Fried chicken delivers calories, sodium and saturated fat by the bucket

Economy

Published: 15 Nov. 2022, 15:59 Updated: 15 Nov. 2022, 19:25

Fried chicken delivers calories, sodium and saturated fat by the bucket

Korea Consumer Agency officials display Korean marinated fried chicken of leading franchises at the government complex in Sejong on Tuesday. The consumer agency released information including the retail prices and nutritional information. [YONHAP]

Not all fried chicken is created equal. Buckets from some brands are twice the weight of others, according to a surprisingly thorough study on the subject.

Nene Chicken’s Shocking Hot Chicken weighs in at a shocking 1,234 grams. Kyochon's original is an embarrassing 625 grams.

The average at the 10 chicken franchises surveyed by the Korea Consumer Agency: 879 grams. A total of 24 products were surveyed.

In the study, which was released Tuesday, only chicken in sauce – soy sauce, garlic, hot chili and cheese – was measured. Chicken just fried wasn't sampled.

"We have found that there is a huge difference in terms of weight of the whole chickens sold by the different brands," said Hong Jun-bae, head of the consumer agency’s food and microbiology team.

The fried chicken market in Korea grew from 4.9 trillion won in 2016 to 7.5 trillion won in 2021.

The batter and the sauce increased the weight of the chicken, so it was not simply the meat, bone and skin of the bird being measured.

In terms of just the amount of chicken being used, Norang Tongdak came in between 1,151 and 1,250 grams. Hosigi chickens weighed between 851 and 950 grams.

When the meat is removed from the bones of a Kyochon chicken, the edible part weighs 495 grams, 79 percent of the total weight. For other brands, the edible portion was 80 to 88 percent of the total weight.

All the chickens were found to be fattening.

The average calorie count for the marinated chicken was 2,121. The lowest was 1,554, while the highest was Nene’s Shocking Hot Chicken at 3,103.

The consumer agency said the daily recommended calorie consumption for an adult women is 2,000 calories.

The consumer agency raised concerns over the high sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol content in the dishes sampled.

The chicken with the highest sodium count was Nene’s Shocking Hot Chicken, with 4,828 milligrams, double the daily recommended allowance of 2,000 milligrams. Cheogajip’s Supreme Gold chicken had 4,250 milligrams of sodium.

Nene also ranked top on saturated fat, with its Cheese Snow Wings at 49 grams, 327 percent of the daily recommendation. Kyochon original had the lowest saturated fat reading, at 13 grams. Still that's 87 percent of the daily recommended consumption.

Goobne ranked top in terms of cholesterol, with its Cheese Basasak reading 909 milligrams, triple the daily recommendation of 300 milligrams. The same chicken franchise’s Garlic Mawang had 824 milligrams.

The consumer agency said when consuming even half a marinated chicken with a beer, a person has taken in 65 percent of the daily recommended allowance of calories.

If drinking a Coca Cola, the total is 52 percent.

The agency found that nearly half of the people consume half of the chicken, whereas 15 percent consume a whole chicken on their own.

“Considering that these chickens are fried in oil, there is high fat content,” said Hong of the agency. “Also, because of the sauce, sodium and sugar levels are high, and thus one needs to take precautions.”

Nene’s Shocking Hot Chicken turned out to be the spiciest.

By price, Kyochon was the cheapest. Its original sells for 16,000 won. The most expensive was Cheogajip’s Supreme Gold, at 22,000 won.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]