Dakgalbi — spicy stir-fried chicken in gochujang sauce with rice cakes, sweet potato, and cabbage — demonstrates the gochujang sauce reduction principle: as the sauce reduces in the pan with the chicken, its sugar caramelises and the paste's fermented compounds intensify, coating every ingredient in a sticky, spicy glaze. The rice cakes (tteok) added in the final minutes absorb the sauce's concentrated flavour.
- **The marinade:** Gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil — the chicken marinates for at least 30 minutes. - **The cooking sequence:** High heat, chicken and vegetables cooked until the marinade begins to caramelise, then tteok added with a small amount of water to prevent burning. - **The reduction:** The water evaporates, concentrating the sauce back around every ingredient. The finished dakgalbi should be sticky, glossy, and coating — not soupy. - **Perilla leaves (kkaennip):** Added at the very end off heat — their anise-adjacent volatile compounds (perillaldehyde) are entirely volatile and must not be cooked.
Maangchi