Korean
This Spicy, One-Pot Chicken & Potato Stew Is a Blaze of Korean Comfort
My mother walks me through dakdoritang, a winter weeknight stalwart.
When I'm in Atlanta at my mother's house, I like to pretend to not know how to cook certain Korean dishes just so we can spend time together. I say "pretend" because Maangchi—whom The New York Times once coined "YouTube's Korean Julia Child"—already has most things written down along with video tutorials, blueprints I've always been able to tweak slightly to taste memory.
But this structured, high-quality bonding serves another purpose: to appease my mother. "Other sons call their mothers twice a day" and "A mother never stops thinking of her children" are among the many things she likes to tell me when I'm home. If you knew my mother, then you'd know that there's nothing more important to her than quality time with her sons. Cooking together is one of the few ways I know to provide this.
What started off as a way to satisfy my mother, however, turned into a lifelong mission to write down her recipes. I've realized over the years that there will come a day when I can no longer ask her how to cook these dishes, the ones I truly don't know how to cook. And even the ones I do know how to cook, I'll have to work out how to make them taste like hers without being able to call her and finesse the details. Details like: Do you add potatoes to your doenjang jjigae? How much butter goes into your kimchi fried rice? Can you walk me through the gaejang marinade again?
On my most recent visit to Atlanta, as my mother and I sat at the breakfast table drinking coffee together, I asked, "Do you add gochujang to your dakdoritang (a spicy Korean chicken stew with potatoes)?"
"Sometimes," she said. "Sometimes I just do gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder) and soy sauce. But gochujang adds sweetness and makes the broth thicker, if you want that."
I wanted that.
"Did you know that gochujang was one of the most searched Google food terms last year?" I mentioned. "Americans love it now."
"Really?" she said, surprised. "Isn't it spicy for them?"
"I guess not."
We decided to make the stew for dinner that night. I could tell this got her excited, because she was meticulous with each step. Even at the grocery store, where I helped her pick out the perfect chicken drumsticks, plump and ready to be stewed, she had a bounce in her step. I could've sworn I saw her lick her lips like one of those cartoon wolves spying on prey. I laughed as I thought of my dad (who's in my phone as a chicken emoji, his Chinese zodiac), and how perfect it is that my mother, ever fierce and cat-like, was born in the Year of the Tiger.
I love grocery-shopping with my tiger mom. Cooking with her is also a moment for me to teach her little things I've picked up in my life. When we got home with our groceries, for instance, I showed her my chef's trick for making drumsticks look nicer: With a very sharp chef's knife, I cut off a small piece from the bone end of the leg, held the chicken meat-side down (bone-side up), and using my fingers, pushed the meat down to create a little chicken lollipop. I like to do this for presentation, but also for texture: This way, you don't have to deal with the little chewy cartilage at the bottom end of the meat, which makes for easier eating.
After we prepped the drumsticks, I watched her poach them for 5 minutes, then rinse them immediately under the tap.
"Why did you do that?" I asked.
"To get rid of the chicken smell," she said, matter-of-factly. "Also, this gives the meat a nice texture." I thought it all sounded like a load of hoo-ha, but I wrote it down anyway.
The sauce was the funniest part. Since we were trying to get the recipe down on paper, I watched her chop up all the vegetables, pause, and rethink the amounts (a hesitation I had never seen before). She fumbled with the plastic measuring spoons and cups, holding up a pink one to say "This much" and a blue one to say "Whatever this is." She looked like she had never used them in her life.
In the end, as we waited for the stew to come to a simmer and for the potatoes to finish cooking, we put on some white rice and played her favorite record, something from Joan Baez.
When we sat to dinner, she took a bite and said, "This is the taste."
I took a bite, and she was right—it was the taste. Dakdoritang is hot, spicy, and bold like my mother, but also sweet (from the gochujang and carrots). Love is not an ingredient here according to the FDA, but time is. It's crazy to me that in just 40 minutes, you can have a stew as penetrating with flavor as this one. After the fiery-red chicken, the potatoes are probably the best part, and the most comforting to eat. They almost fall apart in the broth and make it even thicker.
Lastly, it's important to serve with fresh white rice—soft, fluffy relief from the heat—because is there anything better than starch on starch in the winter?
| 2 | pounds chicken drumsticks |
| 1 1/3 | cups water |
| 1/3 | cup soy sauce |
| 1/4 | cup gochugaru (red pepper powder) |
| 2 | tablespoons gochujang |
| 2 | tablespoons brown sugar |
| 8 | cloves garlic, grated |
| 1 | large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | large potato, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | medium carrot, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional) |
| 1 | tablespoon sesame oil |
| 4 | scallions, sliced on the diagonal, for garnish (optional) |
| White rice, for serving |
| 2 | pounds chicken drumsticks |
| 1 1/3 | cups water |
| 1/3 | cup soy sauce |
| 1/4 | cup gochugaru (red pepper powder) |
| 2 | tablespoons gochujang |
| 2 | tablespoons brown sugar |
| 8 | cloves garlic, grated |
| 1 | large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | large potato, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | medium carrot, cut into 1-inch chunks |
| 1 | jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional) |
| 1 | tablespoon sesame oil |
| 4 | scallions, sliced on the diagonal, for garnish (optional) |
| White rice, for serving |
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Written by: Eric Kim
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29 Comments
Thank you for reading, R. In lieu of the powder, I'd add a tablespoon or two more of gochujang. But really, at the end of the day, all of the sauce amounts are according to taste. So add a bit, taste it, and adjust.
Truer words were never written! : )
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