Recipe: 닭갈비 (Dakgalbi) Spicy stir-fried chicken

For lovers of spice, this is a dish for you! Continuing my learning and love of Korean cuisine, I came across dakgalbi, a super spicy, stir-fried chicken and vegetable dish. Dakgalbi (which literally means 'chicken ribs' despite there being no chicken ribs) was originally created to be a cheap accompaniment to beer - so you know it must be good! Cheap, hearty, spicy and plentiful, I think that dakgalbi is my absolute favourite Korean meal to cook and to eat so far.

Before jumping into the ingredients and method though, I'd like to highlight a couple of things:

Firstly, if you want this dish to be as authentic as possible you have to be prepared for some serious chilli heat. This is one of the spiciest meals I've ever eaten and I cry eveytime I eat it because the heat is so intense but it is worth it for the incredible flavour. You can of course reduce the amount of spice and you'll still get a delicious meal.

Secondly, this dish is super versatile so feel free to change the ingredients, the only thing you should try to stick to 100% is the sauce because that's what makes it really, really tasty.

Ingredients (serves 4)

For more information about Korean ingredients, check out my post about Korean groceries here

400g chicken breast, cut into bitesize pieces
3 tbsp soy sauce
10 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tbsp gochujang (red pepper paste) [2 tbsp for a less spicy version]
4 tbsp gochugaru (red pepper flakes) [2 tbsp for a less spicy version]
4 tbsp mirin (rice wine)
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
400g white cabbage, cut into bitesize pieces
1 large yellow onion, sliced
350g garaeddeok (rice cake)
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
½ large courgette, sliced
200g bean sprouts

Method

❶

In a bowl, mix the cut chicken with 1 tbsp of soy sauce and the black pepper and set them aside.

Marinated chicken and bitesize chunks of white cabbage

❷

For the spicy sauce, combine the garlic, red pepper paste, red pepper flakes, 2 tbsps of soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil. Ensure they're combined well, you should have a bright red paste.

Prepared veggies and super spicy sauce

❸

Spread the cabbage across a large pan and add the onion, carrot, courgette and rice cakes on top. You won't need any oil, so don't panic about putting the ingredients in dry - as it all cooks, the vegetables will release water which prevents any burning or sticking.

Building the veggie base

❹

Place the marinated chicken on top of the vegetables and then pour the spicy sauce on top of that. Cover the pan and place over a high heat for 3 minutes then mix the sauce into the other ingredients.

Add the chicken and fiery hot sauce

Mix well once the vegetables start cooking

❺

Reduce the heat to low-medium and continue to stir intermittently. Once the chicken looks cooked and the vegetables have heavily reduced, add the bean sprouts and cook for another minute and remove from the heat.