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
Jun 23rd
May 24th
Apr 20th
can i not put in the hot pepper flakes??
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 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
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.
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 ! 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!
See full size image
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 ?
I am a U.S. service member who has lived in Korea for almost 2 years. Just discovered Dakgalbi a few months ago and my wife and I have tried to replicate our favorite restaurant in Pyeongtaek city. When I made this recipe tonight, it was very very close. much closer than any other recipe we’ve ever done. thank you for sharing. It was delicious.
I made this yesterday after a Korean friend recommended the dish. It was gorgeous! Thanks for a great blog. The video really helped me cut up the drumsticks as I’ve never done that before.
I had two problems. My local grocery stores don’t have perilla leaves.
Also instead of hit pepper flakes I bought a packet of dried red chillis that we’re way hotter. Even though I used a 1/3 of the amount they still made the dish a bit painful! :)
It sounds like you made great dakgalbi! If perilla leaves are not available, you could use some minty herbs like parsley or bay leaves. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
This was easy and delicious! Perilla leaves were not easily available, so I improvised. I was looking for something green, so I decided on broccoli florets. Can’t wait to make this again.
If you’re into growing things, you can buy the perilla/shiso/beefsteak/kennip (all the same plant) seeds on Amazon. You can also buy them at Japanese grocery stores, and in many health food stores. I recommend trying to get them because their taste is very distinct and definitely adds a huge impact to this dish!
I made this tonight and it is so good! I was worried because I don’t have a shallow pan like that, so I made it in a big pot. It turned out great and I can’t wait to finish it so I can make kimchi bokkeumbap!
yay, congratulations! From now on, it will be easier for you to make delcious dakgalbi because you already made it once!
Hi Maangchi”
Can’t wait to cook this…but first may I ask…if I lessen the pepper paste or pepper flakes wouldn’t it affect the yumminess? I have friends who can’t take too spicy so it’s for their sake! And what would you recommend to lessen…pepper flakes or paste? Thank you,
It will still be tasty even though you use less hot pepper flakes.
hihi, we just made the recipe and it was so good. Thank you so much. But instead of rice we actually used ramen noodles. The original dish came out nice, but ramen noodles were soft and not “fried/crunchy” like they do it korea at “bok-em” places. Would you by any chance know how to do that?
Happy Holidays
Whoa! That was so good. And so easy. After shoveling a bunch of snow and playing in the cold, this is an excellent meal to share with friends and family. Thank you!
One day I’ll have to make it! It looks so good… so delicious. Till then – all the best for the soon coming Winter Hollidays and may you have a Wonderful Christmas and A Happy New Year!!
I’m listening to Christmas carol at the moment. Thank you for your nice message!
Hi Maangchi! Greetings from Ottawa! New intro looks great & this dish looks delicious! I bet this would work for pork or veal as well. Now all I have to do is find some perilla leaves!
Keep up the good work :)
aww! Thanks a lot! “this would work for pork or veal as well.” It sounds wonderful!
Maangchi ….Love the dish !!! and I love the new Intro too
: ) thank you!!!
I make it Chuncheon style with some curry powder mixed in. :)
Curry powder sounds good to me! Yum!
thank you so much. i have been looking forward to this. All week I have been craving 닭갈비
Great great!
Hi Maangchi, you posted a really beautiful recipe which I’m going to try soon.
Btw I love the new intro with “Live Maangchi chopping and holding knife & fish” and also your expression of enjoyment while eating bokkeumbap is priceless ;-)
Keep up the excellent work
Love from Italy
Andrea
Andrea,
Thank you so much! I am very happy to hear that you love my new live intro! I tried to follow my animation very closely. It was lots of fun when I filmed the scenes. : )
My son loves 닭갈비! We usually have to find a 놀부 when we’re in Korea (Seoul). Haven’t made it in a while, so I guess it’s time. I will try your recipe and see how he likes it. :)
Let me know how yours turns out!
Wow, looks so good!!
Let me know if you make it. : )