Easy | Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15 min | Serves: 2–3

Dakgalbi is the kind of dish that makes you wonder why you ever bothered being polite with your seasoning. It’s a Korean street food staple — chunks of chicken thigh stir-fried with vegetables in a gochujang-based sauce that’s sweet, spicy, and slightly smoky. The sauce does all the talking, and it talks loudly. In Korea, this gets cooked on a shared hotplate in the middle of the table. At home, a wide pan and high heat will do the job just fine.

Ingredients

  • 500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and sliced into thin half-moons
  • 1/2 small cabbage, roughly chopped
  • 2 spring onions, cut into 5cm pieces
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil

Sauce:

  • 3 tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
  • 1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) — optional, for extra heat
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice wine or mirin
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • Thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated

To serve:

  • Steamed rice
  • Sesame seeds
  • Sliced spring onion

Method

  1. Mix the sauce Combine the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger in a bowl. Toss the chicken pieces through the sauce and let them sit while you prep the vegetables — or marinate for up to a few hours if you’re thinking ahead.

  2. Start the sweet potato Heat the oil in a wide pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the sweet potato slices first — they take longer than everything else. Cook for 4–5 minutes, turning once, until they start to soften and pick up some colour.

  3. Add the chicken Push the sweet potato to the edges and add the marinated chicken to the centre of the pan. Let it sear for 2–3 minutes without moving it, then stir and cook for another 3–4 minutes until mostly cooked through.

  4. Add the vegetables Throw in the cabbage and spring onions. Toss everything together so the sauce coats it all. Cook for another 3–4 minutes until the cabbage has wilted and the chicken is cooked through. If the sauce gets too thick, add a splash of water.

  5. Serve Pile onto rice. Scatter with sesame seeds and extra spring onion.

Cook With Your Senses

Inspired by Ethan Chlebowski’s sensory approach to cooking — the idea that your senses should tell you more than a timer ever could.

  • Look: The sauce should be a deep, glossy red-orange coating everything in the pan. If it looks dry and matte, add a splash of water to bring the glaze back.
  • Listen: You want a steady sizzle, not a roaring char. The sugars in gochujang burn easily — if you hear aggressive popping, lower the heat slightly.
  • Smell: When the garlic and ginger hit the hot gochujang, the kitchen should smell sweet, spicy, and toasted. That’s the Maillard reaction meeting fermented chilli paste — the flavour centre of this dish.
  • Touch: The sweet potato should be fork-tender but not mushy. The chicken should feel firm but still springy.
  • Taste: It should hit spicy and sweet simultaneously, with a savoury backbone from the soy sauce. If it’s too hot, a squeeze of honey or a spoonful of rice will cool it down on the plate. If it’s flat, add a splash more soy.

Notes

  • Gochujang is the non-negotiable here. It’s a fermented chilli paste with a sweet, funky depth that no combination of other chilli sauces can replicate. Most supermarkets stock it now.
  • Sweet potato isn’t traditional in every version, but it adds a natural sweetness that balances the heat beautifully. Some versions use rice cakes (tteok) instead — use them if you can find them.
  • This is brilliant with melted mozzarella stirred through at the end — that’s the “cheese dakgalbi” variant, and it’s as good as it sounds.
  • Leftovers make outstanding fried rice. Just chop everything smaller and fry it with day-old rice and an egg.

Inspiration

Adapted for Ryan’s kitchen. Original inspiration: maangchi.com