Today’s recipe is jjimdak, a braised chicken with vegetables dish that originated in Andong, Korea. It’s a colorful and flavorful dish made with chicken, a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, and glass noodles. It’s perfect for enjoying with friends and family. Sometimes you hear “jjimdak” called “dakjjim” in English and that’s because dak (닭) means chicken and jjim (찜) is a cooking term in Korean that means braise or steam.
I first posted this recipe 13 years ago and it was a big hit on my website and YouTube. It’s a really delicious dish! Then I visited Korea a few years ago and I went to city of Andong to taste their real authentic Andong jjimdak that I had heard so much about. Now, I’m updating my original recipe to a more faithful Andong-style version with more detailed measurements that are better laid out.
One thing I learned is that the real Andong jjimdak is a little darker. I’m going to achieve this by adding chunjang which is black bean paste normally used for making jjajangmyeon.
I may have changed some details here and there but the result is the same: a delicious, irresistible dish that almost everyone loves!
Ingredients for 4 servings
- 2 pounds chicken thighs (or chicken breast), cut into 2 inch pieces
- 3 ½ ounces (100 grams) of glass noodles (starch noodles)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ plus ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
For sauce:
- 12 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons peeled ginger, minced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
- ¼ cup rice syrup (corn syrup or sugar)
- 1 tablespoon chunjang (black bean paste)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
Vegetables
- ½ large green onion (or 3 to 4 regular green onions)
- 2 medium potatoes (8 ounces), peeled and cut into ½ inch thick chunks
- 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
- 7 to 8 white mushroom (or any mushrooms), cut into chunks
- 2 small carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into ¼ inch thick
- 2 green chili peppers, stems removed and cut into ½ inch pieces
- 1 red chili pepper (optional), stems removed and cut into ½ inch pieces
- ⅓ of English seedless cucumber (about 2 ounces), sliced diagonally ¼ inch thick
- 7 to 8 small dried red chili peppers, stems removed
Directions
Prepare noodles, onion, and chicken
- Soak the noodles in cold water in a bowl for at least 40 minutes until softened.
- Shred the large onion (daepa) into 3 to 4 inch thin strips and soak in cold water in a bowl. Set aside.
- Combine the chicken, salt, and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper in a large bowl mix together. Set aside.
Make sauce:
- Combine garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice syrup, and chunjang in a medium bowl and mix well.
- Set aside.
Time to cook!
- Place the potatoes, onion, mushrooms, carrots, green chili peppers, red chili pepper (if used), cucumber, and dried red pepper on a large platter or tray.
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a large wok or a frying pan and add the dried red peppers. Stir them gently with tongs for about 20 seconds until the oil is fragrant and the peppers turn a little light brown. Remove the peppers with tongs and put them in a small bowl.
- Add the chicken carefully with the tongs to the hot oil. Heat up to medium high heat. Cook the chicken for about 3 minutes, moving around the chicken with a wooden spoon to prevent the chicken from sticking to the pan.
- Turn the chicken over and allow it to be cooked another 3 minutes until the both sides are opaque and light brown.
- Add the sauce, 2 cups of water, potato, and onion. Stir them a few times. Cover and cook for 10 minutes over medium high heat.
- Drain the noodles and add to the pan along with the carrot, mushroom, green chili pepper, and dried red pepper. Stir all them with the wooden spoon for about 5 minutes until the noodles turn transparent and nicely cooked. If the broth is boiled down, add just a little bit of water (about ½ cup) and turn down the heat to medium.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the cucumber, and red chili pepper (if used), sesame oil, and the remainder of the ½ teaspoon ground black pepper.
Serve:
You can place the jjimdak in the pan directly on the table or transfer it to a large platter before serving. Drain the shredded green onions and garnish them on the center of the pan or platter. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve right away.
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Dear Maangchi,
My husband and I don’t eat potatoes, what could we use to replace it and not affect the flavor of this dish? Thank you so much!
Jen
I think some sliced lotus root would be tasty! It would probably not add the same amount of starchy richness, but lotus root is always good in soups and stews.
My version
Yummy yummy!
Is this recipe spicy? Would it not be good if I took out all peppers in the recipe for the kids?
Yes, of course you can skip all peppers for your children. Good luck!
Hi maangchi~♡
I always love your recipes and it always turned out delicious as well~!!! So my auntie suddenly want to eat spicy jjimdak so I made it through your recipe with some self modification, I add some chilli powder ( 고춧가루 ) and more chillies (청양고추) in it… turned out very nice!!!! Thank you for always sharing nice food recipes!!!
Came out so Delicious! Thank you !! I will be using this recipe for a lifetime.
Hello,
Is there any difference between this recipe and the Daegu 찜닭?
i really loved the chicken from there since you said there are different styles of it.
