Danyang market chicken shop tasting stand: Danyang Heukmaneul

Yesterday after work I stopped by Gugyeong Market near my house in Danyang and picked up some delicious fried chicken — let me introduce Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong, a fried chicken favorite in Danyang Gugyeong Market.

Why Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong in Gugyeong Market?

When you visit Danyang you end up at Gugyeong Market, and when you visit Gugyeong Market you end up buying a lot of dakgangjeong (Korean fried chicken). Among the fried chicken shops in the market, Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong is the one most people flock to — on weekends a wait is basically guaranteed.

Unlike ordinary fried chicken, Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong sells dakgangjeong topped with crispy nurungji (scorched rice crust) made in-house, plus black garlic and garlic chips — Danyang's local specialty — so you get crispy fried chicken with a range of flavors and textures.

• Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong
• 31-1 Dojeon4-gil, Danyang-eup, Danyang-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do
• Daily 10:00–20:00
• Closes early when ingredients run out

The shop sits neatly right in the middle of Gugyeong Market, an easy spot for anyone visiting the market to stop by — whenever I go on weekends, this popular dakgangjeong shop is always packed with customers.

Tasting both flavors at the wooden-chopstick stand before ordering

Walking up to the shop, the tasting stand is the first thing that catches your eye — you can try both of Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong's menu items, the nurungji dakgangjeong and the black garlic double-flavor dakgangjeong, before deciding what to buy.

The tasting stand out front had generous portions of both flavors set out so you could taste as much as you liked, and instead of toothpicks they had wooden chopsticks ready, which made it so much easier and nicer to try the chicken.

Even on a weekday afternoon, customers kept coming steadily to buy dakgangjeong, and I often saw people taste at the stand first before ordering whichever flavor suited their taste.

Menu and black garlic makgeolli at Danyang Heukmaneul

Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong makes the nurungji that goes into its dakgangjeong right in the shop, so you get an even crispier, tastier nurungji alongside the chicken.

The menu includes black garlic original dakgangjeong and black garlic double dakgangjeong, where you can really taste the deep flavor of black garlic, along with black garlic makgeolli (Korean rice wine) that pairs nicely with the chicken — good to enjoy with your meal or to buy as a souvenir from your Danyang trip.

How long is the wait? Browsing Gugyeong Market while it fries

Once you order, they give you an order ticket and tell you the wait time, then start making the black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong fresh in the shop's neat, well-kept kitchen right away.

After browsing the market a bit, the chicken was ready — bringing home neatly packed dakgangjeong and black garlic makgeolli was a genuine dopamine boost.

Eating the black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong at home with family

We eat this dakgangjeong regularly, so the whole family already knows the taste and I was eager to dig in — the crispy fried chicken topped with even crispier garlic bits and plenty of nurungji was so, so good.

They fry up potato and lotus root along with the nurungji and garlic chips, and once we really dug into the black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong as a family, the combination of soft, chewy chicken with nurungji and garlic chips was so good that both the adults and our young son enjoyed it a lot.

My wife and I enjoyed the black garlic nurungji dakgangjeong while sipping cool, fragrant black garlic makgeolli.

Looking at the Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong box, my son said this:

This is good!!

Grab some delicious dakgangjeong to go from Danyang Heukmaneul Nurungji Dakgangjeong, the fried chicken favorite of Danyang Gugyeong Market.