Crispy crunchy chicken with a gochujang butter sauce! My husband LOVES this (and me too) and we leave some pieces plain for our kids! Everybody wins!
Crispy Gochujang Chicken
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Made this for dinner tonight. SO easy, incredibly delicious. Amazing how much flavor you can get out of a small amount of ingredients. 10/10!
Stephanie
Watch How To Make This Recipe
This Sauce, This Crunch… There’s No Way This Isn’t Good.
Guess what’s for dinner tonight?
It starts with crispy chicken and ends with gochujang butter sauce. Wait, no, it ends with yum yum sauce, after the other sauce, because two sauces is better than one.
This was a huge win in our house this last month. My daughters have a real appreciation of crispy chicken (dipped in ketchup). And my husband and I closed our eyes in joy eating our own double-sauced, crispy-spicy bites.
Our friends down the hall at our office were popping their heads in all day: Is that chicken ready yet? Can we have another plate of it? When will you publish that recipe?
I am tempted to offer an explanation for why this isn’t a “full meal” recipe – but that’s kind of the point. It’s Japanese chicken katsu meets Korean flavor meets finger-licking wings at Applebees, all in a snacky, basic dinner type way.
I sauce it, slice it, plop onto a plate, and go to town.
But it would also be great as a rice bowl, sandwich, or salad topper!
Important: if the thought of breading the chicken is making your head spin, do the same thing but with a frozen, store-bought crispy chicken filet. It’s hard to go wrong here.
Hope you love this!
This recipe is part of our SOS series – click here for the full collection of easy dinner recipes!
Crispy Gochujang Chicken
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Crispy crunchy chicken with a gochujang butter sauce! This is just so good. Dipped in sauce, served with a salad, or eaten straight on its own!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Crispy Chicken
- 1 lb. chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs + 1/2 tablespoon gochujang sauce
- 2 cups panko
- avocado oil spray
Gochujang Butter
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 clove grated garlic
- 1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang sauce (I use Bibigo brand)
- salt to taste
Extras
- storebought Yum Yum sauce for dipping (I will never complain about double sauce)
Instructions
- Chicken: Cut each chicken breast into thinner pieces. Start by cutting the tenderloin piece off the back. Then slice the breast in half horizontally, or into thirds if it’s a very thick piece. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Bowls: Prep three bowls for your breading. 1: the flour. 2: the eggs and gochujang. 3: the panko. Season the panko and flour bowls with an extra 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Breading: Dip the chicken in the flour; shake off excess. Dip into the egg mixture; let excess drip off. Press into the panko on both sides until coated.
- Cook: Spray each chicken piece with avocado oil to coat the top surface. Air fry at 375 degrees for 5 minutes, and then at 400 degrees for another 2-3 minutes to get it golden. (Alternate cooking methods in the notes.)
- Sauce: Whisk the melted butter, gochujang, and grated garlic in a small bowl. Use a brush to coat each piece of crispy chicken with sauce.
- Finish: Slice the chicken up and bring it out to the table on a platter or just directly on the cutting board. Serve it with whatever veggies you have in the fridge. I LOVE this dipped in yum yum sauce!
Notes
Alternate cooking methods: Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 14-18 minutes, flipping halfway (broiling towards the end for extra golden color). Or fry in a shallow layer of neutral cooking oil, at medium heat, until crispy and cooked through. Internal temp of the chicken should be 165 degrees.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: crispy chicken cutlets, chicken katsu, crispy chicken, air fryer chicken
Frequently Asked Questions For This Recipe
How can I make the chicken in the oven?
Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes (9 minutes per side).
Can I fry the chicken instead?
Yep! Heat an inch of avocado oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add a drop of water; if it sizzles, it’s ready to add the chicken. Place the chicken in the oil and fry for 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown and you get an internal temp of 160 degrees.
Can I use a different type of oil?
If you don’t have avocado oil spray for the air fryer, a little drizzle of oil oil over the top will also work! But I like a spritz best for this because you can evenly coat the panko for the most even browning.
Can I make this gluten-free?
I haven’t tried it personally, but I would imagine you coud use GF flour and GF breadcrumbs and it should still work!
How do you know when the chicken is done?
