Korean fried chicken becomes topic of debate after critic Hwang Kyo-ik rails against 'tasteless' meat

It's no secret that South Korea loves its chicken: when fried and paired with beer it's known as chimaek, which is hugely popular both at home and abroad, while roast chicken is thought to be the nation's favourite festive takeaway dish - often outselling the runner-up, pizza, at Christmastime by about three to one.

So when Korean food critic Hwang Kyo-ik took aim at the country's chickens recently - saying in a series of Facebook posts that they were slaughtered too young, rendering their meat tasteless - it sparked a fiery backlash, not least from the Korean Poultry Association, which accused Hwang of needlessly "denigrating" the industry for a selfish publicity stunt.

"Korean fried chicken is made from birds that only weigh 1.5kg. These are probably the smallest chickens in the world," Hwang wrote in the post condemning Korea's "bad habit" of slaughtering chickens too early. "How can a 30-day-old chick contain any taste? Yet we eat them as if they are delicious - and that's only thanks to the nice seasoning and sauce."

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Chickens can live for six years or more, but will often be slaughtered at a much younger age if being reared for their meat. In Britain, butchers refer to chickens slaughtered around the 30-day mark as poussins or coquelets - though spring chicken is another term that's often used. In the US, chickens aged about seven weeks are known as "broiler-fryers", while those aged three to five months are called "roasters", according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Hwang said Korean chickens lacks the "chunky, juicy bites" of their foreign counterparts, referencing in his Facebook posts a 2014 documentary titled Meat-eating Rebellion Ⅲ - Confession of Popcorn Chicken made by Korean television channel MBC-TV.

The documentary found that many small South Korean farms regularly ship their chickens for slaughter before they reach 30 days old, so that the genetically modified birds do not have time to develop illnesses arising from their overcrowded, badly ventilated living conditions - and any underlying genetic defects they may have.

Poultry companies in South Korea are more than happy to take these "baby chickens" off the farmers' hands, the documentary said, "as a result of companies' commercial interests and farmers' convenience combined". The birds are often bought from farmers by the kilo, to be sold on to shops and consumers by the head, it said.

Hwang's posts sparked angry protests from South Korea's broiler industry, with poultry association spokesman Kim Dong-jin accusing the food critic of wilfully ignoring Koreans' preference for a whole chicken rather than just the wings or thighs, as favoured in the United States and elsewhere.

A number of fast food franchise outlets in the country built around US-style chicken offerings had failed over the years because of this Korean culinary preference, Kim said.

"The use of small chicken is mainly due to Korean culinary habits rather than any sinister reasons", he said, while also confirming Korean farmers' tendency towards early slaughter to avoid the higher risk of illness associated with chickens older than 30 days.

Many popular Korean dishes call for a whole young chicken, such as samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, in which the bird is stuffed with glutinous rice, ginseng root, red dates, and chestnuts. For chimaek - one of 26 Korean words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in October - fried chicken parts will often be served, but whole fried chickens, known as tongdak, are also widely enjoyed in South Korea.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Koreans ate nearly 15kg of chicken each, on average, in 2019 - a figure it expected to increase in 2021, after last year's pandemic-associated disruptions.

When asked for their thoughts on Korean fried chicken, foreigners living in the country were quick to praise the use of creative flavourings and the wide variety of sauces on offer - though some also balked at the relatively high price.

"There are many different flavours and seasonings compared to [the fried chicken in] America," said Jill, a 26-year-old American teaching English in Seoul. "Korea has a wider variety of sauces [and] gets very creative with flavours - I enjoy that."

"The price is a bit high in comparison [to the US], but when you enjoy it with others and split the bill it's not so bad! You get what you pay for," she said.

Betty, a 30-year-old English teacher from Britain, said she thought Korean fried chicken "tastes nice" as it's crispy and savoury - adding that she hadn't really noticed a difference in size between Korean chickens and the ones she ate at home.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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