INTERVIEW Not sold in Korea, these Bhc menu items have become favorites abroad

Dining Brands Group's Menu Development Team 1 Leader Lee Seok-dong speaks with The Korea Times during an interview at the company's Bhc menu development lab in Seoul's Songpa District, Thursday. Courtesy of Dining Brands Group

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Apr 25, 2026 12:00 PM KST
• Updated Apr 26, 2026 5:31 PM KST

Menu items that fail in Korea find second chance abroad

Fans of Bhc, a Korean fried chicken franchise, may think that its signature menu items are consistent everywhere to reflect the brand's identity.

But beyond customer favorites such as Kwassak King, Bburinkle and Soy Garlic King, there are menu items that are now thriving in the company’s restaurants abroad despite being almost completely unknown in their home market.

How did these menu options end up being more popular outside Korea than inside it? Lee Seok-dong, a menu development team leader at Bhc operator Dining Brands Group, pointed to cultural differences.

Bhc first introduced Mala Khan, a spicy fried chicken marinated in the "mala" spices used in Chinese hot pot, in 2019. Its time in the Korean market was short-lived, but consumers in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian markets, where strongly spiced dishes are common, couldn't get enough. Mala Khan remains one of the brand’s signature offerings in the region.

“Mala Khan failed to become a regular menu item here,” Lee told The Korea Times in an interview at the company’s menu development center in Seoul’s Songpa District. “But it clearly demonstrated that the same menu can generate completely opposite results in different gastronomic environments.”

Some menu items have never been introduced in Korea at all. Curly fries sprinkled with Bhc’s signature sweet cheese seasoning went viral and became a local favorite in Malaysia. Sambal sauce and traditional nasi lemak seasonings also became the basis of other specials only available in the region.

In Thailand, the hot and humid climate prompted the brand to introduce Super Crispy Bburinkle Chicken, with a robust crunch that can hold up even under the wettest weather conditions.

Bhc also offers a Bburinkle Sandwich and Crispy Bun in the United States and Canada, according to Lee. In the U.S., Bhc branches that introduced a wing and tender platter with four signature dipping sauces posted sales 280 percent higher than the country’s average. To cater to Canada's diverse flavor preferences, the brand has also introduced pizza, lasagna, fried rice and poutine-themed items.

“For our American markets, we understood that local consumers consider chicken a meal rather than a side dish with a pint of beer. As our Southeast Asian markets showed, local climates and flavors determine which of our menus are exclusive to certain countries,” Lee said.

“Some ingredients are banned from being imported or culturally boycotted. It forces us to develop menus using a limited range of ingredients. How patrons eat chicken — whether delivery, takeout or dine-in — also prompted us to develop menus that do not compromise quality depending on how long the food takes to get to the customers.”

Conditions for failure

Lee revealed that there are menu items that failed to become a mainstay on the Bhc menu.

“The most important thing is the reorder rate. To join our regular menu, it shouldn’t be a one-time seller but make customers keep coming back,” Lee said.

“Operational feasibility for our franchisees is second-most important. Even if a menu sees a massive consumer response, we shut it down if that menu is hard to cook — just like Poteking.”

Poteking Fried Chicken was launched in 2021 but was removed from the menu in 2024. Franchisees found it difficult to execute the recipe, which included attaching potato pieces to chicken one at a time.

Another dish, Roselle King, reached a dead end when its highlight ingredient of jelly proved sensitive to heat, affecting the product's visual appeal. A set menu including chicken, ricotta cheese and cheese balls was also scrapped for failing to appeal to single-person households in Korea.

Developing each menu item is a pricey experiment as the company searches for its next hit, and many never make it out of the lab. Investment was essential to developing profitable dishes like Bburinkle or Kwassak King chicken.

“Developing a new menu item takes an average of six to seven months, sometimes a year,” Lee said. “During these periods, in‑house researchers test hundreds of different ingredient combinations. To find an optimal balance of sauce and batter, they fry more than 1,000 chickens per menu item, conducting rigorous taste tests and repeated blind trials.”

“For our latest Soy Garlic King, the team devoted particular efforts to creating a new batter mix. They spent months adding minced garlic and sesame seeds to the batter to find the perfect mix of garlic aroma and nuttiness from the sesame. Dozens of trials were also required to determine an ideal ratio for our specially formulated soy sauce‑based marinade,” Lee explained.

Each development costs the company tens of millions of won for ingredients, manpower and testing. But Lee said he cannot complain.

“A single megahit menu can have such a huge impact on the brand’s sales and image, this is an investment we must make. Bburinkle and Matcho King, our signature menus for over ten years, prove that point.”