Spicy Chicken & Vegetable Stew (Dak doritang in Korean?)

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

dak doritang ingredients

-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

dak doritang ingredients after cutting
  1. Rinse the chicken in cold water and cut it into medium to big pieces.
  2. Marinate it with pepper, ginger powder and refined rice wine. (for about 15 minutes)
  3. Rinse the vegetables and peel them as needed.
  4. Cut the potatoes, carrot and onion into big pieces. (I cut each of them into 4 pieces and 8 for the carrot.)
  5. Slice the sesame leaves.


Cooking
dak doritang cooking process1

  1. Pre heat the wok.
  2. Put some oil into the wok.
  3. Put some potatoes and carrots into the wok and stir it for a while.
  4. Pour the water into the wok.
  5. Add the chicken and onion, then stir it a bit. Add the sauce.
  6. Stir. Boil it until everything is cooked.
  7. When it is ready, add the sesame leaves. Then boil for a very short time.
dak doritang cooking process2

8. Serve it on the plate.

dak doritang 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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Sesame leaves

Sesame leaves’ Korean name is “kkaenip”, some say “Ggaenip”.

This is a picture of sesame leaves. You can use these for making wraps with meat or as a cooking ingredient.

Sesame leaves

At the supermarket, you can get 3 bunches of these (picture below) for 1000 won. (US $1.05)

Sesame leaves bunch

I like them because they give a unique smell and taste.

Stainless wok

I finally bought a stainless wok and frying pan. Yea~ for me.

I’ve been longing to have one for ages and ages and I finally found good ones at Homeplus today. They didn’t have these 2 weeks ago when I checked.

This is a picture of the wok and pan I bought.

  • Top – price for the wok (26cm): 28,900 won (US $30.50)
  • Bottom – price for the pan (28cm): 27,900 won (US $29.40)

Made by “Hanil stainless” -Korean company

Before these, I was using a Tefal wok and pan. At that time I didn’t know anything about good woks and pans. I was very careful not to scratch the Tefal one. But the coat started to scratch off after using it for about 8 month, and it got worse every day. I visited all the kitchenware shops in this town, but I couldn’t find a stainless wok or pan anywhere. (I tried to find some on the internet, but they were very expensive, because they were imported from the German company Schulte-Ufer.) Is it well known company?

Anyhow I am so excited to cook from tomorrow.

Royal Rice Cake (Gungjung Ddeokbbokki in Korean)

You might be surprised to hear that ddeokbokki originated from the royal palace in the Chosun dynasty. At that time they used soy sauce instead of gochujang paste, and the King had this Gungjung Ddeokbokki on New Years day. Gungjung means “palace” in English.

This meal is supposed to include some kind of meat, mostly beef (or pork), but as you know the price of beef in Korea is ridiculously expensive. (About 3000 won per 100g for Korean beef which is about US $3.20) So I didn’t use any meat, but if you can afford it, you are welcome to add it. Without the meat, this meal was still filling enough for 2 people.

However, I will cook this meal with some meat some other time, so do check the update in the future.

Ingredients for 2 people are

(Expected preparation time :5 minutes, Cooking time : 7 minutes)

ingredients for royal rice cake

  • Rice cake (About 20 pieces, 300g)
  • 1/2 a carrot
  • 1/2 an onion
  • 4 button mushrooms
  • 5 shiitake mushrooms (Pyogo beosot in Korean)
  • 1/4 red and 1/4 yellow capsicums (I forgot to take a picture of them, sorry.)
  • 1 stalk of big spring onionseasoning sauce for royal rice cake

-Seasoning Sauce (Mix these well in a bowl.)

  • Sugar – 1tsp
  • Soy sauce – 4 tsp
  • 1 minced garlic
  • 1 dash of sesame oil

-Preparation

  1. Wash all the vegetables, and thin slice them.
  2. If the rice cake is hard, parboil the rice cake. Or just run them under hot tap water for one minute.

ingredients for royal rice cake after cutting

-Cookingcooking process of the royal rice cake

1. Pre heat the wok for about 20 seconds.

2. Pour some olive oil into the wok.

3. Put the onion into the wok. Stir it.

4. Add the carrot and stir it until 80 % of the carrot cooks.

5. Add all the other ingredients. Stir it until it cooks.

6. Serve it on the plate.

royal rice cake on the plate

By the way, I add one green chili for extra taste as you can see on the very first picture, but it was quite spicy. It stung my lips for a while. I liked it though, I don’t think you should add any chili in this meal, for your benefit. (Without a chili, it still tastes good. It is not spicy at all.) That is why it is not listed in the ingredients section.

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Sugar High, Stir Fried Rice Cake and Noodles (Rabokki in Korean)

Stir Fried Rice cake with Gochujang Sauce (Ddeokbokki in Korean)

What Rice Cake, for Cooking, Looks Like

Shiitake mushroom

Shiitake mushroom’s korean name is “Pyogo beosut”.
This is a picture of some shiitake mushrooms. Usually they are 1200-1500 won per 100g. (US $1.30-60)

Shiitake mushroom2.jpg

You can fine more about shiitake mushrooms from Wikipedia, or from Hormel foods

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