Chicken

Dakjuk

Name: Dakjuk
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h 50 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 1 Medium Whole Chicken; 10 Garlic Cloves; 500g Short Grain Rice; 1 Onion; a pinch of Salt; a pinch of Black Pepper; a drizzle of Sesame Oil

닭죽

Only a small number of ingredients are needed to make this super tasty meal!

Prep: 10m
Cooking: 1h 50m
Total: 2h

Dakjuk (닭죽) is a chicken and garlic flavoured porridge dish. It is made by boiling a whole chicken alongside garlic and onion to make a wanderful, deep broth in which rice is then cooked to form a porridge consistency.

Dakjuk is great for kids, the elderly and people recovering from illness as its non-spicy flavour and texture makes it easy to digest. It is Korea’s answer to how we use chicken soup in the west 🙂

This is a simple recipe to make and requires very few ingredients. It does take a while to boil the whole chicken to make the broth, but once it’s boiling in the pot you can go away and leave it to do its thing. I can’t think of too many other dishes that taste so good with so few ingredients!

As with all ingredients within my recipes, if you’re not sure what something is – or where you can find it – just click on its name in the ingredient list on the left to find out more!

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings

1 Medium Whole Chicken
10 Garlic Cloves
500g Short Grain Rice
1 Onion
a pinch of Salt
a pinch of Black Pepper
a drizzle of Sesame Oil

Method

1

Place the short grain rice in a bowl and wash thoroughly, 3 to 4 times, with cold water. Refill the bowl with cold water until all the rice is covered and place to one side.
2

Peel the garlic cloves and slice the onion in half. Fill a large pot 3/4 full of cold water and place over a high heat. Add the garlic and onion to the pot.
3

When the water starts to boil, carefully lower the whole chicken into the pot, ensuring the water doesn't overflow. Reduce the heat to medium, loosely place a lid on the pot and allow the chicken to cook for approx. 1 hour and 40 minutes. * Most chickens will come with cooking times on the packaging so adjust accordingly. The chicken I used in this recipe was 1.4kg and was cooked for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

1h 40m
4

Once the chicken is fully cooked carefully remove it from the pot into an oven tray, or similar. Make sure to also remove all the garlic and onion pieces from the pot.
5

Carefully pull off the breast and leg meat from the chicken and shred it all into thin strips. Discard the carcass.
6

Drain the water from the bowl of rice and then add the rice into the pot. Allow to boil over a medium heat until the rice is fully cooked and has expanded to create a nice thick porridge (this should take 10 to 15 minutes). Add in the chicken strips, stir well, and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes.
7

Transfer the dakjuk into bowls and season with a pinch of salt and black pepper and a small drizzle of sesame oil. Mix well and enjoy!