Dak Galbi

Chicken and vegetables cooked down on a flat plate, where the cabbage goes in last and is barely cooked.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

For the marinade

• 900 g boneless chicken thigh, in large pieces
• 3 tablespoons gochujang
• 1 tablespoon gochugaru
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice syrup or sugar
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 piece ginger, 2 cm, grated
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

For the pan

• 1 sweet potato, in thin slices
• half a cabbage, in thick wedges
• 1 onion, in thick wedges
• 200 g garaetteok, as on its own page, optional
• 4 perilla leaves, shredded
• 4 spring onions, in 4 cm lengths
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. THE CABBAGE GOES IN LAST AND IS BARELY COOKED. Thick wedges, added in the final five minutes, so they wilt at the edges and stay crunchy at the core. In from the start -- which is what happens if everything is treated as one stir-fry -- the cabbage gives up a great deal of water, the pan stops frying and starts stewing, and the whole dish turns pale and watery instead of dark and sticky.
2. THE SWEET POTATO GOES IN FIRST AND IS SLICED THIN. It takes the longest of anything in the pan and it is the only thing that will not forgive being underdone. Three millimetres, in at the beginning, under the chicken.
3. THE CHICKEN IS MARINATED AT LEAST TWO HOURS AND THIGH ONLY. There is a great deal of chilli paste and sugar to get into it; breast meat dries out long before the vegetables are done and goes stringy in a sauce this heavy.
4. A TABLESPOON OF CURRY POWDER GOES IN THE MARINADE and it is worth saying because it looks like a mistake. It is a small amount against three of gochujang and does not read as curry; it rounds the chilli and is the thing people cannot identify afterwards.
5. AND IT IS COOKED IN A WIDE SHALLOW PAN, NOT A DEEP ONE. The point is a large surface where the sauce can reduce and catch. In a saucepan it steams.
6. Chicken cut into large pieces and folded through the marinade ingredients. Left 2 HOURS in the fridge, or overnight.
7. Garaetteok, if using and not freshly made, soaked in warm water 20 minutes as the garaetteok page directs.
8. A wide shallow pan or griddle heated over a medium-high heat with the oil.
9. The sweet potato slices laid over the base.
10. The chicken and all its marinade spread on top, and the onion added.
11. Covered and cooked 10 MINUTES without stirring, so the chicken releases its liquid and the sweet potato steams.
12. The lid off, and cooked 10 minutes more, turned and scraped from the base, until the sauce has reduced and is catching.
13. The rice cakes added, if using, and given 4 minutes.
14. THE CABBAGE ADDED and cooked 5 MINUTES only, turned once or twice, until wilted at the edges and still crisp inside.
15. The perilla and spring onions thrown on and taken off the heat. Eaten from the pan with steamed rice as on its own page, and the crust scraped off the base at the end.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes