Dakdoritang is a one-pot chicken stew perfect for all spicy lovers out there! This will bring you a unique Korean culinary experience and will satisfy your cravings for a bold and spicy kick!
Dakdoritang is one of the dishes that perfectly represents Korean cuisine—masterfully balancing intense spice with subtle sweetness and savory depth. This Spicy Braised Chicken makes use of several Korean pantry staples, but together it creates a unique harmony of flavors, producing a rich, deeply satisfying stew.
While you may need to head down to your local Hmart or Asian grocery store, or even hunt down the ingredients on Amazon, this is a super easy one-pot stew where you literally throw in all the ingredients, let it simmer, and watch as the flavors blend for a deeply hearty meal. Let’s go!
What part of chicken is used in Dakdoritang?
Dakdoritang commonly uses whole chicken cut up into small pieces to make the dish. However, I prefer using only the bone-in thigh and leg part so it remains juicy even after braising. Bone-in is a must because as you boil, more flavor will come out from it. Hmart usually sells this specific cut for this dish, but you can also ask your local butcher if they can prepare it for you. Since this is a prime cut, it might just be a bit pricey.
Ingredient You’ll Need
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- Vegetables – You need potatoes, carrots, onions, scallions, and jalapeños. The potatoes are a natural thickener, the carrots are natural sweeteners, and both of them soak up the sauce nicely. The onion and scallions give amazing flavor and aroma to the dish and the jalapeño are for extra spice, but that’s optional.
- Korean Red Pepper Paste or Gochujang – This is the main source of spice and savor of the dish, it’s a must-have in this recipe.
- Korean Red Pepper Powder or Gochugaru (Coarse & Fine) – I prefer using both coarse and fine gochugaru because the flakes give that extra spice and smokiness while the powder makes it fiery red. But you can simply use the flakes if you don’t have the powder.
- Soy Sauce – Use light or regular soy sauce. This will act as the salt and also add umami to the dish.
- Oyster Sauce – You only need a small amount for a little more bump in umami to the dish.
- Sugar – This will balance out the spice and savor from the pepper paste, pepper powder, and soy sauce.
- Corn Syrup – This is also a sweetener to balance the spice and savor, and it also makes the sauce a bit thicker and more succulent.
- Mirin – This is essentially sweet cooking wine for the contrasting acidity and makes the dish aromatic.
- Sesame Oil – Use toasted sesame oil. We will only use a small amount to complement the spice, sweetness, and umami from all the other ingredients.
How to Make Dakdoritang?
Parboil the chicken for 2 minutes, then drain. Afterward, place the chicken back into the pot, add water again, and bring it to a boil.
Personally, I don’t like washing chicken, but I like to parboil them to remove any dirt and reduce the impurities and chicken stench. No, you’re not throwing out the flavor, because as long as there are bones in the chicken, the flavor will still come out as you braise them. Doing this simply gives you a cleaner taste.
Once it is boiling, get a spoon (this is all you will literally need!) and season the chicken with pepper paste, pepper flakes, pepper powder, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, corn syrup, sugar, mirin, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper. Mix this thoroughly and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables.
Now add the potatoes, carrots, onion, and jalapeño. Let it braise for 25 minutes, mixing occasionally so the chicken doesn’t stick to the bottom and to ensure that the sugar added is not burning. At this point, the flavors from the fat and the bones will come out and make the sauce taste even better. Baste the chicken with all that sauce so that they get absorbed back into the meat.
To know it is done, the chicken and potatoes should be tender and the sauce should have thickened up, literally clinging on to the chicken and not soupy. Make sure you have white rice or multigrain rice, because that’s the perfect pair for this dish!
As a tip, this is a great dish to make ahead because the chicken becomes tastier overtime as it soaks in all that spicy sauce!
Other Korean stews you may like:
- Korean Braised Shortribs
- Korean Braised Oxtail
- Spicy Soondubu Jjigae
- White Soondubu Jjigae
- Gochujang Jjigae
Make sure to leave a rating, a comment, or tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok when you chop them up! Yeobosayo!
Korean Spicy Chicken Stew (Dakdoritang)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Chicken Leg or Thigh Bone-in
- 2 1/2 cups Water
- 1 pc Potato Chopped to bite size
- 60 grams Carrots Chopped to bite size
- 1 pcs Jalapeno Cut in half (Add according to spice tolerance)
- 2 stalks Scallion Cut in 2-3 inch pieces
Dakdoritang Sauce
- 1 1/2 tbsp Korean Red Pepper Flakes or Gochugaru (Coarse)
- 1 1/2 tbsp Korean Red Pepper Powder or Gochugaru (Fine)
- 4 tbsp Korean Red Pepper Paste or Gochujang
- 6 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 tbsp Corn Syrup
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp Garlic
- 1/2 tbsp Ginger
- 1 tbsp Mirin
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1/2 tbsp Sesame Oil
- Black Pepper To taste
Instructions
- In high heat, blanche the chicken for 2 minutes, then drain.
- Place chicken back into the pot and add water. Bring this to a boil.
- Once boiling, season the chicken with pepper flakes, pepper powder, pepper paste, soy sauce, corn syrup, sugar, garlic, ginger, mirin, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and black pepper. Mix this thoroughly and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables.
- Add the potatoes, carrots, onion, and jalapeño. Let it braise on medium-high heat for 25 minutes. Add the scallions in the last 5 minutes.
- Occasionally stir the chicken to prevent sticking on the bottom and the sugar from burning. Baste the sauce in the chicken as well.
- Once the chicken and potatoes are fork-tender and the sauce has thickened, it's done.
- Serve with rice and enjoy!
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Chef Chris, thank you for sharing this Dakdoritang recipe! It sounds so delicious and I’m very excited to try it! I eat a plant-based diet, so I bought everything that I needed to make a vegan version of this recipe. However, I cannot find anything on the level of spiciness of this dish anywhere online. Is Dakdoritang mildly spicy, medium spicy, or melt-your-face-off spicy? Can the level of spice be adjusted? First, I want to make Dakdoritang the authentic way, except I will be using plant-based chicken instead of real chicken. Then, I want to make Dakdoritang where I add more vegetables to it like diced white or yellow onion, diced celery, or whatever. I love cooking everything from scratch, using the freshest organic ingredients. I love a wide variety of vegetables, textures, colors, and flavors. I am not Korean, I am just an adventurous home chef who loves to make delicious dishes from all around the world and I would love to learn more about Korean cuisine. I try to cook every recipe as healthily as possible too. Any suggestions or recommendations for additions or adjustments? Thank you very much!
Whassup Katfish! You can substitute whatever you like in this recipe. As for the spicy level, that’s adjustable too. The more spicy you like it, the more pepper you put in. I don’t have any suggestions as far as the recipe to make it healthier? You could possibly add organic ingredients.
My husband and I tried your recipe the other night and it came out bomb. This is our new go-to dakdoritang recipe. Looking forward to trying out your other recipes!
Ayyy!!! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!!!
Great recipe, really tasty. Easy to put together. Had to adjust the heat. 1st time using the paste and the flake. Very Tasty!
Wow! Thank you!! So happy to hear that you like the pepper paste and pepper flakes even if it’s your first time using it. More recipes on the site using those two ingredients, hope you try them out too!
First time as a 2nd gen half korean making dakdoritang and korean bf approved. Thank you for the easy recipe
I gotchu!!! Yeobosayo!!!