Korean Chicken Skewers. If you have visited Seoul in the last five years, you will be quite familiar with this street food. It’s called Dakkochi. And its become one of the most popular street food in Korea.

Most street vendor have come up with their own sauces. Some add curry powder. Some add ‘hell-sauce’ (basically soy-sauce mixture with an ungodly amount of gochujang!). And I have even seen a few adding a layer of melted mozzarella cheese. Today, I wanted to share the original flavors that started the trend: original teriyaki and spicy gochujang. With these sauce recipes, you will taste the streets of Seoul!

Initially, I planned to only cover the chicken skewer recipe in the video. But lately, I have been jumping deeper into the world of Asian salads. The Yuja-salad is hands-down one of my recent favorites! It’s amazing how well the flavor of Yuja-tea (Honey Citron Tea) pairs with olive oil. The sauce is light, citrus-y and uplifting. Makes you feel elegant 🙂

There were a few questions about the flavor and quality of Korean instant cooked rice. This microwaveable rice is very famous in Korea. It is a short-grain “sushi” rice. And it can be found in virtually every house in Korea. Normally, the term ‘instant’ triggers thoughts of preservatives and exotic ingredients. But this is not the case with this item. Korean instant rice is fresh rice that is partially cooked by the manufacturer and immediately vacuumed into a sealed package. All you have to do is peel back the lid (partially) and pop it in the microwave.

It’s a life-saver when you want to eat banchan but don’t have the patience for rice to steam in a cooker.

Korean Chicken Skewers and Yuja Salad

Ingredients

Chicken Skewers
Chicken - 500 grams
Spring onions - 2 stalks

Chicken Seasoning

Mirin - 2 Tablespoons
Salt - 3-4 shakes
Black pepper - 2-3 shakes

Teriyaki Sauce

Soy sauce - 2 Tablespoons
Mirin - 1 Tablespoon
Honey - 2 Tablespoons
Minced garlic - 1/2 Tablespoon
Black pepper - few shakes

Gochujang Sauce

Teriyaki sauce (same as above)
Gochujang - 2 Tablespoons

Yuja Salad

Baby greens - handful

Yuja Salad Dressing

Korean Yuja tea - 3 Tablespoons
Olive oil - 3 Tablespoons
Lemon juice - 1 teaspoon
Salt - few shakes
Black pepper - few shakes

Instructions

Prep Chicken

Debone the chicken pieces and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Place in a mixing bowl. Then season with mirin, salt and black pepper. Give a mix with your hands. Then set the chicken aside for 20 minutes. Also soak your skewers in another bowl.

Make Sauces

Take out a mixing bowl and place all ingredients listed under "Teriyaki Sauce". Give it a nice mix. If you want to make the spicy Gochujang sauce, use the same recipe as the Teriyaki Sauce, but add-in gochujang as well.

Grill chicken and Make Skewers

Measure to the second crease in your pointer finger. Chop spring onion pieces to that length. Make sure to chop-up both the green and white parts of the spring onion. Then put a frying pan on a medium-heat. Put some oil in the pan. Once it is hot, place the chicken pieces in and cook them until they are 80-90% done (when you barely see any pink left). Then set the chicken aside.

Take out the skewers from the water. Add the grilled chicken first onto the skewers. Then add spring onion pieces and alternate. I like to add 4 pieces of chicken to 3 pieces of spring onion. Finally, wrap the end pieces of the skewer with a piece of aluminum foil.

Cook Skewers

Put frying pan on medium heat. Add oil. Once the pant is hot, place the skewers in. Let it sit there for a minute or two until it develops a nice char and the chicken is fully cooked through. Then flip them over and baste the chicken skewers with the sauce of your choice. Flip around and baste the other side. Turn off heat. Garnish with sesame seeds. Take off the aluminum foil and enjoy.

Yuja Salad

Place some baby greens in a mixing bowl. Take out another bowl and mix all of the listed ingredients under "Yuja salad dressing". Top the salad with a few spoonfuls of the Yuja dressing. Enjoy and feel elegant!