The chicken should be cooked to a temperature of 165 degrees. I like to use a meat thermometer to cook these perfectly! Here’s the one I use. (affiliate link)
Three Recipes To Eat With This Chicken
April 8, 2025
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Yum. I love gochujang, but I usually just spread it on as is or make a BBQ sauce with it. I like what you did here!
Delicious! Made it in a rice bowl with avocado…I will do it again DEFINITELY!!!!!
Do you have any recs on alternatives to gochujang?
You could try another favorite chili sauce like sambal or sriracha!
Any suggestions for something less spicy than gochujang?
I am a total wuss when it comes to heat and didn’t think that it had any real spicy – just a ton of flavor if that helps
Great question! A Japanese or Korean BBQ sauce like this would be great a option.
Hi Lindsay, did you also cook the ‘tenders’? Thanks. Rochelle
Hi Rochelle! Yes, we air fried them, but check the recipe note for alternate cooking methods!
Hi, is this good if reheated the next day ?
It won’t be very crispy, so not as ideal the next day! Unless you’re able to reheat in a skillet or air fryer!
This came out awesome. I accidently used Italian bread crumbs and it was still great! Also I used sesame oil and baked it. It’s a keeper
Followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect. Ridiculously good. I truly could just stand in the kitchen and dip the chicken in the yum yum sauce and eat it right there. The gochujang sauce is delicious and it all comes together perfectly. I’m already excited to make it again.
Made this for my girlfriend and she was really impressed!
Wow! This recipe is so good. I made my own yum yum sauce. Super crispy and the butter sauce at the end .. incredible ❤️
This chicken was incredible. The flavor was amazing and the air fryer made it so tender. I served it with the roasted peanut salad. This is going to be in my regular rotation for sure. I want to make it again tomorrow!
These were yummy! Any tips for reheating so they crisp up again?
Forgot to rate! Yummy, easy, great over rice. I didn’t have yum yum sauce so I looked up a 5 minute recipe online.
Amazing flavor, bury me in the gochujang butter sauce! So easy too. Served with rice and a bagged salad, so yum!
Glad you loved it, Gaby!
This recipe was absolutely amazing! We seriously had it for dinner one night, had some leftovers the next night as a side to our main meal (lol), and I’m already craving it again! Cooking chicken breast can get so tiresome, but this recipe knocks it out of the park. The combination of the sauces is perfection. I had made rice along with some veggies to do a “bowl” with it, but we mainly just ended up eating it right off the cutting board. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, thanks for making the recipe!
I had to come here to say how amazing this turned out. I followed the recipe to a T and although there’s a lot of bowls involved (thank god for the dishwasher), it was worth every effort. Came out perfectly seasoned and I could not believe how tender the chicken breast was.
Made this for dinner tonight. SO easy, incredibly delicious. Amazing how much flavor you can get out of a small amount of ingredients. 10/10!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was SO GOOD! Even my 12 year-old who prefers a “Minnesota spice” level thought the gochujang wasn’t too spicy. Barely spicy but full of flavor. Thank you for the great recipe!
Definitely works with GF flour and GF panko. My 3 year old went nuts for the chicken without the sauce and me and my husband ate almost all of the rest with sauce. So excellent!
Oh, that’s great to hear it worked with those substitutions!
Lindsey mentioned how many husbands liked this recipe and I had to laugh when MY OWN husband couldn’t stop going on about how dang GOOD this chicken is! He actually took pictures of his plate and texted it to some of his friends! I only had straight up Gochujang paste so I looked at the ingredients on the label of Lindsey’s Gochujang sauce by Bibigo and added what I could off that ingredient list. I also made Pinch of Yum’s roasted peanut kale crunch salad to go with. My husband asked me to make this his number one favorite meal replacing grilled rib eye steak, smashed potatoes, and Caesar salad 😄
Is this my new favorite Pinch of Yum recipe?!! I usually only eat a little bit of chicken bc it’s not my fave, but I ate 5 pieces with this meal! So yummy!! I was a little intimidated by the three step breading process but it wasn’t too bad! And definitely worth it bc the meal was delish!!
Can you use chicken breast tenders to kind of skip the chicken breast cutting step?
Hi! The horizontal cutting of the chicken breast makes the piece thin and flat, whereas a chicken tenderloin would be thicker so you wouldn’t get the same crispiness and cooking time would change.