I have sung the high praises of dakgalbi before here. I absolutely love this meal, as do many of my co-expats here in Korea. I upped the game on this one, as you do, with a bit of cooling avocado and crunchy pumpkin seeds to pair with the spicy love of the dakgalbi sauce.

The only change I would make is this:

In the restaurant you start eating the meal (its cooked in front of you on the table) as soon as the chicken is ready. That way, the chicken is perfect and it allows the veggies to continue to cook to softness. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of that and should have adjusted for the time it takes to cook the veggies. I’m going to change the directions just a bit from how I cooked it so that your chicken and vegetables will be cooked well.

Ingredients for two:

• 3 chicken breasts, cut to bite sized pieces
• 2 tbsp soju (or refined rice wine)
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 onion
• 1 small sweet squash
• 2 cups cabbage
• 2-3 small sweet potatos
• 10-12 sesame leaves (perilla leaves)
• 1/2 cup rice cakes (ddeok) soak in cold water for 20 minutes
• 1 avocado
• 1 handful sesame seeds
• a bit of cooking oil

For the sauce:

• 3 tbsp red pepper paste (gochujang)
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp Korean chili powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 a grated onion

Directions:

1. Put the chicken in a bowl and mix well with the soju, ginger powder and pepper. Soak for an hour. (An hour! What??  I know, but just prep the rest as you wait endlessly to cook some delicious chicken.)
2. While you’re waiting forevs, cut all your veggies into pieces small enough to hold with chopsticks. Remember most things will shrink up, like your cabbage, so it doesn’t have to be that small.  Perilla leaves don’t need to be chopped. You can also feel free to add anything you desire to make it your own.
3. Next, mix together all the ingredients for your sauce.
4. Once the hour is up, start cooking your veggies down. Put a bit of oil in a nonstick pan. Add your veggies and cook until the harder ones (potatoes, squash) start getting soft. Once they’ve cooked well, add your chicken, rice cakes and sauce.  Mix well and cook. Continue to mix, cook, mix, cook until it looks a beautiful red. Then its ready. Chicken breasts don’t take too long to cook so start checking after ten minutes or so.
5. Roast some pumpkin seeds in a 350 degree oven for about five minutes. Add the avocado and seeds to the top.

Adapted from: My Korean Kitchen 😀

Starting line: chicken in marinade, loads of veggies

Dak Galbi Sauce

Secret weapon

Adding together chicken, sauce, cabbage, sweet small squash, sweet potato, onion, sesame leaves and rice cakes.

After cooking, add the avocado + roasted pumpkin seeds on top.