Tag: East Asian
Korean-Style Chicken Noodle Soup
Korean Style Chicken Noodle Soup
It’s that time of year in MN; cold as fuck and lots of snow for the next 6 months. That means it’s soup time! This Korean chicken noodle soup is ready in an hour and is fairly easy to make. For being a chicken noodle soup, it is quite heavy having both potatoes and noodles. Starchy. The chicken used in this soup isn’t added into the stock like in other recpies, but is deboned, leaving the skin intact to the thighs. The bones are used in the making of the stock for the first 30 minutes of the boil. The chicken thighs are sautéed until cook through, allowing the skin to get crispy. They are added on top of the soup when bowling up. Once the stock has been scooped of bones, green onions, ginger, and scum, onions, garlic, potatoes, fish sauce, and soup soy sauce are added and simmered for 10 minutes. The type of noodle used in this soup is called Kalguksu, meaning “fresh hand cut noodles.” You can find these in the refrigerated section of your local Asian market. They come in portions of 5. Add 3 portions of the noodles to the stock and cook for 5 minutes.Portion out the soup and noodles into large soup bowls. Place 1 whole chopped chicken thigh across the top of the soup. Add a lot of green onions to the soup. Finish with some cracked black pepper. So much goodness.This soup is not good as leftovers in this preparation. The noodles will absorb too much of the stock, making them really mushy if you eat it the next day. What you can do is boil the noodles separately from the stock. Then you can add the noodles to the soup bowl, pouring the stock over. Then top with the chicken and green onions. Save the leftover noodles in a container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 lbs bone in chicken thighs
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 12 cups chicken stock
- 3 slices of ginger
- 2 whole green onions
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp soup soy sauce
- 1 head garlic minced
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 2 medium potatoes peeled and sliced 1/4” thick
- 3 portions kalguksu noodles
- 2 green onions chopped
- cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Debone the chicken thighs, leaving the skin intact.
- Add the chicken bones, ginger slices, and whole green onions to a pot filled with 12 cups of chicken stock. Cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
- While the stock is boiling, heat up cooking oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the chicken thighs skin side down.
- Cook for 5-6 minutes a side, making sure the skin is crispy and the chicken is cooked all the way through. Place the chicken thighs in a metal bowl and pkace a cover over it.
- After boiling for 30 minutes, scoop out all of the bones, green onions, and ginger slices. Skim off any scum from the chicken bones.
- Add in the 2 cups of water, onions, garlic, potatoes, fish sauce, and soup soy sauce. Simmer on medium high heat for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the 3 portions of Kalguksu noodles. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- Chop each of the chicken thighs.
- Portion out the noodles and broth into a soup bowl. Place a chopped chicken thigh across the top of the soup. Top with a lot of green onions. Finish with some cracked black pepper.
Bang Bang Chicken
Bang Bang Chicken
You may have seen bang bang chicken on Chinese restaurant menus. What they will bring you is chopped up chunks of chicken breast that been battered and deep fried covered in a chili sauce. This couldn’t be farther away from what real bang bang chicken is. Bang bang chicken gets it’s name from how the chicken was traditionally processed after being steamed: hammered with a wooden baton; creating a banging sound. You can use a mallet or a rolling pin the pound the chicken. Or you can completely skip this step and shredded the chicken with two forks.The sauce used in this dish has many complex flavors: sweet, spicy, savory, nutty, with a slight sourness from the chianking vinegar. After the chicken has been bang banged and shredded, the sauce is poured over. The chicken is garnished with green onions and even more chili oil. This chicken is extremely tender with a lot of spice. It’s currently eating the lining of my stomach as I type this. It’s 100% worth the agony.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 green onions
- 1 tsp salt
Sauce
- 4 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste
- 2 tbsp Sichuan chili oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp Chianking vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp ginger grated
- 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns ground
Garnish
- green onions chopped
- Sichuan chili oil
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- Place a plate inside your steamer. Create a bed out of the green onions.
- Place the chicken on top of the green onions. Season with salt.
- Steam for 30 minutes. Cut into the thickest part of the chicken to check and see if it’s cooked all the way through.
- Let the chicken cool. Using a mallet, hammer down the chicken.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks.
- Plate the chicken. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chopped green onions. If you want more spice, drizzle more chili oil over the chicken.
