Simmered Chicken, Jjim Dak
찜닭

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Spicyness: 
1.02
Average: 1 (1 vote)
healthy
nut free
prep time: 
30 min
inactive time: 
20 min
cooking time: 
40 min
total time: 
90 min

Jjimdak is a hidden gem of Korean cuisine. Although it's widely enjoyed by Koreans, few north americans are familiar with this toothsome dish. Chicken, potatoes and carrots are perfectly cooked in a deletable sweet and savory sauce with a hint of spiciness. Glass noodles in this dish are to die for. All you need is a bowl of rice to complete this celestial meal.

You can serve this for lunch or dinner. It's a great dish to impress your guests with minimal effort. You can use this recipe for other meat as well.
Buy Jjim Dak ingredients online here.

Jjimdak is a hidden gem of Korean cuisine. Although it's widely enjoyed by Koreans, few north americans are familiar with this toothsome dish. Chicken, potatoes and carrots are perfectly cooked in a deletable sweet and savory sauce with a hint of spiciness. Glass noodles in this dish are to die for. All you need is a bowl of rice to complete this celestial meal.

You can serve this for lunch or dinner. It's a great dish to impress your guests with minimal effort. You can use this recipe for other meat as well.
Buy Jjim Dak ingredients online here.

INGREDIENTS

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Change to: Metric US

main ingredients

7 lb 11 ozChicken Meat 닭고기 (meat with bones is better for deeper flavor)
7 Potato 감자 (small)
2 lb 5 ozCarrot (large Korean carrot) 당근 (1 large Korean carrot is about 11oz / 300g)
4 Onion (Medium) 양파
12 ozGlass Noodles 당면
2 Green Onion 파

for chicken broth

1½ tspBlack Pepper 후추
½ cup 2½ tbsCheongju, Korean Rice Wine 청주 (or white wine)
17½ cupsWater 물
2 Green Onion 파
11 clove(s)Garlic Clove (whole) 통마늘

for seasoning sauce

5 cupsSoy Sauce (regular) 왜간장
2⅓ cupsCheongju, Korean Rice Wine 청주 (or white wine)
2⅓ cupsSugar 설탕
21 Dried Red Chili Pepper 마른고추 (optional)

for thickening agent (optional)

3½ tbsPotato Starch 감자 전분 (optional)
½ cup 6 tbsWater 물 (optional)
tips: 

Optional Ingredients and Substitutions
Chicken: Traditionally a whole small chicken is used in this recipe but you can use just legs or thighs instead. Chicken bones make the broth richer.
Dried red chili pepper: Dried chile peppers add a very nice spicy kick without overpowering the flavor or changing the color of the broth. However, you can omit this if you cannot tolerate any spiciness.
Cheongju (Korean rice wine): you can use white wine instead.
Potato starch: You can omit or use flour instead.

More questions? Please leave your questions below in the comment section. We will do our best to answer as soon as we can.

instructions
photos
summary
Ingredient amounts in the recipe instructions are for the default serving size.
Click to enlarge photos.
Ingredient amounts in the recipe summary are for the default serving size.

1. Prepare chicken (optional)

Wash the chicken thoroughly. Soak in milk for 20 min. This helps remove gamey smell but it is optional.
image: JJDKAA01.JPG
1

Wash chicken

Soak in milk

image: clock.png 20 min

2. Prepare vegetables

Peel and wash all vegetables. Cut 2 potatoes and 1 carrot into cubes (about 1½” or 2 cm) and cut 1 onion into bite size pieces. Cut a green onion in half and slice half of the green onion diagonally.
image: JJDKAA02.JPG
2

Peel and wash vegetables

Cut into cubes

  • 2 small potatoes
  • 1 carrot

Cut 1 onion into bite size

Cut green onion in half

  • slice half diagonally

3. Glass noodles

Soak glass noodles in water for 20 min. Then, drain water in a strainer.
image: JJDKAA06.JPG
3

Soak glass noodles

  • image: clock.png 20 min

Drain

4. Wash and Dry

Wash chicken thoroughly under running water. Drain water in a strainer and pat dry with kitchen towel.
image: JJDKAA07.JPG
4

Wash

Drain

Pat dry

5. Seasoning

Season chicken with ½ teaspoon of black pepper and 3 tablespoons of cheongju (Korean rice wine).
image: JJDKAA08.JPG
5

Season chicken

  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 3 tbs cheongju (rice wine)

6. Chicken Broth

Boil 5 cups of water in a pot. When boiling, add 3 garlic cloves, ½ green onion (uncut) and seasoned chicken. When it starts to boil again, skim off the foams and fats. Then, lower the heat to medium and simmer it with a lid for 15 min.
image: JJDKAA10.JPG
6

Boil 5 cups water

Add

  • 3 garlic cloves
  • ½ green onion
  • seasoned chicken

Skim off foams & fats

Simmer with lid

  • image: clock.png 15 min
  • Med Heat image: medheat.png

7. Chicken Broth

Take out the chicken pieces from the broth and put them in a bowl. Filter the chicken broth through a strainer.
image: JJDKAA11.JPG
7

