Previous SlideNext Slide

Joy Korean Fried Chicken is so named because biting into good, crunchy, deep-fried poultry is, for meat-eaters, something akin to bliss.

“It’s just joy,” says Kay Hwang, owner of this 10-month-old corner restaurant beside busy Abercrombie Street.

He spent months experimenting and perfecting a precise fried chicken recipe and cooking technique before settling on a meticulous combination of spices, timing, heat and quality oil.

After marinating the chicken for three days in spices including ginger, white pepper, cinnamon and rock salt, Hwang uses a batter that is thinner and more liquid than the thick coatings used elsewhere.

“What I’m doing is very old-fashioned,” he says. “Some restaurants still do it but it’s kind of disappeared. With thicker batter I feel like I’m eating the batter not the chicken. With thin batter you’re actually eating chicken.”

Fried chicken, or chikin, is a staple in South Korea, different from American-style fried chicken because of a crispy, spicy crust and far less grease.

Hwang says if you pull the fried batter off most US-style fried chicken and squeeze it, oil drips out.

“Mine, no,” he says. “Our chicken is very, very lean. I cook it three times. At the end, I cook it on the very high temperature. High temperature moves the oil very fast. So the oil is not staying in the batter.”

Not to say the batter is unnoticeable. Each Joy KFC piece is a golden meteorite of crunch, tongue-jiggling seasoning and tender plump meat.

Served as individual pieces or in fat, bulging burgers with complementary house-made coleslaw and pickles, chicken flavours include original crispy, sweet and spicy, honey soy, lemon and parsley, turmeric and coconut and bulgogi. A wasabi special is available now.

Hwang doesn’t skimp on ingredients. The coconut and turmeric is steeped in nutty, earthy sweetness and the honey soy whoops with tang and fruity crystallised crunch.

Sweet and spicy, the most popular item, kicks with chilli but the star is bulgogi, a deep, garlicky soy flavour peppered with sesame seeds.

Each piece is a golden meteorite of crunch, tongue-jiggling seasoning and tender plump meat.

Hwang, a hot food fan, also offers Fire Joy Chicken, so ferociously red it resembles crumpled orbs of glowing lava. Eat it in a burger layered with house-made coleslaw and feel your beating heart inside your eyes.

Joy KFC could be described as cheap and cheerful but Hwang’s nuanced cooking and love for greeting customers lift it higher.

Loyal fans – locals, tradies, uni students and office workers – teem in for lunch and dinner. Takeaway is popular but many dine in, sitting amid pot plants, pastel blue and green walls (painted by Hwang), South Korean posters and wide windows decorated with fairy lights and metal chicken ornaments.

“On Friday and Saturday we are slammed,” Kwang says, adding that he learnt English in restaurant kitchens after coming to Australia in 2003. He has worked in various high-end restaurants, including working for award-winning chef Sean Connolly.

After spotting the premises last year Hwang signed the lease almost immediately, passionate to run his own business. His wife, a sommelier, had dreamt of a different kind of restaurant.

She was, initially, furious.

“She didn’t talk to me for days,” Hwang says. “But she is very supportive now.”

Everything at Joy KFC has been created by Hwang. He built the kitchen and pulled down an internal wall to open it up to chat with customers and show his cooking process.

“I have nothing to hide,” he says. “Clean cooking is very important. The deep-friers are cleaned three times a day.”

Connecting with customers is paramount. One older woman, a regular fan of Hwang’s chicken, was less comfortable on the wooden stool seating.

Hwang understood and bought padded chairs with arm rests for every table. She was delighted.

He even caters for pets, with bags of dehydrated chicken wings, and is regularly visited by mixed martial arts fighters who are keen to shed kilos to reach perfect match weight.

“You would think, it’s crazy,” Hwang says. “Fried chicken and losing kilos? But, I eat five or six pieces every day and I keep losing weight.

“It’s OK to eat sometimes. It’s joy.”