Apparently “Dak doritang” isn’t standard Korean language. Dori means chicken or bird in Japanese, Dak means chicken in Korean. Therefore Dak doritang means chicken chicken stew.
In recent years, Koreans have been trying to get rid of Japanese words that are still around in Korean culture from the colonial era. There are still lots of people who say dak doritang instead of the correct word. As you know, it is hard to change once things become your habit. Anyhow, its official name is “Dak bokkumtang” or “Dak maeuntang”.
Most people use one whole chicken for this meal. But I didn’t want to fiddle with bones and skin, so I used chicken breast instead. It is a spicy meal (but I used half less spice than other common recipes) though you can’t imagine how delicious it was.
Ingredients for 4 people
-For meat and marinating
- Chicken breast 5 pieces (About 500g)
- Pepper 2 sprinkles
- Ginger powder 2 sprinkles
- Refined rice wine -2 tbsp
-For vegetables
- 4 medium potatoes
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 12 sesame leaves
-For sauce (mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl, except water.)
- Gochujang -2 tbsp
- Chili powder -1/4 tsp
- Soy sauce -1 tbsp
- Sugar -2 tsp
- Corn syrup or sugar cane syrup-2 tsp
- 1 squashed garlic
- 1 dash of sesame oil
- 2 cups of water
Preparation
- Rinse the chicken in cold water and cut it into medium to big pieces.
- Marinate it with pepper, ginger powder and refined rice wine. (for about 15 minutes)
- Rinse the vegetables and peel them as needed.
- Cut the potatoes, carrot and onion into big pieces. (I cut each of them into 4 pieces and 8 for the carrot.)
- Slice the sesame leaves.
Cooking
- Pre heat the wok.
- Put some oil into the wok.
- Put some potatoes and carrots into the wok and stir it for a while.
- Pour the water into the wok.
- Add the chicken and onion, then stir it a bit. Add the sauce.
- Stir. Boil it until everything is cooked.
- When it is ready, add the sesame leaves. Then boil for a very short time.
8. Serve it on the plate.
Most people have this meal with some rice. I recommend you to do the same thing, otherwise it might be too spicy for you. Most people share the food from the same plate and have their rice separate.
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Actually “dori” in Japanese is Street or avenue.
“Tori” is bird.
Dori is how Koreans say Tori.
One of my fondest memories from childhood is when my parents would take me to the countryside in Korea and we’d go to like a chicken farm type place where you could pick out a chicken and they would make you dak dori tang out of it. So delicious.
I’m not too crazy about this recipe though. This dish is meant to be a stew so IMO using dark meat and bones is absolutely necessary. The flavor simply won’t be there if it’s made with boneless breasts.
Also the cooking vessel used should be a stew pot rather than a wok and the whole thing should stew for a good hour to get the yummy chicken flavor going.
Hi Amanda,
I don’t have a recipe for Dakgejang yet, maybe in the future I might make it.
Looking for the recipe for a Korean Soup I cannot find. Is usually served in Japanese/ Korean Restaurants. Not sure of the spelling. “Dak ge Jang”. Thanks Amanda