Take out chicken

Filter broth

8. Seasoning sauce

In a bowl, mix 4 cups of chicken broth made in the previous steps, 1½ cup of soy sauce, ⅔ cup of cheongju (Korean rice wine) and ⅔ cup of sugar. Place chicken, carrot, potato, onion and 6 pieces of dried red chili peppers in a pot. Pour seasoning sauce over the ingredients.
image: JJDKAA13.JPG
8

Mix

  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 1½cup soy sauce
  • ⅔ cup rice wine
  • ⅔ cup sugar

Place chicken & vegetables in pot

Pour sauce over

9. Boil

Boil without lid on high heat for 5 min. Lower the heat to medium and simmer without lid for 20 min. Skim off the foams. Stir every 5-10 min to prevent burning.
image: JJDKAA14.JPG
9

Boil without lid

High Heat image: highheat.png image: clock.png 5 min

Redue heat

Simmer without lid

  • Med Heat image: medheat.png image: clock.png 20 min

Skim off foams

Stir every 5-10 min

10. Finish

When the sauce is reduced to half, add cut green onion and soaked glass noodles. Add starch water (Thoroughly mix 1 tablespoon of potato starch with ¼ cup of cold water.) if you like thicker sauce. Boil it for 5-10 min on medium heat or until the noodles are fully cooked.
image: JJDKAA15.JPG
10

When sauce reduced to half

Add

  • cut green onions
  • glass noodles

Add starch water (optional)

Boil Med Heat image: medheat.png image: clock.png 7 min

11. Serve

Serve with rice. Enjoy!
image: JJDKAA17.JPG
11

Enjoy!

Comments

stephanie's picture
stephanie replied on Permalink
My favourite dish!
evcim02's picture
evcim02 replied on Permalink
Hi ladies.I was wondering is this recipe the traditional one or a professional alternative created by you?because i am gonna cook this dish for a competition and looking for a generally aknowleged recipe.people usually blanched the chicken and cooked it with sauce.and the quantities of materials differs tremendously.if there is a story or information about this dish can you tell?
Grace's picture
Grace replied on Permalink
Hello evcim02, this is a traditional Korean recipe. Often in Korea this dish is called "An-dong Jjimdak" because it originated from An-dong which is a city in the province of Gyeong-sang-buk-do, Korea. "Jjim" means steam in Korean. "dak" means chicken. Some believe this dish goes back to the era of Joseon dynasty (1392 - 1897). More popular theory is that it originated from a farmer's market in Andong in the 80's. There was a "fried chicken" alley in the farmer's market but when people started to get tired of fried chicken. They needed to come up with something new. So they used traditional galbijjim seasoning on chicken and vegetables to create a new dish. Today this dish is very popular throughout all regions in Korea. There are quite a few restaurants that specialize in just dish and are very successful. What kind of competition is it? where? Hope it goes well!
evcim02's picture
evcim02 replied on Permalink
thank you so much for replying.it is for 'global "taste of Korea"contest 2014'.I have to make a video cooking a korean dish so i chose this dish 'cause it is easy to find ingridients.sorry for asking a lot but i have seen people use oyster sauce in every other recipes and a little less wine.(have already bought oyster sauce:(( )should i keep the recipe same or would it be good to replace some of soy sauce with oyster just to show that i'm using more materials? hope it is not a stupid question.(English is not my mother tongue)
Grace's picture
Grace replied on Permalink
Some people use oyster sauce. You can use it if you like. The reason why we don't use oyster sauce is most of oyster sauces have flavor enhancers which is not the healthiest. But, for people who don't care much about it use it to enhance flavor. So it's up to you. Maybe you can try both ways and decide. Happy cooking!
loannhong's picture
loannhong replied on Permalink
Ive made a couple of your recipes which were so so good! (Saeng sun jorrim, fried rice, the rolled egg, royal ddeok bokki, etc) Thank you for your recipes ! It helps me make home cooked meals for my son :) I tried this recipe last week and my broth didnt simmer down to less than half! It was like soup :( i measured and set timers for everything in the recipe. Did i do something wrong? Also, it was pretty salty. I think i chopped the veggies too small and the potatoes dissolved in the broth, which was my mistake. Maybe i needed to thicken up the sauce more. It was just a lot of liquid~ should i cut the chicken broth/soysauce/koreanwine down by half next time ?
Grace's picture
Grace replied on Permalink
Hi Loannhong, Thanks for visiting and thanks for your feedback. There might be a mistake in our recipe. Some of our recipes haven't been double checked for amounts yet. We've further developed most of our recipes since then but haven't updated everything on our website yet. So many things to do!! We will update this recipe soon. I am putting it in my to-do list now. Please check back next week. Happy cooking!
YOYO's picture
YOYO replied on Permalink
The dish turns out so so so salty with your recipe!!! I thought I read the recipe but I was correct! 1.5cups of soy sauce!!! And I just read the comment above last year commented the recipe is too salty, yet you didn't update after one year!!!! Waste all the ingredients I prepared for this dish! Don't ever post a recipe when you're not ready! It's simply an irresponsible action!
Grace's picture
Grace replied on Permalink
Hi Yoyo, Thanks for your feedback. So sorry to hear that it turned out salty. This recipe has been verified. We have updated our recipe since last year. But, it could the type of soy sauce used. Which brand did you use? Some soy sauce can be twice as salty as certain brands. Let us know and maybe we can figure out what happened. Thanks for understanding.