Korean
Jjimdak: Braised Chicken with Glass Noodles
Chicken pieces braised in a soy-based sauce with gochugaru, garlic, ginger, vegetables, and starch noodles. The noodles are added in the final 10 minutes of braising, absorbing the sauce completely and becoming heavily flavoured throughout.
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Ten in town · one not yet within reach.
How the 11 are reached
- In town
- 10 · chicken pieces, soy sauce, gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), sugar, garlic, fresh ginger, potatoes, carrot, onion, spring onions
- Not yet within reach
- 1 · dangmyeon (sweet potato glass noodles)
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
1.2 kg
150 g
Dangmyeon (sweet potato glass noodles)
soaked in cold water for 30 minutes, drained
Not yet within reach of Richmond · each reach is counted
For the braising sauce
80 ml
2 tbsp
Gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes)
Origin · KoreaIn town · Bosa Foods · Vancouver → · also Wismettac · Vancouver, SGC Food Distributors · Vancouver · 2 more
1 tbsp
6 cloves
20 g
500 ml
Water
Your own market
Vegetables
200 g
150 g
1 medium
3
Within reach counts in town, delivered, shipped and the nearest city. A staple counts once it has a local seller. Charted from each shop's own pages; not yet vouched by a cook who shops here.
The larder of Richmond →Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine the soy sauce, gochugaru, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. Taste the sauce before it meets the chicken — it must be assertively seasoned, saltier and spicier than the finished dish will be, because once the noodles go in they will drink up every drop of this liquid and carry it to the centre of the braise. Adjust before proceeding.
2
Place the chicken pieces in a wide, heavy braising pot or deep sauté pan, pour over the sauce and the water, and bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce to a steady simmer. Braise uncovered for 20 minutes, turning the chicken once, so that the exposed side colours and the sauce reduces and darkens rather than simply steaming the meat. The flesh should be just cooked through and the sauce visibly deepened in colour by the end.
3
Add the potatoes, carrot, and onion and continue braising for a further 10 minutes, so the vegetables cook in the seasoned braising liquid and take on its colour and depth rather than tasting of plain starch. The potato should yield to the tip of a knife without resistance before you move on.
4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Check that sufficient liquid remains in the pot — there must be enough to hydrate the noodles completely without the pot running dry and the dangmyeon scorching on the bottom — then add the soaked, drained dangmyeon and press them gently under the liquid. Braise for 10 minutes, turning the noodles periodically, until they are fully translucent, glossy, and coated throughout with the concentrated braising liquid, having absorbed most of the sauce.
5
Scatter the spring onions over the surface and remove from the heat. Rest for 2 minutes, so the residual heat finishes the noodles at the centre without overcooking them in the pot. The noodles should be yielding but with slight resilience at the centre; the sauce should be almost entirely absorbed, coating every strand.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Free-range or native-breed chicken jointed to order; hand-ground gochugaru from a Korean specialist; aged soy sauce with depth and sweetness.
02
Estate — Good free-range chicken pieces; quality Korean gochugaru (not generic chilli flakes); a Korean soy sauce such as ganjang.
03
Market — Standard bone-in chicken pieces from any reliable butcher; Korean gochugaru from an Asian supermarket; standard Japanese-style soy sauce.
04
House — Supermarket bone-in chicken; generic chilli flakes in place of gochugaru; any light soy sauce. The dish remains serviceable but loses the characteristic sweet-spicy depth of the Andong original.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Taste. The braising sauce, before the noodles are added, must taste over-seasoned in isolation — it will be diluted by the vegetables and absorbed by the noodles.
◇Touch. The potato chunks yield without resistance to the tip of a knife before the noodles are introduced.
◇Sight. The noodles are fully translucent and glossy, with no remaining white or opaque centre, and the pot holds almost no free liquid.
◇Touch. The finished noodles are yielding throughout but retain slight resilience — not collapsed or mushy.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies when the noodles enter the pot: if too little braising liquid remains they scorch; if the sauce is under-seasoned at this point, there is no recovery — the noodles absorb what is there and no subsequent seasoning can penetrate them.
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VI
What to Pour
A cold, lightly bitter Korean lager cuts the sweetness and spice of the sauce cleanly. Makgeolli — Korean unfiltered rice wine, slightly effervescent and mildly sour — is the traditional accompaniment and balances the soy depth without competing with the gochugaru heat. A dry, off-dry Riesling from Alsace or the Mosel serves the same function for those preferring wine.
The whole pairingPillar VII
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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The working kitchen