Korean corn dogs

Strictly speaking there is no “corn” in these corn dogs because the coating is made without cornmeal. Instead, the skewered hotdogs are covered with a light yeasted dough and rolled in panko before they are deep fried. Then why call it corn dog? That’s not what it’s called in Korea but that’s the name by which it has become popular among English-speakers.

Yeasted dough, however, is not the only mixture that the hotdog can be covered with. Some cooks dip the hotdog in a thick pancake-like batter with baking powder and no yeast. In the case ofkogo, the skewered hotdog is coated in dough / batter then rolled in chopped frozen French fries. Another variation is to coat the dough / batter with uncooked instant ramen.

Hotdog isn’t the only thing that can be coated in dough / batter and fried. Cheese is popular too. The cheese variant is a little trickier to cook. We use mozzarella (that’s what you see my daughter, Alex, eating in one of the photos above) that’s cut into roughly the same size as a jumbo hotdog. Because cheese melts during frying, it may seep through the dough. To prevent this from happening, skewer the cheese, cover in dough and panko, and freeze for about half an hour. DO NOT THAW before frying. But that’s for another post.

At home, we’ve made (well, my daughters have) Korean corn dogs at least four times. Each time, with a different dough / batter formula — in one instance, glutinous rice flour was among the ingredients of the dough. Not all were documented so, for this recipe, we’re sticking with the documented formula.

The dough is a mixture of all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, yeast and milk. It’s a lumpy dough. It has to be because if it’s too stiff, it will be impossible to roll the hotdog in it. So, don’t panic if the dough doesn’t look anything like regular bread dough. It needs to rest to smoothen but there is no need to wait for it to rise and double in volume.

Once the dough has rested, skewer your hotdogs, hold it horizontally and lower into the dough. Twirl the skewer to cover the entire hotdog. Then, roll the dough-covered hotdog in panko and, optionally in sesame seeds.

Then, you just deep fry. Fry only a few pieces at a time so that there is enough space to roll the corn dogs around for even cooking. They won’t roll in the oil by themselves. You will have to do that with tongs or chopsticks. After three to four minutes of frying, the dough is fully cooked, the panko has turned golden brown and crisp, and the hotdog is heated through.

Can fully cooked Korean corn dogs be stored and reheated? Yes. There are just four of us in the family and it’s not possible to eat a dozen corn dogs in one go. So, we have stored corn dogs in the fridge fully wrapped in cling film. We just reheated them in the oven toaster.

How long do they stay good in the fridge? Two days. They should last longer in the freezer but since we haven’t tried freezing cooked Korean corn dogs, I’d rather not make a guess about how long they can stay there before the texture of the bread deteriorates.