A whole Korean fried chicken costs ₩14,000 at a shop nineteen minutes by taxi from Terminal 1, and the reason it is that cheap is that you walk in and carry it out. The same bird is listed at ₩18,000 on the shop’s own Naver menu. The catch is the clock: the place does not open until noon, so a morning layover cannot use it at all. An evening or overnight one can — it runs until 12:50am.
The shop is 후라이드참잘하는집 영종하늘도시점, on the main road through Haneuldosi, the newer of the two towns on Yeongjong. I went out for something to bring home for dinner, saw the takeout price painted on the street sign, and ended up carrying two birds back. What follows is what was on the board that night and what was in the boxes.
What does a whole chicken cost at Huchamjal?
Between ₩14,000 and ₩16,000 for a whole bird if you collect it, depending on the flavour. That is not a promotion — the small print on the board says these are 할인된 포장 가격, discounted pickup prices, and the shop’s menu as listed on Naver is exactly ₩4,000 higher on every single line.
| Chicken | Pick up at the shop | Listed on Naver |
|---|---|---|
| Fried 후라이드치킨 | ₩14,000 | ₩18,000 |
| Seasoned 양념치킨 | ₩15,000 | ₩19,000 |
| Spicy seasoned 매운양념치킨 | ₩15,000 | — |
| Soy sauce 간장 or 핫간장 | ₩15,000 | ₩19,000 |
| Honey butter 허니버터치킨 | ₩15,000 | ₩19,000 |
| Snow cheese 눈꽃치즈치킨 | ₩15,000 | ₩19,000 |
| Hot cheese 핫토스치킨 | ₩15,000 | ₩19,000 |
| Half and half 후반/양반 | ₩15,000 | — |
| Mapdal King 맵달킹치킨 | ₩16,000 | ₩20,000 |
| King Triple 킹트리플양념치킨 | ₩16,000 | ₩20,000 |
| Super spicy 디진다핫치킨 | ₩16,000 | ₩20,000 |
Three lines of small print sit in a box on the left of that board, and they are worth more than the prices:
- 치킨 메뉴 할인된 포장 가격 — the prices shown are the discounted takeout prices.
- 순살 변경 가능 1,000원 추가 — any chicken can be switched to boneless for ₩1,000 more.
- 모든 치킨 메뉴 반반 가능 — every chicken on the menu can be ordered half and half.
That last one matters more than it looks, and I will come back to it.
Do you need Korean to order here?
No, and this shop is unusual in that respect. Every item on the outdoor board has an English name printed above the Korean — Fried Chicken, Half & Half Chicken, Original Seasoned Chicken, Soy Sauce Chicken, Honey Butter Chicken, Cheese Seasoned Chicken, Super Spicy Chicken. You can order by pointing at a photograph with an English label on it, which is not something I can say about most restaurants on this island. The heat is marked with small red chilli icons too: one beside the spicy seasoned and soy-sauce lines, two beside Mapdal King, three beside 디진다핫치킨, the one whose name translates to roughly “you will die from this.”
There is also a standing sign by the door reading 1인 1닭 — one whole chicken per person. Ordering a full bird for yourself is the advertised normal here, not an act of gluttony. One bird was comfortably enough for one person.
Cards work, as they do everywhere in Korea, and nobody tips. A tub of pickled radish comes in the bag with the chicken at no charge.
Should you order the fried or the seasoned chicken?
The shop is named after its fried chicken and I would order the seasoned one. That is the whole review, and it surprised me, because I went specifically for the plain fried.
The plain fried bird is honest and a bit restrained. The crust is properly crisp and the meat underneath is white and moist rather than dry, and the pieces run large — mostly drumsticks and wings, so there is real meat to work off the bone. But it is seasoned lightly. I found myself dipping every piece into the pickled radish or into the sauce from the other box, and if you are ordering fried alone it is worth asking for salt or a sauce to dip into.
The seasoned chicken is the one that kept pulling my hand back. The sauce is laid on thick enough to drip off a piece when you lift it, glossy and deep red. It is sweet first, but the sweetness does not spike on its own — a mild heat arrives just behind it. If you have only eaten the sugary version of Korean seasoned chicken abroad, this is the balance that version is trying to imitate.
So here is the practical answer, and it is why the 반반 line on the board matters: order any chicken half fried and half seasoned, at no extra cost, and you do not have to choose. If you order two whole birds between two people, eat the fried one first. The plain crust goes soft as it sits, while the sauce on the seasoned one soaks in and the piece is no worse cold.
How do you get there from Incheon Airport?
