gochujang chicken, then the cheese waterfall
Ingredients · tap to check
- 500 g (1 lb) boneless chicken thigh, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup milk, for soaking
- 1/6 head green cabbage, cut into large squares
- 1 sweet potato, sliced as thin as your little finger is wide
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 leek or large scallion, cut on the diagonal
- 5 perilla leaves, shredded
- 1/2 cup tteokbokki rice cakes, soaked in water
- 1 green chili and 1 red chili, sliced
- 1 to 2 cups shredded low-moisture mozzarella
- 3 Tbsp gochujang
- 2 Tbsp gochugaru
- 1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp oligodang or corn syrup
- 2 Tbsp cooking wine
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ginger juice
- 1 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- black pepper
The Way
- Soak the chicken in milk for 30 minutes, then drain and pat dry. This is the standard Korean step for pulling any gaminess out of thigh meat and it makes a real difference here, where the sauce is sweet.
- Whisk the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar, oligodang, cooking wine, garlic, ginger juice, curry powder, oyster sauce, sesame oil and pepper into a thick paste. The curry powder is the Chuncheon signature - it is not a fusion shortcut, it is what the original griddle houses use, and it gives the sauce its warm undertone.
- Coat the chicken in the marinade and leave it at least 30 minutes, longer if you have it. Soak the rice cakes in water at the same time so they soften.
- Get a wide cast-iron pan or griddle properly hot with a slick of oil. Add the chicken and the sweet potato first - the two things that take longest - and let them sear rather than stew.
- Once the chicken has colour, add the onion, cabbage and drained rice cakes. Stir-fry about 5 minutes, until the cabbage collapses and the sauce tightens and clings to everything instead of pooling.
- Add the leek, chilies and perilla and toss for one more minute. The perilla should still be bright, not stewed grey.
- Push everything out to the edges to clear a well in the middle. Pile the mozzarella into it, cover the pan and drop the heat to low for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Uncover when the cheese has gone fully molten and glossy. Lift a piece of chicken through the cheese and let it pull - that ribbon back over the red is the whole reason this version exists. Eat straight from the pan while the cheese is still moving.
midnight tip. use low-moisture shredded mozzarella, not fresh. fresh mozzarella carries so much water that it breaks into a milky puddle over a hot spicy pan instead of pulling, and the liquid thins your sauce at the same time. and cover the pan for the melt rather than turning the heat up - direct heat browns the cheese and browned cheese does not stretch.
Questions
what is the curry powder doing in there?
it is authentic, not a twist. Chuncheon-style dakgalbi has used a spoonful of curry powder for decades - it covers any remaining gaminess in the thigh and gives the gochujang a warmer, rounder base. leave it out and the sauce reads flatter and more one-note sweet.
can I use chicken breast?
you can, but thigh is the right call. breast dries out in the time it takes the sweet potato to cook through, and this dish is cooked hard on a griddle rather than gently. if breast is what you have, cut it larger and add it after the sweet potato has softened.
do I need the rice cakes?
no, but they are what most Korean versions include and they earn their place - they soak up the sauce that would otherwise sit in the pan. soak them first or they stay hard in the middle.
how do I make the fried rice at the end?
that is the traditional finish. when most of the chicken is gone, tip a bowl of cooked rice into the leftover sauce and cheese, add a sheet of crumbled gim and a spoon of sesame oil, and press it flat against the hot pan until the bottom crisps.
(this one was DAKGALBI) — it finds your DMs.
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