"I Made So Much Money After the Ad, It Was Like Pushing It with a Bulldozer"... 'Seasoned Chicken Pioneer' Yoon Jonggye Passes Away

Yoon Jonggye, Founder of Mexican Chicken, Passes Away
Dies from Chronic Illness at Age 74

Yoon Jonggye, the founder of Mexican Chicken and the creator of the first seasoned chicken and pickled radish for chicken, has passed away at the age of 74.

Yoon Jonggye, the founder of Mexican Chicken, has passed away at the age of 74. In 2020, he appeared on tvN's "You Quiz on the Block."

According to Yonhap News on January 8, Yoon passed away from a chronic illness at his home in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, around 5 a.m. on December 30.

Born in April 1952 in Daegu, Yoon initially ran a printing business but went bankrupt. In the late 1970s, he started a fried chicken shop called 'Gyesung Tongdak' in Hyomok-dong, Daegu.

He created a sensation by introducing the first red seasoning sauce using starch syrup and red pepper powder, as well as a marination method. The marination process involves soaking chicken in a solution of water, salt, sugar, and spices, or rubbing salt and powdered seasonings directly onto the chicken, to enhance flavor and tenderize the meat.

Yoon developed seasoned fried chicken in 1980. In 2020, during his appearance on episode 69 of tvN's "You Quiz on the Block," he recalled, "When I was running a small shop of just about two pyeong, the chicken breast was too dry, so I initially thought of kimchi. No matter how I mixed kimchi seasonings, it didn't work. Then, an elderly lady from the neighborhood suggested I try adding starch syrup, and when I did, the flavor improved."

At first, some people avoided seasoned chicken because it got their hands dirty, but over time, its popularity spread nationwide. In 1985, he officially launched the "Mexican Chicken" brand, which means "spicy, sour, and sweet." This is a different brand from "Mexican Chicken" named after Mexico. He also pioneered the first chicken television commercial in Korea.

He featured "Sundol-i" (Lee Geonju), a popular character from the MBC drama "Three Families Under One Roof" (1986-1994), as the model. On "You Quiz on the Block," he described the success after the commercial as "making money as if bulldozing it in."

Yoon was also the first to create pickled radish for chicken. Noting that eating chicken made people feel thirsty, he combined radish and cucumber with vinegar and soda, which became the pickled radish served with chicken today. His wife, Hwang Juyeong, recalled, "He made the pickled radish first, and then developed seasoned fried chicken in the early 1980s."

The seasoned fried chicken Yoon developed became the industry standard. In 1988, he signed a chicken supply contract with Harim, and at one point operated around 1,700 franchise locations, but the business closed around 2003. Hwang said, "At the time, we imported machinery from Germany and tried to pivot the business, but faced many challenges."

In 2016, Harim Holdings acquired a stake in Mexican Chicken. It is known that Kim Hongkook, Chairman of Harim, gave Yoon seed money to restart under the name 'Yoon Chicken,' recalling their past relationship.

Yoon also contributed to the launch of the Daegu Chimac Festival.

He is survived by his wife, Hwang Juyeong, and his son, Yoon Junsik. After a funeral service at noon on January 1, he was laid to rest at Daeseong Church in Cheongdo.