Where to find Korean fried chicken with cheese powder

I'm not sure what prompted me to seek out fried chicken wings covered in cheese dust. Maybe it's that my fondness for fried poultry reached such an extreme level that I needed to find the next dimension of chicken. Or it was the universe. Several new Korean fried chicken chains in my immediate vicinity have begun promoting cheese-dusted chicken. Whatever the case, I'm hooked.

I was introduced to cheesy chicken at a place called bb.q Chicken, a fast-growing chain of chicken shops that started in Seoul, South Korea, in 1995. There are more than 3,500 locations in 57 countries, including more than 50 restaurants in California.

Cheesling Chicken at bb.q Chicken

The company is so serious about fried chicken that it has created Chicken University, an educational complex in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, where new managers and employees of the franchise stores spend two weeks learning recipes and marketing. There are even plans to turn the school into a full-fledged educational center and theme park open to the public.

The restaurant's cheddar chicken is coated in a pure white powder made from a blend of mascarpone and cheddar cheeses. It clings to the surface of the chicken and fills every nook and cranny. There's usually a small mound of leftover condiment in one corner of the serving basket.

The cheddar cheese is mixed in first, then the mascarpone, bringing a sweet, buttery richness to the chicken.

The amount of dust and color can vary depending on where and how long you let the chicken sit before eating it. After 10 minutes in the car, the dust darkens and turns into a pale yellow paste. Regardless of the color and texture, it has that same sweet cheesy flavor that reminds me of those double bowls of cheddar and caramel popcorn.

Although you can order cheeseling on whole fried chicken and bone-in wings, I prefer boneless, so there are as many crevices to catch dust.

Bburinkle Chicken at BHC

Bburinkle Chicken from BHC restaurant in Koreatown.

(Jenn Harris/Los Angeles Times)

Bburinkle, a powder that incorporates cheddar, blue cheese, onion and garlic, is the top-selling flavor at the Original Farmers Market BHC, the first U.S. branch of the Seoul-based chicken chain.

“It’s the best-selling flavor by far,” says restaurant manager Bobby Shearer. “We went through a period where we had a shortage and that really upset customers. It’s really what people ask for the most.”

The powder gives the chicken a golden hue, with flecks of green parsley throughout. The dominant flavor is savory cheddar, with a slight hint of blue cheese and a zesty kick of onion. It’s a combination that taps into the same serotonin receptors that used to kick into overdrive when 12-year-old me was eating a bag of sour cream and onion chips and a Squirt in the schoolyard: equal parts aggressively spiced and addictive.

The amount of powder used to coat the chicken may seem excessive, but Shearer says that's the idea.

“We make sure it’s very thinly coated and then after we’re done tossing it into a bowl, we look for any spots that don’t have cheese dust on them and then sprinkle more on,” she says.

I appreciate the diligence.

While cheesy chicken can now be found in Korean chicken restaurants around the world, BHC was one of the first to adopt chicken coated in cheese powder. In 2013, employees at the company’s research and development center in South Korea were tasked with developing new items based on consumer analysis from popular restaurants.

“Research revealed that ‘cheese’ had become a ‘taste code’ among consumers in their teens and 20s,” a marketing representative for the company wrote in an email. “Inspired by this, they began developing new menu items that combined cheese and chicken.”

The restaurant launched Bburinkle Chicken in November 2014. Within two weeks, the flavor accounted for 25% of the brand's total sales. It sold 6.6 million orders in the first year.

At the Fairfax location, Shearer says people are asking to buy “jars” of the seasoning. While that's not an option right now, you can ask for some of the powder to sprinkle on whatever you order.

Chicken with cheese and garlic at Louders

Louders garlic cheese wings in Koreatown.

(Jenn Harris/Los Angeles Times)

This always-busy Koreatown restaurant offers some of the most innovative chicken flavors in all of Los Angeles. Options include wings topped with shishito peppers and baby anchovies and “honey nut butter.”

Instead of powdered cheese, Louders' Cheesy Garlic Chicken is a sort of garlicky Parmesan-mozzarella stick hybrid. Each bone-in wing is covered in melted Parmesan and mozzarella and sprinkled with minced garlic and green onions. Chicken wings reinvented as cheesy garlic bread.