찜닭: “Steamed” Chicken

Pure comfort food

찜닭 (jjim-dalk, literally: steamed chicken) is a marvel of Korean ingenuity. Chunks of chicken (with or without bones) are braised in a spicy (or not) soy-based sauce along with onions, potatoes, carrots, dumplings, rice cakes, and glass noodles. The cheese topping is optional, but worth it.

The whole dish is reminiscent of 大盘鸡 (da4pan2ji1, literally: big plate chicken), a Uighur dish from northwestern China where hunks of chicken are braised together with peppers, Chinese scallion, and potatoes in a flavorful spicy red sauce and served on a plate of broad wheat noodles. The jjim-dalk sauce, ignoring the baseline spiciness common in Korea, reminds me of 三杯鸡 (san1bei1ji1, literally: three cup chicken), a Taiwanese* dish so named for its use of a cup of soy sauce, a cup of rice wine, and a cup of sesame oil in its preparation**.


*: Sanbeiji originated in Jiangxi province, but it is currently most strongly associated with Taiwanese cuisine.
**: There is some debate as to the exact ingredients referenced by the three cups. As there is also a lot of sugar in the sanbeiji, many reasonable people assume that one of the cups refers to a cup of sugar. Baidu’s Wikipedia-clone says the original recipe used a cup of lard (instead of sesame oil).

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