Korean-style fried chicken is gaining popularity among foreign tourists visiting South Korea. Chicken sales to foreign customers at convenience stores more than quadrupled during evening and late-night hours, establishing the outlets as a go-to source for ready-to-eat food.
Seven-Eleven, the convenience store chain operated by Korea Seven, said on the 20th that chicken purchases by foreign tourists have been rising. Chicken sales at Seven-Eleven rose 19% in the January-September period from a year earlier. Sales to foreign customers climbed 63% over the same period. Among foreign customers, evening sales between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. jumped 341% for chicken, 153% for non-alcoholic beer and 143% for highballs.
The pattern suggests tourists who spend the day sightseeing and shopping stop by convenience stores to buy food on their way back to their accommodations.
In response, Seven-Eleven expanded its lineup of individual chicken pieces beyond drumsticks to include wings. The company said it plans to continue introducing chicken products tailored to the tastes of a wider range of customers, including foreign tourists.
Foreign Consumers Won Over by Korean-Style Chicken
Korean-style fried chicken, known for its crisp texture and variety of sauces, has been winning over foreign palates. Survey results show it ranks as the Korean dish overseas consumers eat most often and like best. In November last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korean Food Promotion Institute released the findings of a 2025 survey of 11,000 consumers in major cities across 22 countries.
Korean-style fried chicken topped the list of favorite Korean dishes at 14%, followed by kimchi at 9.5%, bibimbap at 8.2%, bulgogi at 5.6%, ramyeon at 5.1%, grilled pork belly at 4.5% and kimchi fried rice at 4.4%. Chicken also led the dishes foreigners ate most frequently over the past year at 28.3%, just ahead of kimchi at 28%.
Freshness is cited as one reason for the dish's appeal abroad. In the United States, fried chicken is often sold pre-cooked, while Korean chicken is typically fried to order. The range of flavors — seasoned, soy sauce and garlic varieties in addition to plain fried chicken — also gives diners more choice.
Korean-style fried chicken was also recently named the world's top-rated fried dish. In a "100 Best Fried Dishes in the World" ranking released by the food website TasteAtlas, it placed first with a score of 4.4 out of 5.
Media reports have also pointed to "chimaek," the practice of pairing chicken with beer, as a factor behind the dish's popularity. As the pairing has become known beyond South Korea, it has helped build interest in Korean-style fried chicken.