Kyochon Chicken is a long-standing chicken franchise here in South Korea. Starting from 1991, Kyochon has been frying up some chickens with an ever expanding menu of options for flavors.
The company is even international, with branches in a number of countries including the United States, China, and Thailand.
There are so many branches of the chain here in South Korea, and one evening recently I was hungry and decided I wanted to try the local branch’s menu out.
I have eaten Kyochon Chicken in the past, and I really enjoyed their Honey Chicken that they have served previously. This is still on the menu, but today I decided to try something different.
While I am often wary of boneless chicken, I decided to try the Half and Half Set that Kyochon was offering.
The set I got (and I’m not sure if this is available at all locations) was half of their Red Boneless Chicken, and half of their Regular Fried Boneless Chicken.
When I got home, I noticed that the set came with a small can of Coke, a box of French Fries, and the nearly ubiquitous pickled radishes.
After unpacking everything, I started with the French Fries. These were actually very delicious and were nice and crispy with a hearty amount of potato in each fry. The oil didn’t taste too bad either, and seemed to be relatively fresh.
Next I tried the Regular Fried Boneless Chicken. The chicken also seemed fresh, but there was a lot of oil flavor to it. I did enjoy eating the first few pieces, but after a while it was challenging because of the greasy feeling to the chicken. I’m not sure if the branch is using an unusual blend of oil, or if they just left it in the fryer too long. The coating and batter definitely didn’t impress me as much as the chicken that I had from Tiba chicken a few weeks ago.
The Red Boneless Chicken was supposed to be spicy, and it did indeed have a good kick to it. The chicken also suffered from the oily and greasy sensation that the Regular Fried Boneless Chicken had.
I think my main complaint is that Kyochon chicken was just too expensive. For 20,000 won, the meal wasn’t enough for two people for 1 sitting. The pieces are small individually, and there aren’t that many of them in the boxes.
Compared with the half and half bucket from KFC that I had a little while ago, the amount of chicken was less, and the KFC bucket only cost me 13,900 won. Even with the extras like the fries and cola, Kyochon was still more expensive.
Flavorwise, Kyochon Chicken is still pretty tasty, but I think that the value needs to be improved before I will go there again.