A garlicky twist on the classic Korean-Chinese sweet and sour fried pork, tangsuyuk.
Tangsuyuk is a very popular dish that can be found at any Korean-Chinese restaurant. It’s crispy deep-fried pork or beef that is accompanied with a slightly sweet and sour sauce. It’s often enjoyed with jjajangmyeon (black bean noodles) or jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and is a very popular delivery food in Korea.
There’s many types of tangsuyuk recipes that use pork or beef and coat it in batter using a variation mix of potato starch, sweet potato starch, corn starch, flour, or rice flour. Sometimes it’s whisked with egg white, oil, or just water. Today’s recipe makes it easier by using Korean Frying Powder Mix. This powder already includes flour, cornstarch, baking powder and various seasoning and so it’s very easy! If you don’t have Korean Frying Powder Mix, I note an easy substitution but recommend purchasing it at a near-by Korean grocery store if you have one available. It makes for an easy meal that I use fairly often.
How to Make
Today’s variation is by Korean celebrity chef Baek Jong Won, from the TV Show ” Delicious Rendezvous,” a show that develops new dishes using local specialties. He also highlights it on his YouTube channel! It takes only a few steps of:
- marinate the pork with minced garlic
- make the batter
- coat the pork in the batter
- double-fry
- make the sauce
The fried pork is very good on its own! If you feel too lazy to make the sauce, I’d say you could deliciously dip this in salt or soy sauce. But of course, you need the sauce to call it tangsuyuk. There’s always a fight about whether you pour the sauce on top or dip the pork into the sauce. Make a truce and do half-and-half. This also makes for a great home party meal as well. Enjoy!
Korean Garlic Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Garlic Fried Pork)
Ingredients
- ½ cup garlic cloves
- 1 lb (450 g) pork loin pork shoulder, pork belly as a substitute
- Salt and pepper
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
Frying Batter
- 1 ¼ cup (160 g) Korean frying powder* *see note for substitute
- ½ cup + 1 Tbsp (135 ml) water 1-2 Tbsp more water as needed
- 1 ½ Tbsp oil
Sauce
- ¼ onion
- ¼ carrot
- ¼ cucumber
- 4 ½ Tbsp sugar
- 2 ½ Tbsp vinegar
- 1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp minced ginger
- 1 cup water
Starch slurry
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Mince the garlic cloves.*Recommend using garlic cloves and not pre-minced packaged garlic for the deep garlic aroma.
- Prep the pork. Cut the pork into long slices - about 2 inches long and ½ inch thick.
- In a medium sized bowl, add the pork, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, minced garlic and lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Make the batter. In a large bowl, combine the frying powder and water. Add in 1 ½ Tbsp oil and mix well. Set aside*The original amount was 1/2 cup water which was too sticky for me and I didn’t like the way it fried. Adding 1-3 Tbsp extra water brought it to a better consistency for me. This is up to your preference!
Sauce
- Prep the vegetables. Slice the carrots, onions and cucumber.
- Add the vegetables to a pan (or pot). Add in the water, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and minced garlic. Bring to a boil and continue to simmer until the vegetables have softened.
- Mix the corn starch and water in a small bowl to make the starch slurry. Pour into the sauce pan and combine well. Turn off the heat and set aside. The sauce will begin to thicken.
Fry!
- Add the pork slices into the frying batter. Make sure the batter has evenly coated the pork pieces.
- Fry! Bring a pot of oil to 350 degrees F (180 C). Using tongs or chopsticks, drop in several pieces of the battered pork into the oil. Stir your utensil around in the oil to make sure the meat does not stick together in the oil. Cook until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Set fried pork aside on a sieve to let the oil drip. Repeat until all the pork is fried. Make sure the oil is back to 350 degrees between batches.
- Double fry. Fry the pork one more time just for about 30 seconds to a minute.
- Reheat the sauce. If it has thickened too much, add in 1-2 Tbsp of water to loosen it.
- Place the pork on a plate. Pour the sauce on top or on a side bowl to dip. This depends on your preference!
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