Written by Dr. Jeong Eunjeong (Researcher of Rural Sociology)

The most familiar food and representative chicken dish,
fried chicken

If someone shouts “Let’s go eat chicken!”, people will understand that it means to go eat “fried chicken”. ‘Chicken’ is an English word that means chicken itself. However, in Korea, chicken means fried chicken itself. Even though chicken dishes don't mean fried chicken only. Korean chicken dishes include samgyetang(ginseng chicken soup) and dakgalbi(stir-fried chicken). There is also dakbokkeumtang(spicy braised chicken), which is boiled in spicy seasoning and eaten like a soup. However, only fried chicken is commonly referred to as “chicken”. As such, fried chicken is the most familiar food and representative chicken dish to Koreans. There is a survey that the happiness index increases even if you just think of chicken, which mean Korea's chicken love is close to the absolute love.

Since 1997, Korea's No.1 eat out menu is chicken, and it has not missed No.1 place. As such, it has established itself as a daily food enjoyed by everybody of all ages. Until the 1980s, chicken used to be a very precious food. Back then, they called it 'tongdak' more than 'chicken'. Before the 1980s, the whole chicken was sold as rotisserie chicken rather than frying it with cooking oil, or deep fried slightly salted raw chicken without any special seasoning. Even now, they still call it "old chicken" or "market chicken" and sell the whole fried chicken without cutting into small pieces.

Relation between Korean History and Chicken

Korea, which used to be an agricultural country, has gone through the industrialization path based on industrialization since the Korean War and colonial rule. And since the late 1960s, the nation have been pursuing industrialization policies aimed at exporting, and from the 1970s, Korea have entered the era of full-scaled industrialization. Limited capital was intensively invested in industry, not agriculture. The farmers moved to the big cities where the factories were located, became urban workers, and filled their stomachs with cheap flour. Instead of selling their manufactured goods abroad, basic food was imported from abroad.

The most important basic food in modern diet is beans and corn. Beans and corn can be eaten by humans, but most of all, they are also important as feed for livestock. In the 1970s, beans and corn were introduced in large quantities, expanding the feed industry and developing the livestock industry. People raised chickens, pigs, and cows with beans and corn, and chickens account for most of livestock production. Before the 1980s, 'egg production industry took the main role in poultry raising industry but people began to enjoy chicken itself as income levels rose, the "meat chicken" or "meat industry" began to develop. In addition, cooking oil was cheaper and it became easier to get than before. soybean oil first released in 1971, used to not be a common food ingredient as it is now. Only on special days, such as feasts and holidays, people can eat fried or grilled dishes. However, under the conditions which allows importing soybeans in large quantities and producing large quantities of cooking oil, fried or fried dishes can be eaten more than ever before.

So the encounter of chicken, flour, and cooking oil has brought fried chicken. People couldn't get out of the charm of fried chicken after it tasted the fantastic taste of fried 'crispy outside and moist inside' chicken rather than rotisserie chicken of which skin may be savory rather than boiled one but the flesh is dry.

"Half Yangnyeom half fried, give me a lot of mu!"

However, Korean can't stand greasy taste. So kimchi is never omitted on the table, but chicken is a food that is inevitably greasy due to its physical properties. This is because the chicken skin, which is composed of fat, is deep fried in oil. However, we have a magical side dish called “chickenmu(pickled radish)”. Chickenmu, sweet and sour, is the main character which made Korean chicken more Korean chicken. Yangnyeom chicken(seasoned chicken), which began to spread from the mid-1980s, was applied with a seasoning sauce based on red pepper paste and starch syrup to defeat greasy feeling of chicken in one shot, capturing not only the taste of Koreans but also the tastes of foreigners. Yangnyeom chicken is the most promising Korean food in the globalization of Korean food because it is the most representative of the Korean food that foreigners visiting Korea want to taste the most. When you want to eat both fried chicken and yangnyeom chicken at the same time, you just shout this one word. 'Half yangnyeom half fried, give me a lot mu!'

A special day's scenery captured in fried chicken

Judges often praise musicians who audition for jazz, R&B, and hip-hop music in music contest programs with the words "full of soul." "Soul" means one’s spirit in literal translation, but just as chicken means "fried chicken," soul is in context with the history and culture of African-Americans, black people. Song which contains the pain, sadness, and longing for their hometown as they were suddenly kidnapped by the white slave traders from their hometown in Africa and brought to America, is called "Soul Music". "Soul Food" also means food that the black slaves recreated and ate in the way they used to draw their hometowns in Africa.

Fried chicken is representative among the soul foods. According to a myth, this originated when a white farmer in the southern United States ate the soft parts such as chicken breasts and threw the rest to the black slaves. They then fried it with oil and spiced them as the way they used to make it at their hometowns. However, the story has aspects of been reproduced enlarged. Fried chicken was not the only food that black slaves ate. Pigs' intestines, feet, tails, and skin were roasted in "rad," which is pig oil, and were also barbecued, roasting the meat as a whole, is also a unique food culture for the blacks. However, fried chicken is especially known as the soul food of black people because fried chicken was the first to get commercialized and popularized. This is because they sold stories and images of the black slaves while selling the fried chicken.

