Dak Galbi (Korean Spicy Chicken)

This is an entry from my other blog Bibimbazzled that I´ve moved over to Picante Kitchen to diversify my recipe list. This recipe I made while in Korea in my tiny kitchen 🙂

One of my favorite Korean dishes to date, and there are a lot, is dak galbi (닭갈비), or  spicy chicken galbi. Galbi essentially just means ¨cooked on the grill¨. Most beef galbi is just marinated strips of meat grilled and dipped in gochujang. Dak Galbi, however, comes with veggies, rice cakes (tteokbokki), and a tasty sauce.

If you wanted to make this at home, you might have a little bit of a hard time finding rice cakes and gochujang, but everything else is pretty easy to find. I took this fantastic recipe: http://www.beyondkimchee.com/dak-galbi/  and changed a few things to suit my tastes.

You are going to want to cook this in a big, heavy pot. Something that can take higher heat. I was fortunate enough to be left this cool, stone rice-cooking pot which works perfect, butI thick a sturdy skillet or cast iron skillet would be fine.

Ingredients

1 lb (450g) boneless, skinless chicken thigh, diced

1/2 lb (250g) Korean rice cake sticks

1/4-1/2 cabbage, diced

8-10 perilla leaves, sliced

1/2 large onion, sliced

1 medium sweet potato, sliced into 1/4″ thick wedges

2 tablespoon grape seed or canola oil

2-4 tablespoon water

more perilla leaves and toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Sauce:

3 tablespoon Korean chili paste

2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoon Korean chili flakes

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ginger powder

2 tablespoon rice wine (or just white wine!)

3 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

dashes of pepper

 

Instructions:

1. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Toss the chicken pieces with 1/2 the sauce and mix. Set aside.
2. Soak rice cakes in hot water until ready to use and drain.
3. Drizzle oil in a cast iron skillet, spread the chicken and top with vegetables (only 1/2 the amount of perilla leaves) and rice cakes.Make sure to put the sweet potatoes and carrots closer to the bottom so that they cook faster. Drizzle the remaining sauce over and bring the skillet over med-high heat.
4. When you hear the loud sizzling noise from the skillet, toss to coat everything with the sauce. Continue to cook for about 2 minutes. Add the water to create steam to cook and reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook, about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. When chickens are cooked through and potatoes are tender, add the rest of the perilla leaves and heat through. Everything should be slightly browned at this stage.Toss gently so that you don’t break the potatoes.
6. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and garnish with more perilla leaves. Serve hot.

A few quick words of advice: Eat all the rice cakes while they are HOT. They do not stay soft when they get cold. They get hard and chewy and terrible. Also, cut your sweet potatoes in thin strips or circles so that they can cook all the way through.

The mix of sweet potatoes, soft cabbage, and tangy, spicy chicken is a perfect flavor combination and a complete meal in one dish.

    Delicious! “맛있다” – mashittda!