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Ginseng chicken soup

Samgyetang 삼계탕

Ginseng chicken soup (in Korean, Samgyetang) is a hot, steaming, delicious dish that features a small chicken stuffed with rice, ginseng, garlic, and  jujube. You have to commit to eating a whole chicken all by yourself when you sit down for a bowl of samgyetang! But it’s totally worth it.

Koreans traditionally eat this dish during the hottest days of summer as a way to keep up their energy and to balance their body heat with the weather outside. We have a saying: Yi yeol chi yeol (以熱治熱: 이열치열), which means “fight fire with fire.” If it’s hot outside, you have to overcome it with hot soup!

A while ago I ran into one of my readers in a restaurant here in New York. He was sitting at a table with his friend. The first thing he said was: “Oh man, Maangchi!! I can’t believe I ran into you here!” We talked for a while and I asked him what his favorite recipe of mine was. He answered “Samgyetang” and told me how he often made it for himself and his mother. I was very impressed!

Koreans designate the 3 hottest days of a year as sambok (3 bok: 삼복) and their dates vary from year to year but they usually fall in July and August. First is chobok (beginning), and then 10 days later is jungbok (middle), and 20 days after that is malbok (last).

During this time, well-known samgyetang restaurants will be lined up outside, and inside they are full of diners eating hot, steamy, ginseng-infused soup, with sweat trickling down their foreheads as they fight fire with fire! Housewives make samgyetang for all her family, too. I usually prepare samgyetang and cold watermelon. After finishing hot samgyetang, finish with cold watermelon. The contrast makes your body feel shocking cold.

So if you like to follow Korean tradition, you can join them in 2015 on July 13 (chobok), July 23 (jungbok), and August 12 (malbok). Let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients

  • 2 cornish hens. Each hen weighs about 1½ pounds, a nice portion for 1 person.
  • ½ cup short grain rice (or glutinous rice), rinsed and soaked in cold water for 1 hour.
  • 2 fresh ginseng roots, washed
  • 2 large dried jujubes, washed
  • 16 garlic cloves, washed and the tips are removed
  • 2 to 3 green onions, chopped
  • kosher salt
  • ground black pepper

fresh-ginseng (susam: 수삼) cornish-hens

For the sesame dipping sauce:

For  sweet sour soy dipping sauce:

  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon honey (or sugar)
  • ½ a medium size onion, cut into chunks
  • 1 Jalapeno (or green chili pepper), chopped

Directions

Make the dipping sauces:

  1. Combine salt, sesame seeds, ground black pepper, and toasted sesame oil in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside.
    sesame salt dipping
  2. Combine soy sauce, vinegar, and honey (or sugar) in another bowl. Mix well with a spoon. Add onion and jalapeno. Set aside.
    soy-dipping

Cook the chicken:

  1. Strain the rice.
  2. Remove the giblets from the hens and rub them with salt all over to clean them nicely. Rinse under cold running water.
  3. Put the hens on the cutting board, pat dry, and remove any extra fat around the body cavities with kitchen scissors. Cut off the tips of wings if you want.
  4. Stuff each hen with rice, 1 ginseng, 1 jujube, and 8 garlic cloves. Put any leftover rice in the pot.
  5. Place the hens into a heavy pot. Add 8 cups of cold water, cover, and cook over medium high heat for 30 minutes.Samgyetang making (삼계탕)
  6. Turn down the heat to medium and cook another 40 minutes until the chicken, ginseng, and rice turn soft. Open up the pot from time to time and ladle some broth from the bottom over top of the chickens. If the broth evaporates too much, add more water.
  7. Remove from the heat.samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup: 삼계탕)samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup: 삼계탕)

Serve:

  1. Place each hen into 2 individual bowls and add the chicken and broth. Sprinkle with chopped green onion and ground black pepper. Serve with kimchi, the 2 kinds of dipping sauce, and a small bowl of salt on the side for seasoning.
  2. If you serve them in earthenware pots, preheat the pots with a little water inside (about 2 tablespoons) and add the chicken and broth. Let them sit in on the heat until the samgyetang starts to sizzle. Then remove from the heat and sprinkle green onion over top and grind some black pepper. Serve hot with the dipping sauce, kimchi, and a small bowl of salt on the side for seasoning. 

