Korean Fried Popcorn Turkey Nuggets
A simple and easy recipe for crispy bite-sized popcorn turkey nuggets tossed in a spicy, sweet and sticky gochujang sauce! Great as a snack or appetizer.
Servings: 4 Servings
Calories: 399kcal
Ingredients
- 1 lb turkey (500g, cut into ½-inch bite-sized pieces - see notes)
Marinade Ingredients
- 2-3 cloves garlic (1 tablespoon grated, or blended in food processor)
- 2 slices fresh ginger (1½ tablespoon grated, or blended in food processor)
- ½ small onion (approx. ⅓ cup, grated or blended in food processor)
- 1 ½ tablespoon soy sauce
Batter
- ½ cup potato starch (added into marinade mix)
- ¾ cup potato starch (used to coat the turkey)
Sweet & Spicy Sauce Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic (1 tablespoon, finely chopped)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ tablespoon gochugaru (Korean Chili Flakes, Optional to make it spicier)
Instructions
Marinating the Turkey
- Cut the turkey into ½-inch sized pieces and place it in a bowl.
- Cut 2 slices fresh ginger, peel 2-3 cloves garlic, and dice ½ small onion and blitz it in a food processor with 1 ½ tablespoon soy sauce. Pour the marinate into the bowl with the turkey.If you don't have a food processor, you can grate it manually.
- Mix the turkey with the marinade together well and place it in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, while you start making the sauce.
Making the Sweet & Spicy Korean Sauce
- Peel and finely dice or grate 2 cloves garlic and set it aside.
- Set a frying pan over the stove and set the heat to medium low and add a bit of oil in.
- Once the oil is shimmering, add in the garlic and pan-fry it until it is golden in color (approximately 1-2 mins).
- Adjust the stove to low heat, and add 2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), 3 tablespoons tomato paste, ¼ cup honey, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil and ½ tablespoon gochugaru in and simmer the sauce for 5 minutes.
- Once the sauce is done, set it aside.
Battering & Deep Frying
- Once the turkey has finished marinating, mix ½ cup potato starch into the bowl and mix everything together well until the marinade has combined with the starch and everything is sticky.
- Add ¾ cup potato starch onto a plate. Dunk each piece of turkey individually one by one into the potato starch until it is well coated and white. Shake of excess potato starch and set aside.
- In a deep fryer, set the temperature to 350F (180C). If you are using a pot, add at least 1 inch of oil and set the stove to medium-high heat until the oil reaches 350F (180C). To test if the oil is hot, you can stick a wooden chopstick in to see if it bubbles or throw in a grain of rice to see if it sizzles.
- Once the oil is hot, add the turkey pieces in one by one, but do not over crowd the pot. (You might need to fry these in batches.) Fry for 2 minutes and set aside on a rack or paper bag to absorb the oil.
- Once all the turkey has been fried, we are ready to do a second fry with it which will make it crispier. Add all the turkey back into the oil and fry it for 2-3 minutes.
Putting It Together
- Stir the sweet and spicy Korean sauce. If it is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to it and mix again.
- If the sauce is cold, re-heat the sauce.
- Toss the freshly fried turkey with the sweet and spicy Korean gochujang sauce and enjoy!
Notes
- You can use dark meat or white meat for this recipe, both work well. I like to remove the skin because I find it helps the batter stick better to the meat during the batter steps. If you are using bone-in turkey, debone it first and cut the pieces into ½ inch bite-sized pieces.
- To increase the spiciness of the sauce, I use gochugaru (Korean chili pepper). If you can't find this you can use cayenne pepper but make sure you start off with putting half the amount first. Cayenne pepper is a lot spicier than gochugaru.
- For the crispiest batter, use potato starch. If you can't find potato starch, you can use corn starch.
