Chicken gimbap

Today I’m going to share my chicken gimbap recipe with you! It’s very easy to make, great for lunchboxes and picnics.

Korean gimbap (seaweed rice rolls) can be as simple as some rice (bap in Korean) rolled and pressed in a sheet of dried seaweed (called gim in Korean), but usually the typical gimbap includes colorful vegetables and meat, like my classic gimbap recipe.

This gimbap today is very simple, it’s made with only 2 fillings: crispy pan-fried chicken and yellow pickled radish (danmuji). It’s a great taste combination because the chicken is a little salty, sweet and crispy and the danmuji is sweet and sour with a crispy texture.

This recipe was inspired by my dentist’s son. My dentist in New York is Korean-American and also likes to watch my videos. She told me her son loves her gimbap, but he only loves the gimbap made with 1 filling,  bulgogi, which is just meat and rice, a very simple combination. It got me thinking about ways to simplify gimbap and I came up with this recipe. Even though it’s simple, it should be delicious. I’ve been making it for 2 years now and I love the taste!

My final and most recent experiment to create a better taste was to adjust the amount of soy sauce. I started 2 teaspoons and had to increased to 3, but eventually 4 teaspoons of soy sauce for 1 pound of chicken turned out perfect. 1 teaspoon more soy sauce is a really big deal!

If you don’t want to have chicken, you could use beef, and if you don’t have danmuji you can make some from my recipe, or use cucumber as a substitute. Slice the cucumber into strips lengthwise, then add salt, sugar, and vinegar and let sit a bit. Then squeeze out the excess water and use it in your gimbap! It will be a good replacement.

Ingredients

Makes 4 rolls and serves 2

• 1 pound chicken tenderloin (or chicken breast, chicken thigh, beef tenderloin), cut into  ⅓ to ½ inch thick strips
• ¼ cup whole milk
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons honey (or sugar)
• ¼ teaspoon ground white (or black) pepper
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup bread crumbs (ppang-garu)
• ½ cup cooking oil (vegetable oil, corn oil, or grapeseed oil)
• 4 sheet of gim (seaweed paper), toasted
• 12 pre-cut danmuji (yellow pickled radish) strips  If it’s a whole danmuji, cut into long and thin strips.
• 3 cups cooked rice (made with a little more than 1 cup uncooked rice)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 plus ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Marinate chicken & prepare the rice

1. Combine the chicken and milk in a bowl and mix well by hand. Let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put 3 cups of freshly made warm rice into a wide, shallow bowl. Sprinkle the salt and 1 teaspoon sesame oil over top. Gently fold it in with a rice scoop or a wooden spoon. Let the rice cool down until it’s no longer steaming. Set aside.

Pan-fry the chicken

1. Place the bread crumbs on a large plate or tray.
2. Slightly squeeze out any excess milk from the marinated chicken. Add garlic, soy sauce, honey, ground white or black pepper, and the flour.
3. Mix it by hand to season it evenly.
4. Take a chicken piece with your hand and put it on the bread crumbs on the plate to coat. Repeat with the rest of the chicken and the bread crumbs, leaving gaps between the pieces of chicken.
5. Heat up the ½ cup cooking oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Test the temperature by dipping a tip of a chicken piece into the oil. If it bubbles, it’s ready. Place the chicken pieces, one at a time, working in batches to avoid overcrowding.
6. Cook the chicken for 6 to 7 minutes. Keep flipping them over with tongs and control the heat so it doesn’t get too high and burn the chicken.
7. The finished chicken should be crunchy, golden brown, and cooked all the way through.

Roll and cut the gimbap

1. Divide the rice into 4 portions. Place a sheet of gim on a bamboo gimbap mat, with the shiny side down and the wider end of the gim towards you.
2. Evenly spread 1 portion of rice over the gim, leaving a 1-inch margin uncovered along the top edge.
3. Divide the chicken and danmuji strips into 4 portions. Put a portion of chicken and danmuji in a horizontal row on top of the rice, with the rows slightly overlapping.
4. Use both hands to pick up the bottom edge of the mat and use it to roll the gim up and over the fillings so the rice surrounds them.
5. Squeeze the mat gently and then continue rolling up the gim in the mat, squeezing the mat regularly to get a tight roll.
6. Unroll the mat and remove the roll from the mat. Set the roll aside, with the seam down.
7. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 3 more rolls.
8. Gently brush the rest of the ½ teaspoon sesame oil over the rolls by hand or with a bashing brush.
9. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over top.
10. Cut each roll into ⅓ to ½-inch slices. For easier slicing, wipe your knife with a wet towel as you go.

Serve

1. Arrange the slices on a plate or pack in a lunchbox. The gimbap will keep for several hours at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.

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