lee is bringing Korean-American flavor to cities including Boston and New York City with his restaurant brand, Nowon.
Lee joined "Good Morning America" on Monday to share ways to bring the same flavors to your own home, with recipes for must-try dishes including Korean fried chicken, a "legendary" burger, rice cakes and more.
Check out the full recipes below.
The Legendary Cheeseburger
"This burger started with the Big Mac. That was my favorite burger as a kid -- pickles, onion, special sauce, sesame seed bun, double patty. That's the blueprint. I wasn't trying to reinvent the burger. I wanted to take the one I loved growing up and run it through a Korean American lens," Lee said. "The kimchi sauce is what makes it ours. The real one is a family recipe, and we're keeping that in the family. But the easy at-home version below gets you the same idea: kimchi, folded into a creamy sauce, on a really good cheeseburger."
Serving size: 1 burger
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Kewpie mayonnaise (or regular mayo)
1/4 cup napa cabbage kimchi, finely chopped
1 teaspoon gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
Pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Two 4-ounce patties, 70/30 ground beef
Salt and black pepper
2 slices yellow American cheese
4 dill pickle chips, preferably crinkle-cut
1 tablespoon Spanish onion, minced
1 brioche sesame seed bun, buttered and toasted
Directions:
For the kimchi sauce, stir the mayo, chopped kimchi, gochugaru, rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar together. Taste and adjust. Better after 30 minutes in the fridge.
For the burger, butter the bun and toast it until golden. Don't skip this -- the butter and the toast keep a saucy burger from going soggy.
Season the patties with salt and pepper. Smash them onto a hot pan or griddle and leave them alone until a dark crust forms.
Flip, lay a slice of American cheese on each, and let it melt.
Build it: Bottom bun, kimchi sauce, minced onion, the two cheesy patties, pickles, more sauce and top bun.
Garlic Honey Butter Tater Tots
"This one came from Korean honey butter chips -- the snack that took over Korea a decade ago and that every Korean American kid has a memory of. Sweet, salty, buttery, a little addictive," Lee said. "I took that flavor and put it on a tater tot, which is about as American as a side dish gets. That's the whole restaurant in one plate: a Korean flavor inside something everybody already knows. Nobody has to be brave to order it, and then it surprises you."
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons tamari (or gluten-free soy sauce)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 1/2 tablespoons Kewpie mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, Microplaned
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups frozen tater tots
2 ounces garlic honey butter
Small pinch of kosher salt
Furikake, to garnish (store-bought is great -- we make ours in house, but a good store-bought furikake does the job)
Garlic crema, for serving
Neutral oil, for frying
Directions:
Make the garlic honey butter ahead. Melt the butter in a pot over low heat and add the minced garlic.
Cook the garlic gently in the butter. Do not let it brown -- you want it soft and sweet, not toasted.
Add the honey, brown sugar and tamari soy sauce. Whisk everything together and warm it until the sugar fully dissolves. Transfer to a container right away. Whisk it as it cools if needed -- the butter should not separate.
Also make the garlic crema ahead. Combine the sour cream, Kewpie mayonnaise, garlic, lime juice, rice wine vinegar and kosher salt.
Blend or whisk until completely smooth. Keep cold.
Fry the tater tots at 350 F until crispy and deep golden. Drain well.
While they're still hot, toss them lightly with the garlic honey butter. Lightly is the word -- you want them coated and glossy, not soaked.
Season with a small pinch of salt.
Transfer to a bowl, garnish with furikake, and serve with the garlic crema on the side.
General Lee's Fried Chicken
"Korean fried chicken lives or dies on the crust. Ours is double-fried, so the coating shatters instead of going soft under the glaze. The sauce is gochujang, honey, soy, and garlic. Sweet, funky, and a little hot," Lee said. "What sets it apart is the finish. Crushed peanuts and quick-pickled daikon go on last. You get crunch and acid cutting against the glaze, so it never gets heavy."
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken thighs
2 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cornstarch (or half cornstarch, half all-purpose flour)
Neutral oil, for frying
1/3 cup gochujang
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
1 cup daikon radish, diced and cubed small
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
Crushed peanuts
Sliced scallion
Sliced red holland chilis or red Fresno chilis
Toasted white sesame seeds
Directions:
Make the buttermilk brine ahead by whisking the buttermilk and kosher salt together until the salt dissolves. Submerge the chicken thighs fully. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
To quick pickle the daikon, warm the rice vinegar and sugar just until the sugar dissolves, then let it cool. Pour the cooled liquid over the daikon. Let it sit while you cook. 15 minutes is enough.
To make the glaze, stir the gochujang, honey, soy sauce, garlic and ginger together in a small pot. Warm gently just until combined. Don't boil it.
Fry the chicken twice: Lift each piece out of the buttermilk and let the excess drip off. You want it coated, not dripping.
Dredge in the cornstarch, pressing it on to build craggy edges.
Fry at 350 F for about 2 minutes, until pale gold. Pull it out and rest 10 minutes. Fry a second time at 350 F until deep golden and crispy. The rest between fries is what makes it shatter-crisp.
Toss the hot chicken in the glaze until coated. Finish with the pickled daikon, crushed peanuts, scallion, sliced red chilis and sesame seeds.
'Chopped Cheese' Rice Cakes
"This dish comes from two foods I grew up on: tteokbokki, the Korean street food, and the chopped cheese, the New York street food you get from a corner deli. Both are the kind of thing you eat late, standing up, not thinking about it. I wanted to put them in the same dish and see what happened," Lee said. "Two street foods, from two halves of my life, in one bowl."
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons white miso
1 tablespoon gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
1/3 cup labneh or plain Greek yogurt
Sazon to taste
1 pound Korean rice cakes (tteok), tossed in cornstarch
1/2 pound ground beef, 70/30
Salt and black pepper
4 slices yellow American cheese
Neutral oil, for frying
Sliced pickled jalapeños (store-bought is fine)
Sliced scallion
Grated Parmesan
Toasted panko or furikake (optional)
Directions:
For the cheese sauce, warm the cream and miso in a pan over medium-low heat, whisking until smooth. Bring it to a bare simmer -- do not boil.
Stir in the gochugaru. Turn off the heat, then fold in the labneh or yogurt. Don't boil it after the yogurt goes in or it will break.
For the rice cakes, if your rice cakes are firm or frozen, thaw overnight. Toss them in cornstarch, shaking off the excess. Fry at 350 F until crispy. Drain.
Smash the ground beef into a hot pan and let it crisp on one side. Season with salt and pepper.
Flip it, then chop it up in the pan -- you want it in small pieces, like a deli chopped cheese.
Lay the American cheese over the beef and let it melt in.
To assemble, add the cheese sauce to the pan and toss with the beef. Build in a bowl: crispy rice cakes, then the cheesy beef on top.
Finish with pickled jalapeños, scallion, Parmesan and a little panko.
Recipes reprinted with permission from Jae Lee, chef/owner of Nowon.
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