A spicy stir-fried chicken dish made with boneless chicken pieces, rice cakes (tteokbokki tteok), green cabbage, sweet potato, and other vegetables. It’s a restaurant favorite in Korea that you can easily recreate at home!

What is dakgalbi?

Dakgalbi (닭갈비), or dak galbi, is a spicy stir-fried chicken dish made with boneless chicken pieces, rice cakes (tteokbokki tteok, 떡볶이떡), and some vegetables. Dak means chicken, and galbi means ribs. But, there are no ribs in this dish. Back in the day, pork ribs (dweji galbi) were too expensive for everyday grilling, so a restaurant cook created a similarly flavored dish with chicken instead and called it dakgalbi.

This spicy chicken dish originated in Chuncheon (춘천), a city in Gangwon Province (강원도), in the 1960’s, hence the dish is also known as Chuncheon dakgalbi. During one of my trips to Korea, I took a day trip to Chuncheon with a couple of friends. I always loved this dish I had in Seoul, but I wanted to experience the dish where it was born.

Chuncheon is a small city which is about an hour driving distance from Seoul. It’s a beautiful city with mountains and lakes and numerous dakgalbi restaurants. We went to the famous dakgalbi alley with a high concentration of restaurants. We picked the one that looked busy from the outside. It was past lunch time, but the place was still bustling.

How is it served?

The Chuncheon restaurant we visited had each table equipped with a gas stove and a large round grill pan, which is pretty standard at typical dakgalbi restaurants. We ordered 3 servings. Shortly after, the waitress brought out a tray full of red spicy marinated chicken, freshly cut cabbage, sweet potatoes, and rice cakes. She then dumped everything on to the pan that was being preheated in the middle of the table. The chicken started to sizzle immediately, and the smell was incredible. We had to patiently wait for everything to be cooked through, stirring occasionally.

This restaurant experience can easily be recreated at home with a large skillet and a portable gas stove.

When the rice cakes and sweet potato pieces turn tender, the chicken is also ready. Dakgalbi is usually served with some lettuce leaves and ssamjang. Enjoy it wrapped in lettuce and/or perilla leaves with a dollop of ssamjang. Delicious!!

Typically, dak galbi is not served with rice, but it’s customary to mix in some rice into the leftovers at the end to make fried rice. At restaurants, you have to order the rice separately to do this. But, it’s a must to try!

Dakgalbi ingredients

Chicken: I usually use boneless chicken thighs, but de-boned chicken leg meat is also commonly used for this dish. Dark meat works best for this recipe, but you can certainly use chicken breast if preferred.

Rice cakes: Tteokbokki (spicy stir-fried rice cake) tteok makes this dish very filling and comforting.

Vegetables: The classic vegetables for this dish include green cabbage, goguma (고구마, Korean sweet potato), kkaennip (깻잎, perilla leaves), and scallions. You can substitute Korean sweet potato with other white or orange sweet potato or regular potato.

Dakgalbi sauce: The sauce is made with a few basic Korean staples, such as gochugaru, gochujang, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, garlic, ginger, etc. It also contains Korean curry powder, which is a powder form of curry sauce mix for curry rice, adds a distinct layer of flavor and a umami boost.

How to make dakgalbi

Once you have the chicken and vegetables cut up, this dakgalbi recipe comes together very quickly. Marinate the chicken in the spicy sauce. Reserve some sauce if you’re going to make fried rice at the end.

Then, you just cook everything up, except perilla leaves and scallions, for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat if the ingredients (especially the rice cakes) stick to the pan and brown too fast. The steam from the vegetables should keep them from sticking to the pan, but you can also add a little bit of water if it gets too dry.

Finally, add the kkaennip and scallion and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes until the rice cake and the sweet potato pieces turn soft. By then the chicken should be cooked through as well.

To make optional fried rice, add the rice to the pan along with the reserved sauce and sesame oil. Stir constantly until everything is well incorporated and the clumped up rice is broken up, about 5 minutes. Scrape up the flavorful brown bits from the pan while stirring. Mix in the teared or crumbled gim (dried seaweed sheet), sesame seeds and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Cheese dakgalbi

These days, cheese dakgalbi is highly popular. Some restaurant dakgalbi pans in Korea even have a section for cheese. Mozzarella is typical, but you can use pizza blend or any of your favorite cheeses. Use as much as you want! If using, add it with 2 to 3 minutes remaining at the end.