Fire Chicken with Cheese

Korean chili peppers,  Oh yeah~

The sauce!

Skinned chicken leg. (Gross!)

Hi, I'm marinating!

On my way to becoming yummy

Mozzarella-ed

Yes! 

Green onions for garnish

The final step: gobble!

Now that I have the stress of long-winded theological essays and exams behind me, let me re-start blogging at one of my favorite places of all time - spicy.  This recipe was born out of the love of chicken and sinus-clearing spicy-ness.  It's also the place where the ramen from the famous Korean Spicy Ramen Challenge came about.  (FYI:  Korean name for this recipe = Buldak; Korean name for the ramen = Buldak Ramen)  It is probably one of my favorite chicken recipes and it is way too easy to make considering how amazingly yummy it is. I made edits to the recipe based on other Korean food blogs. 

The Recipe:
Fire Chicken with Cheese by Maangchi

Changes I Made:

1. Instead of vegetable oil, I used sesame oil.  I will do this every time because sesame oil adds an extra flavor to the recipe which I absolutely want in this dish.
2. I also added about 2Tbsp of mirim (Japanese cooking wine).  From what I understand, this step helps to eliminate the unpleasant odor that can come from chicken.  In other words, it enhances the flavor of the chicken.  I believe you can add just regular cooking wine from the store if you don't have access to a Korean store.  Mirim is used a lot in Korean cooking, when cooking wine is required.
3. I also added about 2Tbsp of sriracha sauce.  One of the Korean food boggers said to add spicy sauce but did not specify which one so I thought...of course, sriracha!  Do this if you can handle the spice though.
4. Another awesome addition was green chilies (also suggested by other Korean cooking blogs).  I chopped them up (you can see it in the pix) and added them into the chicken mix before marinating it in the fridge.  I used the Korean chilies cuz I had access to them, but I think jalapenos would work fine.  Again, do this at your own risk.  This adds another layer of ear-popping spicyness.
5. I used regular white sugar instead of corn syrup. 
6. I used green onions for garnish.
7. I did not pan fry the rice cakes but I think this would be a great step!
8. I also marinated the chicken mix in the fridge after mixing in all the ingredients (except for the green onions and the mozzarella cheese) for at least 4-5 hours.  Seriously.  No one ever regretted marinating their meat before cooking.  You can even marinate overnight. 
9. I used pre-grated mozzarella cheese instead of mozzarella cubes.
10. Adding about a table spoon of sesame seeds to the mix will add more pizzazz to the recipe. 

Other Suggestions:

• You are so welcome to add onions and bell peppers to the mix.  I've also seen many Korean food bloggers add sesame leaves - which I think is just friggin awesome! 
• When I first made this, I bought bone-in chicken legs and labored for a good long time to cut out the meat.  I did like the flavor of the meat very much but just your good ol' boneless chicken breast will also work fine. 
• I ate it with rice (of course!) and coleslaw.  'Twas perfect! 

And...you're welcome for the recipe.  :P