Recipe: Cheesy Dak-galbi with Somaek
A spicy and savory one pan meal that pairs perfectly with ice cold beer and soju
Dig into a bubbling pan of tender chicken and vegetables, seasoned with pungent garlic and ginger. Chili paste and powder layer on the flavor and introduce a nice kick. Sweet juices from onion, cabbage, sweet potato, carrot, and rice syrup thicken into a shiny sauce, coating every bite in a spicy and sweet glaze. With every dip into the rich and stringy mozzarella, you temper the spice, and carve your path forward through the meal. Ice cold beer mixed with soju cuts through all of that spice and washes it down. This one-pan dish is easy to prepare, and demonstrates how to balance spiciness with a naturally sweet sauce and rich mozzarella.
Vegan and vegetarian eaters can replace chicken thighs with firm tofu/tempeh and mushrooms, or omit it. A replacement with a meaty texture and a lot of body will help fill out this dish and provide textural contrast to the vegetables.
This recipe was originally developed by Emily Kim, better known as Maangchi. She’s a popular YouTuber and author who creates a lot of well-tested and high quality recipes. I’ve adapted this recipe a bit to flesh out the directions she gives, and to modify some steps for my preference. Maangchi is far more knowledgeable than me on Korean cooking, and I’d highly recommend exploring her content if you want to dive more into Korean cooking. In my head, it makes more sense to listen to the pros, and expand a bit on the directions, whys, and hows of the dish. Based on how this recipe and cooking session goes, I’ll continue to iterate on and break down other chef’s recipes in combination with my own.
Learn more about the inspiration for this dish and the story behind it: Drinking Games, and a Pan of Cheesy, Bubbly Goodness
Learn more about why and how this dish works: Notes on Cheesy Dak-galbi with Somaek
Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Yield: Serves three
Ingredients:
For the chicken and marinade:
1 pound chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
black pepper
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp milk (optional)
For the seasoning sauce:
12 garlic cloves
½ inch of ginger
2 Tbsp soy sauce
½ cup chicken stock (or water)
1 Tbsp rice syrup (or corn syrup, or sugar)
2 Tbsp gochujang (Recommended, but if you can’t source it, just make sure to add another tablespoon of rice/corn syrup or sugar)
black pepper
Other ingredients:
1 cup sliced rice cake
½ cabbage
½ of large onion
2 green onions
1 small carrot
1 or 2 green chili peppers (Korean green chili peppers are preferred, but Anaheim is comparable in terms of spice. Jalapeño also works, but will be spicier.)
1 sweet potato (whichever kind you prefer)
½ cup chicken stock (or water)
12 perilla leaves (or basil leaves), cut or ton a few times (optional but recommended)
4 ounces of mozzarella (get the brick, not the fresh kind)
1 bowl of rice (optional)
¼ cup chopped fermented kimchi (optional)
1 small head of green lettuce as ssam (optional, for wrapping bites)
Alcohol:
Light beer (Korean brands like Cass, Kloud, or Hite are preferred)
Soju (I like the fresh flavor, which is around 17% alcohol, but there are stronger and lighter options as well. If you can’t find soju, there isn’t really a replacement, so just get whatever you like to drink.)
Makgeolli (optional)
Tools needed:
cast iron pan (or any shallow, wide stovetop pan)
cutting board
knife
a couple of bowls
Suggested directions:
Wash your hands and prepare your ingredients and tools.
Start by prepping the chicken thighs. Cut the boneless chicken thighs into slightly-larger-than-bite-size pieces (about 1 inch cubes). If your chicken thighs have bones and/or skin, you can follow this guide to prep them.
Put the chicken in a bowl with 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, a few grinds of black pepper, and the milk if you have it. Mix it all up to evenly coat the chicken, then set aside along with a bowl of the rice cakes filled with cold water. Then, wash anything that came in contact with the raw chicken as a precaution: your hands, the knife, and the cutting board.
Peel the carrots and sweet potatoes, and trim off the ends. In my experience, I have found peeling away from myself better for speed and avoiding injury.
