A Year to Learn Korean Cooking: Dakgalbi

KimchiRednecks

Nov 1

Today let's learn about cooking dakgalbi (닭갈비) at home! Dakgalbi is a fabulous stir-fried chicken dish with with a gochujang-based sauce that often includes cabbage, sweet potatoes, rice cake (tteok 떡 ), scallions and other ingredients. You can enjoy this at your favorite restaurant. However this is a great dish to prepare ahead and cook directly on your table in front of your family or guests!

About the South of Seoul "A Year to Learn Korean Cooking' Series

Many of us live in South Korea for only a year. However, time flies past faster than we can imagine. At South of Seoul, we decided to create a simple series that will offer 2-4 dishes to learn each month so that when you leave South Korea you have a slew of new dishes you feel comfortable making anywhere.

This series is a collaboration with Kimchi Rednecks. In 2020 they created the first blog in this series Online Resources for Learning to Cook Korean Food. These two love to have adventures in the kitchen and share the results with their community. Be sure to follow Kimchi Rednecks on YouTube for other great videos about living life in South Korea.

About Dakgalbi

Dakgalbi consists of chopped chicken marinated in a spicy Korean sauce and stir fried with cabbage, sweet potatoes, perilla leaves, rice cakes and other ingredients. The dish is very popular and there are many restaurants that serve this flavorful dish. Also, the most popular version of this dish now includes melted cheese to dip your chicken and vegetables.

The dish itself, originated from the Chuncheon (춘천) area. Chuncheon is the capital of the Gangwon Province and has beautiful mountain and lake areas. Since it was created in the area, it is often referred to as Chuncheon dakgalbi. There is even a street in Chuncheon with many dakgalbi restaurants where you can go to enjoy this dish.

Many restaurants will cook your dakgalbi on the table after you order it. However, there are some that will bring it to your table after it is cooked. Either way, you get to customize it with what you want in it (rice cakes, dangmyeon noodles, cheese, etc.). We always love to get ours with the rice cakes and plenty of cheese!

And before you complete your meal of dakgalbi, leave some chicken and vegetable and ask for bokkeumbap 볶음밥, stir-fried rice. Once you have eaten through most of your dish, you can add rice to the pan. Then, you cook it with the leftover chicken, vegetables, and sauce. This makes a fabulous end to your dakgalbi meal. In addition, this is easy to do if you are cooking at home too!

Biggest Hurdle in Cooking Dakgalbi

The biggest hurdle for us when cooking dakgalbi at home is that I tend to try to load the pot with way too much food at one time! When you cook this dish at home, remember if you plan to add cheese into the pan for dipping, you want to leave some room for making the cheese trough.

We love the ease of this dish. You can prepare all your ingredients ahead of time and have it in the pan and ready to be cooked when it's time for dinner. Whenever serve it for family or guests, we have the portable gas stove on the table waiting for the pan of dakgalbi.

Three Recommended Cooking Dakgalbi Videos to Watch

Check out these three videos for recipes on how to cook dakgalbi at home. And remember if your family isn't quite into the high level of spice, you can always choose to reduce the amount of gochugaru in the sauce to make it more pleasing to them.

Korean American Cooking Dakgalbi

Korean Cooking Dakgalbi

American in Korea Cooking Dakgalbi

Let Us Know How It Turns Out

When you make dakgalbi for the first time at home, be sure to leave a comment and let us know how it turned out! Also, if you live in Pyeongtaek, you can even share your success (or failure) with us in the Pyeongtaek Food & Fun Facebook group.

If you are looking for other dishes (Korean or otherwise) or reviews of restaurants, be sure to check out the KimchiRednecks channel or check out our social media accounts on Facebook or Instagram, where we often share what we are cooking or eating.