Air Fryer Korean Fried Chicken (Is It Healthy?)

This air fryer korean fried chicken is a healthier and easier way to make this classic favorite with the same great flavor and texture.

The chicken is fried with a crunchy breading and dipped in delicious spicy gochujang- based sauce that is sweet and spicy makes for a delicious dish that everybody loves.

While it is definitely delicious, is Korean fried chicken healthy?

Korean fried chicken can be a very unhealthy dish given its high fat content from double frying - a traditional serving of the dish can run at 940 calories with only 21 grams of protein and a whopping 84 grams of fat and 30 grams of carbs. 

But by making it with an air fryer, you can cut down the calories significantly and make this air fryer Korean fried chicken much more easily and with lower significantly less calories. This makes for a great healthy Korean food dish.

✅ Why This Recipe Works

Easy to Make – No need to figure out how to deep-fry at home without making a mess. Frying with an air fryer is easy with easy cleanup.

Healthy and nutritious – This recipe was specially developed by yours truly to be low-calorie and macro-friendly, so you can satisfy your cravings while still staying in shape.

Restaurant quality taste from home – By utilizing the key cooking techniques used to make top-tier fried chicken, you can make delicious Korean fried chicken from the comfort of home

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – How To Make It Healthy

Given the usage of breading and oil to make this dish, Korean fried chicken is not the healthiest meal. But by using an air fryer, you can cut down oil usage and fat content of the dish significantly.

This is the same technique I use air fryer orange chicken recipe.

To preserve the integrity of the dish, I only took out the oil usage - all other ingredients remained the same. Here I show the nutrition facts of a serving made with 1 pound of wings mixed with a delicious gochujang sauce cooked using the traditional method: 

For a 4 piece serving, the calorie content is exorbitantly high. This is largely driven by the heavy usage of hot oil in the deep frying method - each wing itself runs at 235 calories.

Using an air fryer, the same 4 piece serving of chicken is only 340 calories, with 21 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat, and 30 grams of carbs, with each wing at 85 calories. This method only eliminates the oil – all other ingredients remain the same. This is a much more macro and calorie friendly way to make the dish without sacrificing any flavor. 

📋 Ingredient Notes

To make the air fryer Korean fried chicken, you'll need the following:

Chicken: Can use either wings or drumsticks. Thighs would work too but would need to adjust the cooking time to be longer

Dry Marinade: Used to season the chicken before frying. I used a combination of salt, pepper, curry powder, ginger, garlic powder, and paprika. The curry powder is the secret ingredient that will give the chicken an extra burst of flavor.

Breading: I used an egg to help the batter stick and used cornstarch, flour, and panko bread crumbs to create the breading. For best results, use a 50/50 ratio of corn starch and flour.

Sweet and Spicy sauce: Used the traditional Yeangnum spicy sauce, with a gochujang base. Gochujang is a Korean chili sauce that bibimbap is traditionally served with. You can buy it at your local Korean market, asian grocery store, or online. 

See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.

🍞 Batter Options

In this recipe, I used a combo of flour and cornstarch to set the the base of the breading, dipped it in an egg wash (which helps the breading stick to the chicken), and covered it in panko to give the chicken some extra crispiness.

Whether you have different preferences or have different ingredients available, there are other options for breading you can look into using.

Omit the cornstarch and just use flour – This will result in a more bread-like exterior.

Omit the flour and just use cornstarch – This will give a crispy outer golden exterior, but the breading will be relatively scant. 

Omit the panko – If you don’t have panko, feel free to skip. The panko adds an extra crispy coating to the chicken wings, but you will still be able to get a delicious exterior with cornstarch and/or flour. 

Use potato starch – Traditional Korean recipes often use potato starch. You can also use this if you’d prefer this over cornstarch and flour. 

📖 Substitutions and Variations

Soy garlic Air Fryer Korean fried chicken – If you prefer a different, non spicy flavor, soy garlic fried chicken is another favorite. Just make the chicken following the instructions in this recipe and dip it in a soy garlic sauce instead. To make soy garlic sauce, combine 2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon water, 1 tablespoon rice wine, and 2 cloves minced garlic. 

Eat original style – Skip the sauce and enjoy the chicken plain! It will still be plenty flavorful from the dry marinade we added before frying. 

Make boneless – To make boneless, use skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts and cut into small pieces. Cut the air frying time to about 8-10 minutes per side.

Make a fried chicken sandwich – Fry a chicken thigh and sandwich in between a bun for a delicious spicy fried chicken sandwich.

Marinade the chicken with spices - If needed, pat the chicken wings and drumsticks dry with a paper towel. In a small bowl, combine the dry marinade ingredients together. Then mix the chicken wings and drumsticks in the spice mix thoroughly. 

Air fry the chicken - Spray the chicken pieces with cooking spray and add into the air fryer basket in a single layer. Set the air fryer to 400F and fry for 15 minutes.

Sauce the chicken up - Coat the chicken in the sauce to give it a nice glaze. 

Serve and enjoy - Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion and enjoy your delicious and healthy air fryer Korean fried chicken!

💡 Expert Tips

Marinade the chicken ahead of time – This will optimize the flavor of the chicken  

Line the parchment paper on the air fryer – This will make cleaning the air fryer significantly easier. In most cases, it will just be a matter of throwing out the parchment paper. 

Fry the chicken in a single layer – Not doing so will result in not fully fried chicken. Make sure to lay in a single layer with some space in between. You may have to do multiple batches depending on how many chicken wings or drumsticks you are frying.