Dak Galbi

Dak-galbi, or spicy stir-fried chicken, is a popular Korean dish made by stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a gochujang-based sauce with sweet potatoes, cabbage, perilla leaves, scallions, tteok, and other ingredients. In Korean, galbi means rib. But Dak-galbi is not actually chicken’s rib.

Dak Galbi

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of boneless, and skinless, if desired, chicken thighs
  • 5 ounces of green cabbage
  • 1 small Korean sweet potato goguma (about 5 ounces)
  • 6 ounces of tteokbokki tteok rice cakes
  • 6 - 8 kkaennip (perilla leaves)
  • 2 scallions

Sauce

  • 1-½ to 2 tablespoons gochugaru Korean red chili pepper flakes
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons Korean curry powder optional
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine
  • ½ tablespoon corn syrup or more sugar
  • 1 tablespoon gochujang Korean red chili pepper paste
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon grated ginger
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons water

Method

  1. Soak the rice cakes in cold water for 10 to 20 minutes if hardened. Skip if using fresh rice cakes.
  2. Mix all the sauce ingredients well in a bowl. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Mix with the sauce (reserving one tablespoon if you’re going to make fried rice at the end) and marinate while preparing vegetables.
  3. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Mix with the sauce (reserving one tablespoon if you’re going to make fried rice at the end) and marinate while preparing vegetables.
  4. Cut the sweet potato in half lengthwise and then thinly slice crosswise and slightly diagonally. Cut the cabbage, kkaennip, and scallion into small pieces.
  5. Heat a pan over medium high heat. You can add a tablespoon of oil if you want, but this is not necessary. Add the chicken, sweet potatoes, rice cakes, and cabbage. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat if the ingredients (especially the rice cakes) stick to the pan. The steam from the vegetables should keep them from sticking to the pan. You can also add a couple spoons of water if the pan gets too dry.
  6. Add the kkaennip and scallion and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes until the rice cake and the sweet potato pieces turn soft. By then the chicken should be cooked through.