Yangnyeom-chikin양념치킨

For a long time, Koreans mostly ate chicken simmered whole in a pot. From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, rotisserie chicken roasted in electric ovens was all the rage, led by shops in Seoul's Myeong-dong, and from the 1970s American-style fried chicken caught on. A chicken shop incorporated in 1977 is regarded as the first chicken franchise, and fried chicken soon became the signature of neighborhood chicken joints.

Yangnyeom-chikin (양념치킨) took that fried chicken and gave it a Korean flavor; it became hugely popular in the mid-to-late 1980s. The person most widely credited with inventing it is the owner of a chicken shop that opened in Hyomok-dong, Daegu, in the late 1970s, who later recalled first making seasoned chicken in 1980. The meat felt dry, so the first idea was kimchi, but no combination of kimchi seasoning worked. Then, as the well-known story goes, an elderly woman from the neighborhood walked by and suggested adding corn syrup, and suddenly the flavor came alive. That is how the red glaze of corn syrup and chili powder was born.

Some early customers grumbled that the sauce got all over their hands, but before long people were coming from across the country to try it. Today fried chicken is so everyday that many people reach for it instead of samgyetang on the hottest days of summer, and the word chimaek (chicken plus maekju, beer), popularized by a TV drama scene, is part of everyday Korean.