Slice the carrots and sweet potatoes into ¼ inch coins. I like to cut them at a bias to create more surface area and longer pieces, but that’s just my preference. I recommend slicing off one side of the carrot and sweet potato to create a flat surface. This improves control over the cuts made into a normally unstable cylinder. Do the same thing with the sweet potato.
Prep the onion. Cut it in half along the roots, trim the ends, remove the skin, and slice it into about ½ pieces to create half rings. I sometimes remove the outer layer of the onion if it’s dried out a bit. The onion I used is old and dry, as evinced by the spacing between the layers. I’d recommend using fresh onions.
Wash your peppers, cabbage, perilla leaves, and green onions.
Trim the root from the green onion, and make another cut to separate the whites from the greens. Usually, I see Chinese chefs using the white part as an aromatic to fry in the oil, while the green part is used as a garnish or a fast-cooking ingredient added near the end. Milk street states that the whites are more pungent, whereas the greens are more grassy.
Discard the root, slice the white part diagonally into ¼ inch pieces, and the green part into thin rings. I try to get them as thin and consistent as possible, but they don’t have to be paper thin. The main idea is to create a nice garnish that will contrast with the reds and white of the dish.
Trim the ends off of the peppers, and slice them into ¼ inch pieces. If you’d like a less spicy pepper you can remove the seeds and membrane from the pepper.
Core the cabbage and chop into 2 inch by 2 inch pieces. You can core the cabbage by cutting it in half, then cutting along the exterior of the core at an angle on both sides. Once the cabbage is chopped up, you can just put it directly in the pan.
Now, prep the sauce. First, peel and crush some garlic and ginger, then finely mince it. Peeling ginger in this context isn’t necessary because it’s tender enough to eat and will be integrated into the sauce. I smash my garlic and ginger with my knife before mince to get a nice head start.
Put the minced garlic and ginger in a bowl along with the chili flakes, gochujang, rice syrup, soy sauce, black pepper, and chicken stock. Mix it all up and set aside. If you want it less spicy, reduce the amount of chili powder.
Now for the fun part: layering everything in the pan! Place the ingredients in the pan in this order: cabbage, onion, whites of green onion, carrot, green chili pepper, sweet potato, and torn perilla leaves. You can also put in the rice cakes at this point, but I found that they overcooked and got stuck to the pan when I put them in early on. Because of this, I would wait to put the rice cakes in until 5 minutes before the dish is ready for thinner rice cake coins. I wouldn’t wait to put in thicker tubular rice cakes.
Put in the marinated chicken, sauce, and ½ cup of chicken stock or water. Cover the pan and cook it over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes or until it starts boiling.
After 3-4 minutes, turn down the heat to medium and stir to incorporate the sauce. Make sure to occasionally stir to avoid burning or overcooking pieces. Cook for 15 minutes until the sweet potato is done cooking.
Once the sweet potato is done, your chicken is probably done too. Make a well in the middle of the pan, or a ring on the outside of the pan by moving the ingredients around. Chop up some mozzarella into small cubes and place it into the well.
Let the cheese melt down into the sauce a bit, then garnish with the sliced green onion from earlier. Crack open a bottle of beer and a bottle of soju, mix them in a glass. I like a ratio of 1:4 soju to beer, but you can go as low as 1:9 and as high as 1:1 if you’re trying to blackout or just like the taste of soju. This video gives some good variations on the drink.
Optionally, wash a head of lettuce and tear the leaves from the base. You can wrap bites of fiery chicken and vegetables with crunchy and cool lettuce.
Now it’s time to eat! Dip the pieces of vegetables and chicken into the cheese, and get a nice solid bite. Wash it all down with your somaek, and have a great night.
Extension: As Maangchi suggests, I’d add some well-fermented sour kimchi to the stew. I’d also have both a bowl of rice on hand to make some fried rice with the leftover sauce, and a head of lettuce to make little bites with. The lettuce would act to further balance the fieriness of the dish. Some banchan would also be a nice refresher in between bites. Some of my favorites are spinach cooked with sesame oil, cucumber kimchi, and glazed potatoes. And last but not least, I’d have a bottle of makgeolli around for a sweet and cold chaser to spicy bites in addition to the somaek.