Spicy korean chicken. It’s delightful, but the name is serious. If you’re sensitive to spicy food you definitely want to give this one a miss.
Also, I realize this might come as a shock to some of you, it’s apparently pretty common in Korea to eat this smothered in mozzarella. I tried it and it totally works. It’s honestly great that way. You can leave the cheese off if it makes you feel weird.
Usually you would want to grill this over charcoal and baste it with the sauce every 5-10 minutes. I don’t own a grill so I baked it in the oven, but you should absolutely go that route if you are willing. Get the grill nice and hot and smoky and go to town.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pound boneless chicken thighs (or whatever your preferred cut is)
1/2 pound mozzarella (optional, to finish)
1 1/2 cups water or chicken stock
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey (can also use corn syrup or rice syrup if you want)
1/4 cup gochujang (Korean spicy chili paste) (it’s like fiery miso)
1/4 cup gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder) (you are perhaps beginning to see why it’s called fire chicken)
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2-4 serrano peppers (or peppers of equivalent hotness)
12 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 1 1/2 inch ginger, minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
Get a mixing bowl and mix together the water, lemon and lime juice, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, gochugaru, gochujang, and black pepper. It is very possible that the gochujang will stay together in a clump when you do this no matter what you do, and that’s fine. It will break up later when you go to cook this sauce down.
Heat up the vegetable oil on medium in a small pot or saucepan (you are going to put most of the above in that pot to make the sauce, so plan accordingly). Add in the ginger, garlic, and serrano peppers and saute for a few minutes until they become fragrant.
No dump in everything from the first step (water, soy sauce, seasonings, etc) in to that pot with the garlic and ginger. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, until the sauce is reduced by about half, probably 8-10 minutes. Once it’s thickened up appropriately, it should stick to the spoon when you take it out. During this, the gochujang should break down and incorporate in to the sauce.
Go ahead and take that sauce off the stove and set it aside to cool. Once it has cooled, take your chicken and about half of the sauce you just made and combine to marinate overnight. Set the other half of the sauce aside (it’s the marinade, but it’s also the sauce you will use to kick it up more once you’re done).
The next day, heat your oven to 350. Dump the chicken and it’s marinade in to a baking dish and bake for around 40 minutes (you can temp it after 30 but for me it took 40 minutes to come to temp). Now, cover the chicken in mozzarella (optional but highly recommended) and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Alternatively, at this point you could chuck it in the broiler for just 2 minutes, all you want to do is get the cheese melted and starting to brown.
That’s it! Serve over rice or by itself. You can add more of the reserved sauce if you want to kick it up more.
eatbensmeat 