Samgyetang

Posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 9:55 pm. Last updated on August 10, 2021.
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195 Comments:

  1. Donna O Alabama, USA joined 7/22 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 5th, 2022 at 1:07 pm | or create a profile.

    You are adorable, and this looks delicious! But my goodness! Koreans must have fireproof mouths! How do you eat soup that is boiling and not burn your mouth?

  2. @[email protected] Barcelona joined 10/21 & has 2 comments
    Posted October 2nd, 2021 at 8:29 am | or create a profile.

    Te amo Maangchi, Gracias por tu tiempo!! I love you Maangchi, Thank you for your time !!

  3. @[email protected] Barcelona joined 10/21 & has 2 comments
    Posted October 2nd, 2021 at 8:25 am | or create a profile.

    Here in Barcelona, ​​Spain, I can’t find ginseng
    Aqui en Barcelona, España, no encuentro el ginseng.

  4. vtwk2020 MALAYSIA, KUALA LUMPUR joined 11/20 & has 1 comment
    Posted November 1st, 2020 at 4:52 am | or create a profile.

    Thank you Maangchi! Always love your recipe. I tried samgyetang today for lunch and it turns out perfect. I use pre package ginseng bought from K Mart and boiled the chicken for 1.5 hours. The chicken was soft and tender, rice (no soaking) was soft. Our family of 5 love it so much!


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  5. ilovepastry Toronto, Canada joined 5/20 & has 18 comments
    Posted May 16th, 2020 at 3:23 pm | or create a profile.

    Another delicious recipe executed. Thanks Maangchi~
    :)


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  6. Harissa Hudson Valley joined 11/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted April 19th, 2019 at 8:42 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi dearest, no salt in the cooking broth?
    Thank you!

  7. Brown Coco Los Angeles joined 2/19 & has 1 comment
    Posted February 16th, 2019 at 3:27 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi,
    Tried this recipe. Fir some reason the rice would not soften and I cooked my soup for 30 minutes extra. Made sure when was covered in broth…?
    Really liked the dipping sauces.
    Also I wanted to know what I can use Korean vermicelli cut noodles I bought at HMart for?
    Thanks


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    • svangc San Diego joined 3/19 & has 1 comment
      Posted March 13th, 2019 at 1:11 am | or create a profile.

      Have you soaked the glutinous rice for at least an hour? It has to be glutinous!!

    • Dysupes Montreal joined 2/17 & has 3 comments
      Posted May 30th, 2021 at 7:16 pm | or create a profile.

      Those are galguksu noodles so you can make yourself some anchovy broth and then boil those separately and add the two together and bring to a boil and enjoy a simple noodle and broth. However, we like to add pre-boiled chicken torn into strips on top a little sesame oil, sesame seeds, and green onions for Chicken Galguksu. Enjoy!

  8. Dutchgirlme Sierra Nevada Mountains joined 2/19 & has 3 comments
    Posted February 1st, 2019 at 10:47 pm | or create a profile.

    This recipe is so delicious. I added fresh ginger to the mix. It’s was hands down the best Chicken soup we’ve ever had.


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  9. kulumanali Shimla, Himachal Pradesh joined 12/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted December 27th, 2018 at 1:43 am | or create a profile.

    delicious I want this

  10. Koreanfood4me Sierra Nevada Mtns joined 12/18 & has 2 comments
    Posted December 23rd, 2018 at 4:15 pm | or create a profile.

    Need heeeelp now for a dinner on Dec 27, 2018
    We are serving 16 who will have already eaten a lot of appetizers so I want to serve each person 1/2 a hen in their soup bowl.
    Can I
    Precut all the hens in half
    Tie each back together with butcher string and stuff
    After cooking cut the strings and separate the halves
    Thank you

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