Last Updated on 27th June 2022 by
You ever seen a corn dog that looked extra crusty and crunchy on the outside and wondered what was different about it. You may have spotted a Korean corn dog.
This delightfully crunchy dish has made its way throughout much of the Western world, picked up along with a lot of other Korean food that have traveled far from their Asian origins yet retained a lot of their traditional characteristics.
Let me share with you how to make a Korean corn dog from scratch so you can make your own at home. After all, not everyone has a Korean restaurant near them, and not all Korean restaurants serve this dish.
What Is a Korean Corn Dog?
The Korean corn dog is a popular street food in South Korea made from batter covered hotdogs. Sometimes they’re filled with mozzarella cheese to create a melted, deep fried, cheesy treat on a stick.
What really makes them interesting is the batter. You can use traditional corn dog batter, which is like fried cornbread batter, but then Korean corn dogs are usually encrusted with sugar as well to give them a sweet flavor.
Some Korean corn dogs are deep fried in potato or even ramen noodles to create a different texture and flavor. There are lots of different ways you can go at this dish and still keep to the traditional Korean recipe.
What are the ingredients in a Korean Corn Dog?
There are usually not a lot of spices and seasonings in this dish. The salty meat or cheese gives it most of its flavor, and then the deep fried batter is usually made with a few simple ingredients. To give it some extra flavor, you may top it with mustard, ketchup, or another sandwich condiment.
There are a few different ways to make the batter, depending on what kind of texture and taste you want to go with. Some people prefer a more American style cornbread batter, whereas others use a blander flour batter that’s not as sweet.
This food can have a high sugar content because on top of the sugar that may be in the batter, there’s usually a sugar crust around the outside. If you’re concerned about the amount of sugar in Korean corn dogs you’re making at home, you can leave it out entirely, reduce how much you use, or use a sugar substitute.
How to Make Korean Corn Dog Batter
Most everyone can cook a hotdog, but it’s the batter that’s the tricky part. Getting the batter just right will make sure your Korean corn dogs turn out in the traditional way and have a decent flavor and texture.
The batter doesn’t need to include any yeast, and it will be very similar to pancake batter if you’ve never made homemade pancakes before. However, this batter tends to be a little thicker and stickier compared to pancake batter.
That should give you some idea of the consistency you ought to get when you mix it up yourself. Making it like that- thick and sticky- is important if you’re going to keep the batter from dripping off the hot dogs or mozzarella sticks.
One of the key ingredients in the batter is egg, as this helps to make it sticky and ensures everything sticks together and sticks to your hotdog or cheese stick.
How to Make Korean Cheese Corn Dog
Ingredients:
- Six hotdogs or six mozzarella sticks (make sure the hotdogs are pre-cooked and the mozzarella sticks are low moisture mozzarella so they will work best for the corn dogs)
- 1 cup of panko breadcrumbs
- 3 pairs of wooden chopsticks
- Granulated sugar
- Frying oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 1/4 cup of flour
- 2 tablespoons of white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 125 ml of cold milk
- Sandwich condiments, like mustard, ketchup, or mayonnaise
Directions:
- Skewer the mozzarella sticks or hotdogs on the chopsticks.
- Make sure your cheese or hot dogs are dry, and if not, you can pat them dry with a paper towel. Place them into the fridge while you’re preparing the batter.
- Mix together baking powder, flower, salt, and white sugar. Once they are mixed together, then add in egg and milk. Mix again with a whisk until everything is smooth. It should be a thick and sticky batter that doesn’t run off the whisk when you lift it from the bowl. Milk and egg should be added straight from the fridge so that you have a cold batter. If the batter is warm, then it needs to cool to become thicker and stickier before you use it.
- Pour out the batter into a large bowl or loaf pan, and then in a separate pan, you can pour in your breadcrumbs.
- Pour cooking oil into a frying pan and heat until it reaches about 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Take your skewers out of the fridge and coat them in the batter first and then in the breadcrumbs. You may need to lift the batter over the skewers with your hands or spoon to make sure they are well coated. Don’t have too much batter on your skewers, however, and you can let the excess drip off. Make sure the skewers are well coated with breadcrumbs.
- Add several skewers to your heated oil at once and cook on each side for several minutes. They should turn a golden brown color. Don’t let them cook too long and become dark brown, however.
- Sprinkle granulated sugar over the hot dogs, allow them to cool slightly, and then drizzle on whichever sandwich condiments you want to use.
These corn dogs are fairly easy to make, and as you can see, there’s no actual corn involved. You can use a cornbread batter mixture instead, if you wish, which will change the flavor a little bit to make these sweeter. If you do that, you may want to leave the sugar out of the cornbread batter or not use as much sugar on the outside of the corn dogs.
I'm Pauline, a mother of four grown children, my passion for cooking stemmed from the joy i get cooking for my family. I love to try new dishes, especially when dining out but creating and sharing my own recipes is my favourite thing to do!