Katie’s Printable Recipe – Korean BBQ – Bulgogi Chicken
Ahhh Korean food…something I’d never experienced until I met Mr. Wonderful.
See, his kids’ grandma on their mom’s side is full Korean. When the kids go to visit her in Texas, it’s a clamoring brawl sometimes to see who’s going to get what to bring home. There are spring rolls, kimchi and , the prize dish of all-Bulgogi.
Bulgogi in Korean means “fire meat” and is typically called Korean BBQ as it is usually served grilled over a fire. It can also be pan-fried though as I’m going to show you today, using my electric wok.
In the traditional dish, flank steak, sirloin or another tender cut of beef is typically sliced across the grain in very thin pieces. I’ve tried this version and it’s delicious. We started experimenting using chicken as Lindsay, our daughter-in-law doesn’t eat much red meat or pork ,and we love it. In Korean, this is called Dak Bulgogi although it usually involves a few other spice variations.
I googled this dish when the kids talked about it endlessly, and much to my surprise, it has very few easily accessible ingredients. Here is how we make it.
Pour 3/4 cup soy sauce (I always use low-sodium) into a shallow long baking dish . I know you see 1/2 cup, but I usually don’t measure things when I cook and I had to figure out how much to use, so I ended up adding another 1/4 cup.
Add 2 tablespoons sugar.
Chop up 4 green onions and add them into the dish.
Toss them into the soy sauce.
Chop up 4 whole cloves of garlic or squeeze them in with a garlic press.
Don’t know what happened to my focus in that picture.
Now for serious yum factor.
Sesame Oil.
How do you say “yummmmm” in Asian?
Add in one teaspoon. A little of this stuff goes a LONG way.
Lastly, add in 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.
You could use white or apple cider but rice wine vinegar is just mild and perfect here. It gives the sauce a little twang.
Stir your marinade up with your spoon.
Take 3-4 large chicken breasts. Cut them in long strips (or use the tenderloins -they work great).
Incidentally, when you have to cut meat real thin, only thaw it half-way. Half-frozen meat cuts SO much easier.
Now turn your knife at a 90º angle and cut very thin slices the other way.
When you’re finished, dump all your chicken into your marinade.
Stir it up really well coating all the chicken pieces.
Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit and get happy in your refrigerator for at least an hour.
After an hour, take it out and toss it into a smokin’ hot wok. If you don’t have a wok, a non-stick frying pan will work.
Stir it around in your wok.
It will start to sizzle and the chicken will begin to cook pretty quickly due to the small pieces.
When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, turn your wok down.
This is how the kid’s Korean grandma serves it. If you feel adventuresome, try it. If not, you can just serve it over a good rice, like jasmine.
C’mon though, don’t be a pansy!
I’m adventuresome. There’s not much I won’t try. I think Mr. Wonderful has only seen me spit something out of my mouth once. That was the time we went to an Indian buffet and they had something that looked like cinnamon rolls on their dessert bar. It tasted like warm fish, not cinnamon rolls. Totally unexpected. Totally gross.
ANYWAY, this is how they serve it.
This is nori, or in layman’s terms – seaweed. It has been taken from its raw form and processed through machines much like making paper. Most people know it as the “wrapper” for sushi.
At Asian markets, you can buy this stuff in small squares. Or you can get the larger sheets and bend or fold them until they crack into small squares.
The Koreans flash toast this in a pan. We don’t, and still love it.
Lay a piece down. Top it with a spoonful of rice.
Spoon some of the chicken mixture over it making sure to drizzle some of the yummy sauce over the rice.
Take opposite corners and pinch the nori up into a little burrito.
Eat it and enjoy!
If you are horribly boring and never try anything new, just eat the chicken over rice. It’s fabulous!
I won’t hold it against you at all.
Like what you see? Have a question? Please leave me a comment..I’d adore hearing from you!
Cooking with Love,
~Katie
Can you just imagine the herby tartness of the cilantro and lime mixed with the sweetness of the sweet creamy butter? Mmmmmmm…
My mom is here this week, and she always makes her homemade strawberry freezer jam and light rye bread for us. The bread bakes and the aroma fills the house, while we all anticipate the hot, crusty bread coming out of the oven. The kids linger around the kitchen asking when it will be done. That recipe will be coming shortly, but for right now, let’s talk about what we top it with – my mom’s homeade strawberry freezer jam. It’s so good you could just eat it with a spoon! 
I have to apologize for these pictures. We did this at 9 P.M. at night and the lighting was horrible. It almost looks like I took this in the 70’s doesn’t it?
Dishin and Dishes 
