Recipe: Dakgalbi (Korean spicy stir fried chicken) 닭갈비

Since MCO started, we have been recreating a lot of our favourite eat-out dishes at home. One of our pre-MCO bi-weekly indulgence was dakgalbi, also known as Korean or Chuncheon-style spicy stir fried chicken. 

Dakgalbi 닭갈비 is made by stir-frying marinated chicken with sweet potatoes, cabbage, tteok (Korean rice cake), spring onion and ramen in a large, round flat hot plate, with lettuce and kimchi served on the side. Dakgalbi is usually made using boneless chicken drumstick or thigh (skin left-on), however at home, we opted for chicken breast. The chicken is marinated in gochujang (Korean light chilli paste), gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder), Korean rice wine (I substituted with mirin), light soy sauce, garlic, ginger and Korean curry powder (I used regular meat curry powder). In the restaurant, raw sweet potato is added straight into the pan and cooked with the chicken, however I prefer to steam it for 10 minutes at home for a nice, fluffy texture. Add in lots of cabbage for crunch and freshness. At the restaurant, we also add-on ramen for a complete meal. 

This definitely satisfied our dakgalbi craving ;) A pretty good replication of our favourite dakgalbi, though slightly a little wetter due to the surface area of the pan used at home. 

Dakgalbi 닭갈비 (Korean spicy stir fried chicken)

Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from My Korean Kitchen

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
400g chicken breast, cut into bite-size chunks
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 large yellow sweet potato, steamed, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/2 carrot, cut into matchsticks
4-6 cabbage leaves, sliced
1 packet (500g) Korean rice cakes
1 packet ramen noodles

2-3 stalks spring onions, cut into 2" lengths

For the marinade

3 tbsp gochujang

1 tbsp gochugaru

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp curry powder

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place marinade in a bowl and then mix well. Add chicken and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Rinse the rice cakes and then place in a large bowl. Pour over boiling water and leave for 3-5 minutes to soften it.

3. Place ramen in a pot and pour boiling water over it. Leave for 2-3 minutes and then drain and set aside. This helps rehydrate the noodles and partially soften it.

4. In a large wok, heat oil over medium high heat, then add marinated chicken, cabbage and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the rice cakes and sweet potato, and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring frequently so that the rice cakes don't stick to the wok. Taste, and season with more soy sauce or gochugaru as necessary.

5. Toss ramen noodles and spring onion in the mixture and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, until noodle texture is to your liking. Serve with lettuce leaves and kimchi.

Note: 

1. Original recipe calls for sugar in the marinade, but I omitted is as I find it too sweet with sugar. 

dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe dakgalbi recipe

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks :)