DakDoriTang - Korean Simmered Chicken Stew

The hardest part about cooking a foreign cuisine is when you don't know what it's suppose to actually taste like. The other night, I decided to put together a Korean meal (heavily inspired by Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations). I looked up a few recipes for dakdoritang, a chicken stew with potatoes and carrots made with gochu jang, or hot pepper paste, and decided to try making it myself, even though I've never had it before. 

DakDoriTang

4lb chicken (I couldn't find a food whole chicken, so I did a combination of wings and drumsticks.)

5-6 cloves of garlic

2-3 shallots

1 onion 

1 hot pepper

2-3 potatoes

2 carrots

5 tablespoons gochujang

1/2-3/4 can chicken broth 

Sesame oil

First, the marinade. After cutting up all the wings, I marinated it in a mixture of a clove of garlic, half a hot pepper, and 2 tablespoons of gochu jang for about 6 hours. I would have done it overnight if I had more time. 

Then chop up the onion, shallots, and the rest of the garlic and chili pepper. In a heated pot, stir fry these ingredients with about 3 tablespoons of oil on high heat. 

Once browned, add the chicken and mix for about 5-7 minutes. Then pour in the chicken broth and let it simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes (make sure the cover is on)

During that time, prepare the vegetables! Skin the carrots and potatoes and chop them into chunks for the stew.


Place them into the stew and mix in with the chicken. Let it simmer for another 15-20 minutes. 

I actually let the cooked stew sit overnight in the refrigerator so that the flavor would seep in even more to the meat. I then reheated it in time for the dinner party. And according to the Koreans at the dinner, it tasted like how it was supposed to taste!