Korean Dak Kalbi
I worked for my folks for a little while during the late 90’s. Their travel agency is in Manhattan. So everyday, I’d make the hour trek into NYC with them all the while being tortured by either classical music, opera or korean broadcasting. At the time, I needed loud pop music to wake up. Anyway, as I was working for them, my mom & I would go out to lunch everyday. She’d take me to all these cool korean restaurants and sometimes we’d go shopping for clothes. (I was in need of work clothes.) One day she decided to take me to a place that specialized in dak kalbi. “Dak” means chicken and “kalbi” means grilled. (The word “kalbi” alone usually refers to a beef rib meat dish.) I saw one recipe that used dark meat chicken and I think that’s the usual way to have it. That day was the first time I’d ever heard of dak kalbi. I imagined that it would come in a soy based sauce and wondered how it would taste. I was imagining the marinade from kalbi (or bulgoki that uses the same marinade.) But it wasn’t. Read on to see how I prepared it.
First off, I used boneless chicken breasts (white meat) because you know who doesn’t like dark meat. I like it but seldom eat because of that. I sliced the chicken into thin strips on an angle. The marinade consisted of brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic (minced), grated onion, chili powder (the recipe did not specify the type of chili powder and I was a little hesitant to use the usual chili powder for like chili but I did), and something called gochujang.
Yes, it’s hard to pronounce but so good. In english, it can be referred to as korean hot pepper paste. It usually comes in wide-mouthed glass jars and has a deep red color. It’s a thick paste almost like a tomato paste but it’s got a kick to it. It’s not severe, but there’s definitely some spice going on. The jars can get quite large because Koreans use a lot of it. We used to have huge jars of it at home as well as those big metal box cans of sesame oil.
korean dak kalbi
So for the dak kalbi, I simply tossed the chicken pieces in the marinade and let it sit in the ‘fridge for a few hours. I thought it looked good marinating and took a pic but Steve didn’t think it looked all that great so I omitted the pic. This dish is low in fat. You can tell by the ingredients. There was no oil, no butter, no fat. To cook, you can throw it under a broiler or do the pan frying thing. I chose to pan fry because I didn’t trust my broiling skills with thin pieces of meat. I feared that I’d overcook it. So, I used a little vegetable oil and sauteed the chicken up. It smelled so good while it was cooking. I served it with japanese rice and zucchini (frozen) that I’d sauteed in butter and oil with onions, crushed sesame seeds (we had it on hand. I had no idea it was there.) Oh and of course salt & freshly ground black pepper. It wasn’t a korean dish, but just something I made up. I was having a lot of trouble deciding on what to serve with the dak kalbi. I chose zucchini because it’s neutral in flavor and I wanted something a little bland because the chicken was so flavorful.
I wasn’t sure if Steve would like it, but he did. He said it was very good and had seconds of it several hours later. The chicken was tender and the marinde completely penetrated the meat. The rice came out perfect and the zucchini complimented the meal nicely. I loved it. I was so psyched that I found a good recipe for it. The only part that sucked was the chicken cutting part (because I have issues with raw poultry) and grating the onion part. It would get all liquidy and messy and it killed my eyes. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and I later had a nice meal. It was totally worth it.
Okay guys, hope you had a nice weekend. As always, Eat Something Good!