Momofuku Fried Chicken Dinner

I’ve fallen in love.  With a fried chicken.  This was what emerged from the open kitchen at the Momofuku Noodle Bar around 6 pm on Wednesday: 2 1/2 chickens, deep fried to crispy perfection:

On the left is the buttermilk chicken, which was brined in buttermilk (I suppose brined is the cooler word for “marinated” these days), and on the right is the triple-fried Korean-style chicken, a/k/a my new love.  The dinner came with a veg bowl, 4 sauces–hoisin, ginger scallion, jalepeno and “bibim” sauce, which is known in some circles as gochujang– and some mu shu pancakes like what you get with peking duck.  Here’s the pic:

Rather than prattle on and on, I’ll just give a few observations.  The buttermilk chicken was very, very good.  The skin was perfectly crispy and the interior was juicy (even the white meat).  Under any other circumstances, I would be in fried chicken heaven.

The Korean-style, though, was mind blowing.  It’s deep fried twice, I guess under the same principles of french fries to ensure crispiness, and then sauteed in the sticky, sweet/spicy sauce right before serving.  Even with the sauce, the skin was super crispy, in a crackly kind of way, which was different from the more bready, softer crisp on the buttermilk chicken.  On top of that, part of what made the Korean-style so delicious was that all the pieces were dark meat, and it came with LOTS of wings.  And those wings were the best thing about the meal.

I was also surprised by how good the chicken was wrapped in a mu shu pancake, with a little sauce.  I don’t think I would have minded eating the chicken just straight, but it was nice to have some different things to try to break up the monotony of the single dish.  We realized during the meal that while we had reserved for 4, this meal could have fed at least 1 more person, and we could have certainly extended the res. to even more and ordered a few things off of the regular menu.  Still, we did a good job with the chow, leaving only 5 pieces (all but 1 the buttermilk chicken) to take home with us.

We finished off the meal with a little softserve ice cream, sweet potato swirled with pie crust flavors.  Not my favorite flavors, but it was nice to have a sweet bite to round out the meal.  Many thanks to Leslie for getting the reservation and for inviting me to join her.  She’s now responsible for both this meal and my first dinner at Momofuku Ko, for which I’ll be eternally grateful.

So, as my friend AZ likes to say, Run, Don’t Walk to try this meal.  You can book your reservation at the momofuku web site.