Soul food also can be used as a way of demeaning or insulting black people. This is because fried chicken is considered a slave food. It's like associating kimchi with Koreans right away, saying that they smell garlic and kimchi. As this way, food can be used as a way of both respecting and insulting other people’s culture. Especially, soul food, in particular, is a very careful statement in that it reproduces a powerful image of slavery food.

Anyway, what days could have soulful days be like? It must have been a day for black slaves to miss their hometown, especially a day of important ceremonies such as someone's wedding feast, funeral, Christmas and Easter. It is a common sense of humanity that one’s soul shakes when recalling a special day. Joyful days or sad days are the days where your eyes tear up and the soul is filled. The reason why Koreans choose fried chicken or roasted chicken as their soul food is probably because of their association with a special nostalgic day.

Chicken which used to be a special meal

Chicken is now the most common food and is eaten as a meal, but it was a special meal from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. At that time, the representative days of eating chicken were Children's Day and Christmas. And it was the day of sports day and picnic. Also, it was a food that is not omitted in birthday parties, and you can also eat chicken when you get compliments from your parents due to excellent report card. There were more siblings than now, so if a chicken was ordered, it would disappear quickly when each person ate 2~3 pieces each. So mother specially ordered to cut the chicken into smaller pieces. It's the only way to eat a couple of pieces per person. Ordering two chickens would have been a simple solution, but mom couldn't spend a lot of money on special food of chicken within the tight budget.
Furthermore, the drumsticks are mostly for male siblings or adult men, so the drumsticks sometimes made women in their 40s and 50s sad. However, there are now many single-child families, and male preference is one of the fastest-disappeared customs. In fact, when asked who eats drumsticks, most of them would answer they can taste them regardless of gender. But in those days could our mothers taste a piece of chicken? Moms would have eaten "chicken neck" that were not fat, or could not have their share. If she is alive now, I could have made her grab drumsticks. So when people think of chicken, they often go back to their memories. Because it was a food which used to be shared with my loved ones on a happy and joyful day. So when I think of chicken, I feel happy and full of "soul."

Food which is perfect to eat with person on familiar terms with each other

Even though it is said to be in the era of one chicken per person, chicken is a food that is not easy to eat unless people are on an intimate relationship. For example, imagine your first blind date. How many people can ask the first blind date partner to go eat chicken casually? The reason is the way you eat chicken. Nowadays, there is also boneless chicken that can be easily eaten with a fork, but the chicken is still deep fried and eaten with bare hands. Furthermore, if you hold the yangnyeom chicken with your hand and eat it, the sticky seasoning will stick to your hand. And without any hesitation, people put their fingers in their mouths and suck them. They often pick chickenmu with bare hands. When it comes to the way to eat chicken, it is very primitive. That's why it is a food that is perfect to eat with family, friends, and long-time lovers on familiar terms with each other. Now that it is the era of “one person, one chicken”, there are many people who eat chicken alone, but it is also a community food that can be eaten most deliciously when you share it with somebody because it is too large to eat alone.

Here, Koreans enjoy chicken with sports. Eating chicken at a baseball stadium and singing a cheering song is the biggest joy Koreans have ever named. In addition, during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, people cheered on the streets while eating chicken, and the Korean soccer team achieved the greatest feat ever to advance to the semifinals. These experienced made eating chicken happier. Later, the culture of enjoying chicken together was established in the national sports event.

Food with half tear and half laughter

On April 16, 2014, the 'Ferry Sewol' sank. The whole country mourned together by the disaster, which took place on a field trip that would have been one of life's most enjoyable memories. Even at this time, sales at chicken restaurants sharply decreased. That's because it was too sad to eat chicken which should be enjoyed in a happy mood. Chicken was also served at the dock of Paengmok Port on Jindo Island by parents and their families calling their children's names. The heart of parent to give the favorite food to my child are contained in a chicken which cooled down. At Chusuk of the year, chicken was served on the joint memorial service for the Ferry Sewol victims. As such, chicken is also a food that symbolizes the sorrow and anger of an era.

In addition, a representative symbol of self-employment, in which a quarter of the population is engaged, is also the "chicken restaurant." When professional skills and capital are short, people jumped into the business just because it was easy to access, but there are countless cases to fold up shop at a loss. Today, more than 40,000 chicken restaurant owners are sweating and frying chicken in anticipation of a great success. And the situation of farmers raising chickens is the same. Agricultural products account for less than 10 percent of Korean food. Consumers are complaining that the price of chicken has risen, but farmers who work hard to raise chickens do not have money in their hands and only accumulate debts after deducting expenses. When people lose their jobs here and are in dire need of livelihood, they select the delivery business finally. Perhaps that man driving a delivery motorcycle now was once a decent chicken shop owner. Whether it rains or snows, chicken delivery motorcycles risk their lives and run dangerously on the road. Because consumers urge them to bring it quickly, whether it rains or snows. The half-and-half chicken ordered today is half seasoned and half fried, but it is also a mixture of tear and sweat from our neighbors.