A Series of Post on Korean Fried Chicken Brands You Should Eat : BHC
October 30th, 2022
BHC stands for “Better and Happy Choice”. Since the Korean TV drama, My Love From The Star(별에서 온 그대) made a global mega hit, Korean fried chicken and beer(chimaek, 치맥) culture has been spread all around the world. In the TV show, the super star Jun Ji-hyun(전지현 as Cheon Song-yi 천송이) enjoyed fried chicken and beer so delightfully. My Love From The Star is streaming on Netflix now.
After the TV show mad a hit, BHC, one of the biggest Korean chicken brand, contracted with the global big star Jun Ji-hyun for advertisement. BHC was already well known for its expensive prices. Jun Ji-hyun is one of contributors to make the brand more expensive, many Koreans including me think. But there are also other factors that they make expensive prices. They are promoting high quality and hygiene of products. They say they use high quality sunflower oil to fry chicken and healthy ingredients.
BHC has extended their business to Hong Kong. There are a few BHC branches in Hong Kong, and it is said that they have plans to go further to other Asia countries including Singapore and Malaysia.
1. Features of BHC
First of all, if you order sunsal(순살, boneless) chicken at BHC, unlike other brands their sunsal is made of breast, not legs. It might be helpful for diet, but in Korea some people don’t like chicken breast because of its dry texture. Me and my family love BHC’s sunsal.
They cut chicken in big sizes, that’s why it looks a big amount. So it is good for a home party that you can make guests get impressive.
2. Best Items of BHC
(1) Bburinkle(뿌링클)
When Min is asked what chicken he wants to eat, he mostly answers Bburinkle. He and his friends, currently 15 years old, really love Bburinkle.
Bburinkle is the best of the best item of BHC. It is fried chicken covered with sweet and salty powdered cheese. It is not only very unique and creative but also sensational. Since it was launched in 2014, it has been the most popular chicken item of BHC.
After Bburinkle became popular, other chicken brands have made similar items with sweet and salty powdered cheese seasoning in their own ways. But there has been legal debate on who is the first to invent the recipe between BHC and another fried chicken brand Nene. One thing many people agree is that BHC’s powdered cheese chicken is the most popular than any other brands.
Bburinkle is also popular globally, thanks to meokbang contents on Youtube. You can see many posts on how to make Bburinkle at home on internet.
When you get Bburinkle, first you can feel its smell makes you irresistible. Who can be resistible in front of sweet cheese and fried chicken?
It is served with its own dipping sauce called Bburing-bbruring Sauce. It tastes like yogurt and goes well with Bburinkle.
(2) Goldking(골드킹)
Goldking is seasoned with soy sauce and honey, so it looks slightly dark. Sweet, salty, and crispy, and crispy. We Koreans really love soy sauce. So Koreans tend to make chibap(치밥, chicken and bap) with soy sauce seasoned chicken and rice, which is just to mix and eat together. It is so so good. I love to eat chibap especially with well fermented kimchi.
However there is the biggest rival of BHC’s soy sauce chicken. It is Kyochon. When it come to sweet and salty soy sauce seasoned chicken, Kyochon came to people’s minds first before. Now Kyochon is not the only player of the game. Actually BHC and Kyochon, both are in top 3 Korean fried chicken brands.
(3) Matchoking(맛초킹)
If you want to try spicy chicken of BHC, I recommend Matchoking. It is sweet soy and salty sauce seasoned fried chicken, too. But it is topped with sliced chili pepper and spring onion, and sesame seeds. It is not that much spicy, just a little bit. So it is perfect for chibap, and pretty much taste for Koreans.
Sweet Bburinkle and spicy Matchoking is a great match. Literally many people order these two items together. In South Korean fried chicken market, Sweet and spicy combination is a new food trend as well as sweet and salty. And we never miss beer.
3. Prices of BHC
As of October 2022, the price of Bburinkle is 18,000 won. Bburinkle Combo(only legs and wings) is 20,000 won. Sunsal Bburinkle is 20,000 won. The price of Goldking is 17,000 won. Goldking Combo is 20,000 won. Sunsal Goldking is 20,000 won. The price of Matchoking is 18,000 won, Matchoking Combo is 20,000 won. Sunsal Matchoking is 20,000 won. Mostly prices of BHC are 17,000 won, 18,000 won and 20,000 won.
4. Side Menu of BHC
BHC’s side menu is also popular. Whenever they launch new side item and it makes a hit, other chicken brands follow suit.
BHC’s cheese ball(치즈볼) is an example. A cheese ball is a small ball shaped doughnut filled with mozzarella cheese inside. In many cases when eating spicy chicken, people have cheese balls together. Once BHC’s cheese ball became popular, other brands started to make and supply cheese ball. BHC have two Kinds of cheese ball, Dalcom Basak Cheese Ball(달콤바삭 치즈볼, sweet crispy cheese), and Bburing Cheese Ball(뿌링 치즈볼) which is covered with powdered cheese like Bburinkle.
Another BHC’s side item I recommend is Danpat Twist(단팥 트위스트, sweet red bean twist). It is Korean long twisted doughnut(called kkwabaegi, 꽈배기), filled with sweet red bean paste and covered with sugar. This newly launched item is well matched with salty and spicy chicken, too.
BHC’s real top side item is Colpop(콜팝), which is small boneless fried chicken chunks like popcorn and coke. Little kids like Colpop so much. It was also copied by many other food brands. They have various size of Colpop.
5. Overall Review on BHC
There is no doubt that BHC is one of the leading Korean fried chicken brands. I recommend foreign tourists who haven’t eaten Korean fried chicken and want to try it, to go BHC while traveling in Korea. There are two types of BHC stores. One is a restaurant type, the other is only for takeout and delivery.
Even though BHC is kind of expensive for its portion to us, a family of four, once we have it we always think it is a good call. Especially Bburinkle always makes Min happy.