By taxi, in about twenty minutes from either terminal. The shop sits at 인천 영종구 하늘달빛로 84 (lot address 중산동 1875-6), phone 032-747-1759. Paste the Korean address or the shop name 후라이드참잘하는집 하늘도시점 into a taxi app or show it to the driver — the romanised version will not help either of you.
| From | By taxi | Distance | Taxi fare | By bus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal 1 | 19 min | 14.8 km | ₩14,500 | Bus 202, 38 min, ₩1,500, no transfer |
| Terminal 2 | 21 min | 20.4 km | ₩18,700 | Bus 205, 49 min, ₩1,500, no transfer |
| Unseo Station 운서역 | 14 min | 11.3 km | ₩11,900 | Bus 221, 30 min, ₩1,500 |
| Yeongjong Station 영종역 | 12 min | 5.7 km | ₩7,900 | Bus 203, 23 min |
If you would rather not pay for the taxi, bus 202 from Terminal 1 goes there without a transfer. Board at stop 13B on the first floor of the terminal, ride 38 minutes, and get off at 신명스카이뷰정문; the shop is about a minute’s walk. Door to door it comes to roughly 43 minutes for ₩1,500. From Unseo Station, bus 221 takes 30 minutes to the same stop. The warning that goes with all of these: these buses do not run often, and a bus you have just missed can cost you more time than the taxi would have cost you money. Check the next departure in Naver Map before you commit to the stop, and budget for the return leg as well as the outbound one — see the honest time math on leaving the airport during a layover for how quickly that arithmetic turns against you.
For the pin, the shop’s location on Google Maps is accurate. For directions, opening hours on the day and the next bus, use Naver Map instead — it is the app that actually works for transit in Korea.
Does this fit in a layover?
Only an afternoon, evening or overnight one. This is the constraint that decides it:
| Huchamjal | |
|---|---|
| Opens | 12:00 noon, every day |
| Closes | 12:50am |
| Break time | None listed |
| Taxi from T1 | 19 minutes each way |
| Whole bird | ₩14,000–16,000 |
| Shortest layover I would try it on | About six hours |
A noon opening rules out a lot of layovers. Long-haul arrivals into Incheon cluster in the early morning, and if you land at six and clear immigration at seven there is nothing here for you — go and read about the Korean soup house near the airport that opens at 6am instead, or about the restaurant on this island that never closes. The late closing is the flip side: at eleven at night, when almost everything on Yeongjong has shut, this place is still frying.
On timing, treat six hours as the floor. A round trip by taxi is about forty minutes of driving before you have ordered anything, and the terminal side of the trip — immigration outbound, security and immigration inbound — is the part that actually eats layovers. What a six-hour layover at Incheon really fits and the seven-hour version both lay out those numbers properly. If you are carrying luggage, sort it out before you leave: what the lockers and staffed counters at Incheon cost covers which one you actually want.
Who should skip it?
Anyone who wants to sit down and be served. I ordered this to take away and carried it home, so I cannot tell you what eating in is like — whether there is a dining room worth sitting in, how many tables, or what the service is like at one. Treat it as a pickup counter until you know otherwise. If you want a table and a meal on Yeongjong, the pork cutlet place a few minutes away in the same town or the dakgalbi restaurant that makes you order two portions are both built for that.
Skip it too if you have nowhere to eat it. A whole chicken in a bag needs a table, and a hotel room or an apartment is the obvious answer. I do not know what airport security will and will not let you carry back through, and I am not going to guess, so plan on eating this before you head back to the terminal rather than after.
And skip the plain fried if you are eating alone and slowly. It is the better chicken hot and the worse one twenty minutes later.
Common questions
Is ₩14,000 cheap for a whole chicken in Korea?
Yes. A whole fried chicken in Korea generally runs closer to ₩20,000, and this shop’s own listed price is ₩18,000. The ₩14,000 is the pickup price, printed on the sign outside.
Can I order half fried and half seasoned?
Yes. The board states that every chicken on the menu is available 반반 — half and half — and the half-and-half line itself is ₩15,000.
Is there boneless chicken?
Yes, on any item, for ₩1,000 more. The board calls it 순살.
How spicy is the spicy chicken?
The board grades heat one to three chillies. The seasoned chicken I ate was not on that scale at all — sweet in front with a mild warmth behind it. 디진다핫치킨, at three chillies, is the one marketed as punishing; I did not order it.
What time does it open?
Naver lists it as noon to 12:50am daily with no break time. Opening hours in Korea change without notice, so check the listing in Naver Map on the day.
Is one chicken enough for two people?
One bird is generous for one person. For two, two birds — one fried, one seasoned — split between you is the order I would repeat.
