The Chicken in Me

As much as I want to eat a non-meat diet, chicken is really the hardest one to say goodbye to. Filipinos love chicken. Koreans love chicken. There are a lot of chicken restaurants everywhere. In my hometown, it was grilled. Here, it's fried. I would say that the former is the better one, and healthier at that.

We used to live near a famous chicken resto that sell well-marinated grilled chicken and we almost order at least once a month, usually delivered or picked up. My family liked their chicken and it's near so we would occasionally find ourselves having it for lunch or dinner.

Fast forward to Korea and I am just starting again to explore the dozens of "chicken houses" (chicken jib 닭 집 in Korean.) There are a lot of Korean chicken delivery restaurants: Nene's Chicken, Mexican Chicken, BHC, 동갔집, Kyochon, Mom's Touch, Pelicana, Bonchon, among others. These are just a
few of the ubiquitous ones you'd find scattered across the peninsula.

I only remember Mexicana, Pelicana, Bonchon and Kyocheon from ten years ago. I preferred the Mexicana's oven chicken over the more famous one of Kyocheon which was heavily seasoned with soy sauce. I like my chicken grilled anytime.

Nowadays, I've tried to get myself familiarized with the different chicken houses nearby and have yet to decide on which ones to order from regularly. The Mexicana chicken doesn't seem to have a a very aggressive marketing in this area so I'm not very sure if they still have the oven chicken. I've tried Nene's Chicken upon a couple of recommendations. But my son prefers the tenderloin from Mom's Touch.

There was a flyer that I saw from Kyochon chicken last week. A Lee Min Ho calendar is free for every order of a chicken set plus side dish. I am not really a fan but I thought it would be a kick to get that calendar and taste Kyochon chicken again after all these years. Two birds in one shot. Or better yet, three birds since I can also taste the potato wedges that my son's friend mentioned before when they tasted our homemade baked potatoes.

It turned out that they were not kidding. Our homemade baked ones was waaay better than the Kyochon potato wedges. I am not sure how these wedges were made but I'm pretty sure that it was fried. Baking still rocks although it does take more time. The potatoes were as bland as you can get.

As for the chicken, I chose honey chicken to make sure it won't turn out to be spicy and me being able to eat it. The outer glaze is yummy and addictive but I prefer my chicken to be delicious inside out. Like the Max's chicken's tag line, "Delicious to the bone." No, it didn't get my chicken bones vote. :(

So far, I have come to this rough conclusion.
1. Healthy, oven-baked chicken (preferably from Mexicana or Mom's Touch)
2. Tenderloin (from Mom's Touch)
3. Nene's Chicken

The latter have some good detailed reviews like this one Nene's Chicken Review plus I don't remember being disappointed when we tried it before.

Fast facts that I found while writing this entry:

• Chicken Jib business has a usual three-years life span. Strong competition maybe one factor with more than 30,000 fried chicken eateries as of 2013. The franchise-based fried chicken places at about 22,,529 and the remaining ones are independently-owned. (Korean Herald Oct. 2015 article.)
• Chimaek - coined from the word chicken and maekchu (beer) became more popular in 2010 during the World Cup. (No wonder my hubby didn't know when his brother mentioned when since we came back coz we were out of the country at that time.) 

A more detailed feature on the Korean Chimaek culture can be found in a CNN article. I, myself, have learned a lot from this.

Well, that's about it for this Korean chicken entry. I got that Kyochon calendar sitting on my desk, waiting to be opened but I have other things planned for it. And the leftover Kyochon chicken waiting to be heated up and eaten with a warm rice later.