Dakgalbi is a delicious, spicy grilled chicken dish that’s a popular choice for friends who are getting together to go out to eat. It’s a natively communal dish that’s always shared among a small, intimate group of people, so it naturally stimulates conversation and a good time. It’s pretty much impossible to eat dakgalbi in silence!
When you go to a restaurant with your friends and family and order dakgalbi, they’ll bring out a large skillet filled with the dakgalbi ingredients as well as some side dishes. While the skillet cooks on the tabletop, you and your friends can munch on side dishes and talk, and maybe order some drinks, too. The dakgalbi will cook nicely and the waitress will tell you: “Now you can eat!”
When you’re almost completely finished, you can ask the waitress: “We’d like some stir-fried rice please.” She’ll bring out some rice, mix it with the leavings in the skillet, and quickly fry up some spicy, stir fried rice. She might divide the rice into portions and serve it to everyone at the table, or she might just leave it in the pan and let everyone dig in. For many people I know, this is their favorite part!
Don’t have a dakgalbi restaurant near you? Now you can make it at home! Invite your family and friends over, and prepare all the ingredients.
“Are you guys ready to eat dakgalbi?” you can ask.
“Yes, yes!”
Bring out the pan filled with lots of vegetables, chicken, and the sauce, and cook it at the table. Your house will be full of an irresistible, delicious aroma, laughter, and conversation, I guarantee!
Enjoy the recipe! Let me know your dakgalbi stories: how you prepared it, how you modified the recipe, how many guests came over, and how much they loved loved loved it : ). I’m really interested in your stories, so tell me in the comments or upload a photo and tell me there.
Ingredients
Directions
- Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and put them into a bowl. Mix with 1 tablespoon soy sauce and ground black pepper by hand or a spoon. Set aside.
- Prepare the sauce by combining garlic, ginger, hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and cooking wine in a bowl. Mix it well with a spoon. If you use a food processor, blend it until creamy for about 1 minute.
- Prepare a large, shallow, and wide pan or a grill for the dakgalbi. Spread the cabbage on the bottom of the pan. Add the onion, green chili pepper, carrot, rice cake, and sweet potato.
- Add the perilla leaves on top. You can cut them a few times or place the leaves whole. The leaves will shrink when cooked, so don’t be afraid to be generous!
- Put the marinated chicken in the center of the pan, on top of the vegetables. Put the sauce on top.
- Cover and cook over medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon so the pan doesn’t burn and the ingredients and sauce mix evenly.
- Lower the heat to medium and cover. Cook for another 20 minutes, or until it’s done. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Now you can eat. The cabbage will cook first, followed by the rice cake, chicken, and sweet potato, so eat in that order. Keep the heat low during the meal. Cook, stir, eat, and talk. The pieces will be hot, so be careful! If the dakgalbi becomes totally cooked, turn off the heat.
- When it’s almost totally finished, add some rice and chopped kimchi to what’s left on the grill and stir with a wooden spoon over medium heat for a few minutes. Serve in separate bowls, or give everyone a spoon and let them eat from the pan together.
Posted Friday, November 15th, 2013 at 11:20 am.
Tagged: chicken recipes, dak kalbi recipe, dakgalbi, dakgalbi recipe, dakgalbi video, 닭갈비 만드는법, 닭갈비 조리법, garlic ginger chicken, 춘천 닭갈비, Korean chicken, korean food, Korean recipes, Korean spicy chicken, Maangchi's recipes, spicy chicken sauce, spicy grilled chicken, spicy grilled chicken and vegetables
Aug 15th
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Jul 26th
can i not put in the hot pepper flakes??
Hi Maangchi!
This looks so good. Inquisitive minds are wondering if you’re able to disclose which DakGalbi place was your fav in Toronto. :)
Thx.
M.
It’s “Joon” restaurant located on 605 Bloor Street West,Toronto but I’m not sure if they are still open.
hello dear maangchi we love korean food almost everyday i made korean dishes.but i have real problem in finding some korean ingrediants in israel. for example perilla leaves is impossible to find here, may be i can use a substitute? i enjoy your videos it is easy to learn from you thanks alot
zipi
It looks like I’m the only one here who thought this was too spicy!
I loved this recipe. Thank you so much! But next time I will only use 1/4 cup hot pepper flakes. I will have a hard time finishing this! hahahaha
I’m not sure if it’s just because I’ve been outside of Korea for about 7 months or if it’s just a really spicy recipe. I used to eat the normal 닭갈비 at 유가네 all the time in Seoul and it was never too spicy. I almost can’t eat this. It tastes amazing, but it’s way too spicy.
It could be the hot pepper paste or flakes since there are different levels of heat for either. If it were me, I’d leave out the flakes instead of the paste because there’s seasoning in the paste. just my opinion.
Hello! Thanks for the great post. We really love Dakgalbi and planning to serve this dish in our next gathering. May we know how to make the sauce for more people? The above should be for 2 persons? What if we have 20 guests coming over? Do we times the above recipe with 20? Please advise and thanks
Hello ! Maangchi!! I just registered and I couldn’t wait to leave a reply here! :D
Oh my goodness, I used to live in Chuncheon! And I remember dakgalbi – yum, and naengmyun, mmm!
That sounds good too :) everything sounds good
Here
Lol
I made this for dinner tonight. WOW! It was really good! Spicy spicy! Luckily, we like spicy food and this hit all the right notes for me. I used boneless chicken thighs since that was what I had in the fridge and it came together really well. I love that it has so many veggies in it. Thanks for another winning recipe, Maangchi!
Made this for the first time last week and it was amazing! The flavour is so authentic. Really delicious and easy to make!
Maangchi I love your blogs and your recipes (and my fiancé thanks too!). Also your instructional videos are fantastic. So fun to watch because you’re so cute and charming!
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I stayed in chuncheon for a few months and this is my favourite dish!!
Yes, the city of Chuncheon is famous for dakgalbi in Korea. When you made this dish, you probably had good memories.
I taught in Korea 12 years ago and I love this dish so much! I tried to make it once but it turned out very badly. Tonight I made this recipe.
THANK-YOU SO MUCH!
It was so delicious and just like what I had in restaurants in Daejon. I am so happy to know how to cook this and my husband loved it too!
I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! You lived in Korea for 12 years! No wonder you want to make Korean dishes at home! Happy cooking!
Hi Maangchi! i can’t wait to make this dakgalbi ! thank you for the recipe and i’m sure when i make it it will be very delicious because i really like spicy food but i don’t have perilla leaves what can i do please?? and then can i put normal potatoes offset sweet potatoes because in my town it’s rare to find it ?