Photo: Yun Jong-gye. Credit: tvN.
On December 30, 2025, Yun Jong-gye 윤종계 passed away at his home in Cheongdo, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province 경상북도 청도 after a longstanding illness. Although Koreans have long enjoyed fried chicken - the earliest known recipe dates back to the 15th century - the founder of Mexican Chicken 맥시칸 치킨 franchise is generally considered to be the inventor of Korean-style fried chicken as it exists today.
Born in 1952 in Daegu 대구, Yun opened a fried chicken store in the late 1970s after a previous business - a print shop - failed. Unhappy with the way his fried chicken became dry as it cooled, Yun first invented the white pickled radish whose tartness counteracted the dryness and greasiness, now ubiquitous as a side with Korean fried chicken. Then, in 1980, Yun perfected the technique of brining the chicken and coating the fried product with spicy, sweet and sour sauce.
In 1985, Yun franchised his chicken restaurant, which he called Mexican Chicken. (The name comes from a portmanteau word for “spicy, sour and sweet 맵고 시고 달콤,” rather than the North American country.) Yun purposefully declined to exercise intellectual property rights for his recipe, allowing it to become the national - and later, global - standard. After peaking at 1.7k outlets for Mexican Chicken, Yun sold the brand in 2016 to Harim Holdings 하림지주, a chicken processing company.
