Yoon Jonggye devised yangnyeom chicken in Daegu, South Korea. The dish emerged at his fried-chicken restaurant, later associated with the Mexican Chicken name.
Yoon noticed that customers found the crust of ordinary fried chicken too hard and abrasive. He developed a sweet-and-spicy coating to soften it while adding flavor, creating the style now known as yangnyeom chicken. The Korean word yangnyeom means “seasoned,” so the name broadly describes chicken coated with seasoning or sauce.
The recipe was later commercialized and popularized by Yang Heekwon, an employee who founded Pelicana Chicken. Early customers were hesitant, but Pelicana’s free samples helped the product gain acceptance. Yangnyeom chicken is now commonly served with pickled radish and is often ordered banban—half sauced and half plain fried chicken.
Daegu is the key city in this origin story, not Seoul or Busan. South Korea’s modern fried-chicken culture developed nationally, but the credited invention of this particular sauced style is tied to Yoon’s restaurant in Daegu.