Recipe Dakdoritang (Korean Chicken Stew)

[vernplum]

This is comforting and hearty Korean home cooking and has three sources of chili - Gochujang (chili paste), Gochugaru (chili powder) and fresh sliced chili. Once you've gathered all the ingredients, it's pretty much a simple one pot stew. I like it served over Dangmyeon which are Korean potato starch glass noodles.

Ingredients

Meat & Veg​

• 1kg bone-in, skin-on chicken cut into large pieces (I used thighs)
• 1 large potato cut into chunks
• 2 medium carrots cut into chunks
• 1 medium onion, chopped roughly
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled
• small thumb ginger, julienned
• 2 red or green chillies sliced

Sauce​

• 2 tbsp Gochujang (Korean chili paste)
• 2 tbsp Gochugaru (Korean chili powder/flakes)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp Mirin or shaoxing wine
• dash of white pepper
• 1/2-1 tsp salt to taste
• 1.5 cups water

Finishing & serving​

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp white sesame seeds
• 1 spring onion sliced or curled for garnish
• 200g Dangmyeon (Korean potato starch noodles)

Method

1. Gather all your ingredients
2. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl
3. Put the chicken in a pot on a medium heat and tip over the sauce. Add 1.5 cups of water, give everything a good stir, cover it and bring to a boil.
4. After 5 minutes, throw in all the veg except the sliced chillies. Cook for another ~20 minutes, stirring occasionally until potatoes and carrots are tender.
5. Add in the green chillies, cook for a further 5 minutes covered, then turn off the heat. Season with salt to taste.
6. In a separate pot, tip some boiling water over the Dangmyeon and boil it for 5-7 minutes until they are soft and springy.
7. To serve, lay a bed of noodles on a plate and scoop the stew over the top. Drizzle some sesame oil over, then sprinkle the sesame seeds and spring onion slices.

(adapted from Dakdoritang (Spicy Chicken Stew))

 

[vernplum]

Get everything together. The key ingredients that make this Korean-inflected are the Gochujang and Gochugaru in the bottom left.

Korean chili paste:

..and powder. It's not a very fine powder like an Indian grind, but still a little flaky. Errm, mine is a little past its use-by date, but still good!

I use Japanese Mirin. I've actually never seen Korean 'Mirim' but the Webz says they are interchangeable for cooking:

Mix up the sauce:

 

[vernplum]

...cont.. Chicken in the pot with water and the sauce. You must use bone-in chicken so it releases its stock/gelatine.

Veg in:

20 mins later, add in the chillies, season it up and it's done:

Make a bed with your cooked Dangmyeon:

No Korean meal is complete without some Banchan such as Kimchi, plus some rice.