How to make Chili Oil in an Instant Pot
Ever eat at a Chinese restaurant and they have that chili oil at the table? Then you end up putting it on everything because it’s so damn good. Well now it’s time to learn how to make it for a fraction of the price of the store bought brands. Making this couldn’t be easier using the Instant Pot. The most important thing in making this chili oil is to not burn the ingredients. You want to keep the oil between 225 and 250 degrees. The Instant Pot has a custom temperature setting which makes making this street free. You can still make this on a stove top if you don’t have an Instant Pot. Just make sure to use a cane thermometer to make sure the oil doesn’t get too hot. If the ingredients burn, you will have to start over.Most cultures have some sort of chili oil in their cuisine, all made very similarly. This recipe is for a Chinese style chili oil, so I used ingredients in Chinese cooking. If you were to make a chili oil for Italian cuisine, you would you’d Italian crushed chili flakes and maybe some garlic and dried herbs in the oil. So experiment with making different oils. The chili flake is always the main ingredient, followed by aromatics steeping in the oil.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 5 star anise
- 3 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup crushed Szechuan chili flakes
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to the sauté function. Choose custom temp. Set to 230 degrees, Add your oil, cinnamon stick, star anise, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the Instant Pot. Cook for 30 minutes, giving an occasional stir. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Put the crushed chili flakes in a mason jar. Take a small piece of cheese cloth and put it over the jar, with a rubber band around it to hold in place.
- Take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Pour the oil into the mason jar. The cheese cloth will catch all of the peppercorns and star anise..
- Screw on the cover and let cool to room temp. Refrigerate up to 6 months.
Gamjatang (Pork Neckbone Soup)
Gamjatang (Pork Neckbone Soup)
Gamjatang is my absolute favorite Korean dish. So let me tell you a long drawn out story about it…In December of 2018, I was in Koreatown in L.A. at the Decibel Magazine Beer and Metalfest with my Metal homies Brian, Kevin, and Marcos. Mike showed up the next day. We had just finished watching Armored Saint at the Whiskey and made it back to Koreatown and were super hungry. It was after midnight. We stumbled into this 24 hour Korean restaurant called Yanji Gamjatang. We all ordered our food. I remember getting blood sausages with tteokbokki. It was really good. But what Marcos was eating is what I really wanted. He got a large bowl of gamjatang. It looked absolutely amazing. I kinda obsessed over it for months.I went back to Koreatown in February 2019 for a short vacation, mostly to eat. It was after midnight again and I went directly to Yanji Gamjatang. I ordered a bowl of gamjatang. It was massive. It was spicy. It was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. So I had to learn to make it.Gamjatang has a lot of steps in preparation, but all are very simple. The most important step is making sure the broth is clean and free of impurities. To do this, the neck bones need to be soaked in cold water to remove any excess blood. Then the bones need to be boiled for 8 minutes then washed under cold water. This will eliminate any scum that would float to the top of the broth from the bones. After these steps, the rest of the cooking process is a piece of cake.
Ingredients
Pork Broth
- 2-3 lbs pork neck bones
- 1/2 onion
- 2 green onions
- 6 garlic cloves
- 5 slices ginger
Seasoning
- 1 tbsp gochugaru pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp gochujang paste
- 2 tsp doenjang paste
- 1 tbsp soup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- salt and pepper to taste
Stew
- 6 oz cabbage
- 2 large potatoes cubed
- 8 perilla leaves roughly chopped
- 2 green onions chopped
Instructions
- Soak the neck bones in cold water for 1 hour, changing the water half way through.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Boil the neck bones for 8 minutes. Strain. Rinse and wash each bone under cold water.
- In a large stock pot, add the neck bones, onion, green onion, garlic, and ginger slices. Add 8 cups of water.
- Bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes uncovered. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for 50 minutes.
- While the bones are simmering, mix together all of the seadoning ingredients. Set aside.
- In another smaller pot, bring water to a boil. Blanch the cabbage for 1 minute.
- Scoop out the cabbage and drain. Add one tbsp of the seasoning mix and set aside.
- In the same pot of water, boil the potatoes for 10 minutes. Strain and set aside. Disregard how shitty this picture is.
- Uncover the pot of neck bones. Scoop out the onion, green onion, and ginger slices. Add in the cabbage, potatoes, and the seasoning. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in the perilla leaves and green onion. Cook for 5 more minutes.