Thank you in advance
Really love this recipe Maangchi! Made it quite often already just like many of your recipes. I just wanted to point out that this recipe doesn’t state how much garlic and ginger is used. At some point we just have to add it, which can be confusing for some. I just looked at rhe picture and always use a lot of garlic and it always turns out delicious!!
Thank you for inspiring us!
Kind regards,
알토
Hi Maangchi,
i do not have any of the rice or corn syrup, can i replace it with honey instead?
Honey sounds good! You can also use sugar.
I’ve tried using maple syrup and it turns up to be delicious too! my family love it so much but too bad that I’ve forgotten to take down a photo of it.
Hi Maangchi!!
Thank you so much for your recipes, they’re always delicious and I have a lot of fun watching your videos!!! My mum really likes dangmyeon, so I made this recipe for my family today. It was really tasty and they enjoyed it a lot!! I’ve attached a picture below – it’s not as pretty as yours, though ^^
Thank you again for your wonderful recipes and energy!! I hope you’re staying healthy at the moment!
Sasha
Yes, it looks colorful, juicy, and tasty! No wonder your family loved it! Happy cooking!
Hello, I like all your recipes. Today I triedn the 닭찜, we enjoyed with bread and white rice. I believe that next time will came soon. 감사합니다.
Wow it looks like mine! The shredded green onions make it look so special! Good luck with your Korean cooking.
Such a lovely chicken flavor, so delicious! Made for my husband and he loves it. Already asking for it again and we have leftovers! Thanks for making these dishes accessible and bringing this flavor to my house.
Hi Maangchi,
I made this today for lunch. It is so so so good. I forgotten to add in the sesame seed in my pic. My gravy was absorb by the starch noodle. Do you think I can omit the noodle?
Can I add gochujang instead of red chili peppers and red peppers? Because I have really big container of gochujang and its date of use will end soon and I try to add gochujang to every recipe And how much gochujang paste should I use?
Omg Maangchi! This dish is the very, very best thing I have cooked from your recipes thus far. I had no idea as to what kind of taste to expect (all I could think was spicy) but I’ll tell you what, I almost cried when I tasted my finished dish! It was such taste explosion in my mouth! I was so happy and proud of myself. Lol!!! I mistakenly didn’t but the”glass” noodles but the ones I did but were good also. I never go wrong with any of your recipes. Thank you so much! And thanks to my 15 year old for suggesting a Korean chicken dish tonight. :-) :-)
Thank you for sharing your story and the photo with me and my other readers! I hope your homemade KFC makes your 15 year old happy tonight! : )
Dear Maangchi,
When do we add the prepared sauce? Is it in step 9 of the procedure?
Thanks!
Check out step 7 in the recipe here https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/dakjjim
“Add the potato chunks, the sauce, and 2½-3 cups of water. Cook for 10 minutes over high heat with the lid closed.”
Good luck with making delicious dakjjim!
Whoops….i missed step 7.
Thank you for pointing it out to me.
Will prepare Dakjjim! ☺☺☺
20 years of Korean cooking and I made this for the first time tonight. It was a big hit with my Hanoi student, my Shanghai student and my own nephew. I’ll definitely make this again. Thank you for the great recipe.
can i substitute the rice syrup or corn syrup for regular white sugar?
Hi Maangchi!
Good day to you…^^ I would like to thank you for sharing this recipe. I made this dish today. It’s a success! I will try to cook it again next time and share it with my cousins. They really like Korean food. Thank you again.
This is so delicious! As soon as I saw the recipe I had to try it. I will definitely be making it again. :)
My roommate is allergic to meat and potatoes, so I also made a version where I skipped straight the part where you add carrot and onion, and boiled them in the water and sauce with garlic. I put in some extra vegetables to replace the chicken, used extra soy sauce instead of oyster sauce, and used rice noodles instead of dangmyeon. She loved it!
Hi Maangchi, I love your website! I have been using it for over a year to cook for my Korean wife and she is very impressed. I have made your recipes for kimchi, kakduki, oi kimchi, kamjatang, miyeokguk, tteokboki, japchae, kimchijeon… on and on and on, i follow recipes closely, and it’s always a success. However, I keep making this dakjim and it doesn’t work. (my wife is not so impressed… oh no!). I was in Andong last summer and the dish was very saucy, and when I follow your recipe, it comes out dry. I put more water the last time, but still the sauce was not rich and spicy. Are you sure this is Andong-style? It tastes very Chinese style (cucumber & oyster sauce). Thanks for all the great work! You’ve helped us out a lot!
maangchi, i want to make this dish, but i cant find corn syrup or rice syrup anywhere. is there a substitute? or just cook it without sirup?
Yes, cook it without syrup. Add a little bit of sugar according to your taste. Good luck with making delicious dakjjim!