Clean the Fridge, Cook Some Chicken.

It's only been about 2 months since I arrived in Changwon, but I've already managed to amass an astounding amount of crap in my fridge. Much of this stems from my crippling inability to cook for just one person - something a lot of you have benefited from in Vancouver. I'm trying to use up the detritus in my kitchen before buying anything else, and in doing so, I made a rustic chicken stew. It is entirely unremarkable to look at, but GOD DAMN is it tasty! This is my attempt at bringing order to my poor fridge by cooking what vaguely resembles dakbokumtang - Korean spicy chicken stew.

Dakbokum ....ish

-1.5 cups cabbage
-2 cups squash
  (I used Kabocha)
-2 onions, diced
-15 cloves of garlic
-2 carrots, diced
-2 cups water
-1 chicken
  (bones in and skin on)
-1/3 cup soy sauce
-3 large green chilis
-3 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
  (gochujang)
-2 tbsp Korean red pepper flakes
 (deol maewon gochu garoo)


Before I start on with the recipe, I will first insist that there is no good substitute for either gochujang (red pepper paste) or deol maewoon gochu garoo (red pepper flakes). I use mild red pepper flakes because I feel that the dish is spicy enough with the paste - the flakes just add to the depth of flavor. If you want hot pepper flakes, look for maewoon gochu garoo. Gochujang (the paste) is thick, slightly sweet, and awweeesomme. You can find both at any Korean mart, they are cooking staples over here. For my Vancouver folks: T&T has them both.

Prep your veg as per the photo below. As you can see, things are cut up pretty roughly. I quartered the onions, diced the squash and carrot, and roughly sliced up the cabbage. I didn't even bother to cut up the garlic, and settled for just smashing each clove open with the side of my knife. If you can stand to cut your carrots and squash into smaller bits, please do, it'll help them disintegrate and add awesomeness to your sauce. You will probably also notice that I have green AND red chilies in the mix, which I did not mention in the ingredients. This is because, in retrospect, I would have liked to omit the red ones as their skins are super waxy. The green chilies are a really mild variety; I'd use poblanos or maybe jalapenos if I couldn't find Korean green chilies.

If you aren't into butchering a whole chicken apart, get an equivalent amount of thighs and or drumsticks instead (8) - be sure to have the bones in! I left the skin on all of my chicken because I think the rendered fat imparts a very pleasant savory richness to this otherwise lean stew, but you can take it off if you are some kind of fat-phobic loser.



Mix the soy sauce, pepper flakes and pepper paste in a small bowl. Then dump it, along with everything else  in a pot, and bring it to a boil. Once it is bubbling, cook it covered over medium-low heat for 40 minutes. You'll want to give it a stir every 10-15 minutes just to be sure that things aren't sticking to the bottom of your pot.

 I put 2 cups of water in, but you can always put more or less in depending on the consistency you prefer. Just make sure there's always some liquid for the goods to cook in. After the first 40 minutes, cook for an additional 20 minutes with the pot uncovered - I did this to thicken up my batch a bit. Because of this last step, I didn't add any salt to the stuff until after I had reduced it to my liking. I would recommend you do the same so as to avoid making a briny pot of inedible shit.

The end result should be sweet from the veg, and savory from the chicken - something great to eat in the company of rice and stupidly cold weather.