Easy Korean Sticky Chicken

November 4, 2015

Easy Korean Sticky Chicken


For someone who talks about food like 12/7 (the remaining 12/7 are dedicated to triathlon and yoga, obviously), I have some bad habits when it comes to eating.
Such as wolfing down my food.
Seriously, I sit down at the table and stuff my mouth with food in a very ungentlemanlike manner; as if someone was pointing a gun at my head screaming “I'm going to blow your brains out if you don't eat fast!

Easy Korean Sticky Chicken


And I can't even blame my mom for that, if there's one thing she taught me is to chew your food thoroughly.
Apparently, I haven’t learned my lesson.
It’s not only about good manners and etiquette though, chewing longer and being mindful about what you eat makes appreciate the food more. In addition, chewing thoroughly means it takes longer to finish your meal which gives you time to actually detect a satiety signal.
When you gulp down food instead, you don't feel satiated so you keep eating, which leads to overeating.

Easy Korean Sticky Chicken


But you see, when I make something truly delish like this Easy Korean Sticky Chicken I can’t help myself, I wolf it down, it’s just too good to resist.
A little hot, juicy, sweet, and savory, perfect with a steamy bowl of rice or better yet, cauliflower rice.
This recipe has become my go-to quick and easy weeknight dinner for the past few weeks.
To make it I use this Korean chili paste called gochujang.
It’s made with fermented chilis and has the most awesome smoky flavor; and it’s not nearly as hot as it looks/sounds.
I buy gochujang in an Asian food store, but I’ve seen it also in several supermarkets.
I have to be honest, gochujang is really something. If you haven’t tried it, you really should, it’s that good.

Easy Korean Sticky Chicken


See those sweet and sticky Korean chicken chunks right there? You want to make those. They’re so worth it!

Easy Korean Sticky Chicken                                                                                                             Print this recipe!

Ingredients
Serves 4

1 lb / 453 gr chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili paste)
3 tablespoons soy sauce (or coconut aminos)
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 scallions, green part only, finely chopped

Directions

In a bowl combine honey, gochujang, oil, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. Mix well until combined.
Place chicken chunks in a resealable bag (or a shallow dish) and pour marinade over it.
Seal the bag (or cover the dish) and let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (marinate overnight for fullest flavor). If you don’t have time to marinate, that's okay; it just won't be so deeply flavored.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and set aside.
Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, when sizzling add chicken and cook for about 8 minutes, or until cooked through, stirring every now and then. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Add the marinade in the same pan and cook for one minute, until the sauce begins to bubble.
Return the chicken to the pan and coat on all sides, cook for further 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and the chicken is caramelized.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and stir one last time to coat evenly.
Transfer to a bowl and top with chopped scallions.
Serve immediately!

Nutrition facts

One serving yields 291 calories, 10 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbs, and 37 grams of protein.

31 comments:

  1. Good golly - now this is some good looking gochujang! This chicken made me do a double take! An easy and fantastic recipe Mike! BTW - eating too slow can be a problem too - that's my problem, everyone would have finished and I'm still eating! Maybe I should use this chicken to practice eating faster with? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm literally the exact opposite eater! I'm waaaaaayyyyy too slow. And everyone looks at me like I'm crazy and why aren't I finished yet? My husband gets tired of sitting at the table and starts cleaning up. Plus, it gets cold! I need to speed it up a bit! This chicken looks amazing! And I love that it doesn't have a super long list of ingredients like a lot of Asian dishes do. Score!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am SO like you. Sometimes I eat and then stop and go " did I even chew that?"
    And this chicken would definitely lead to one of those times. Anything Asian and sticky is a winner in my books! Pinned!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So much flavor going on here Mike, love your chicken recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mike, I have gochujang on my radar for a while - I saw it a while ago on a food blog (cannot even remember which now), and the blogger raved and raved about it. I could not find it in my town, but I thought I would order it online

    totally forgot about it, but now I know I'll jump on the order and go for it

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yum the pictures are mouth watering. I love food and this sounds great I love trying new recipes!

    xoxoBella | http://xoxobella.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Looks amazing Mike! I think I need to invest in some gochujang asap. I do find that eating with chopsticks does slow me down a bit (obviously not a chopstick pro!) so I try to use that when eating stirfrys like this - I think it helps! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. i've always wanted to do that! i think the time has come :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I havent eaten asian food in solo long due to unhealthy choices. But its time to make that change by making this amazing recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I see what you did there, Mike. "I wolf it down." As in, you #WolfpackEats it down? Yeah, cuz that's what would happen if you showed up to our next Howl with a big vat (container isn't big enough) of this sticky chicken. Let's make that happen, mmmkay? #WolfpackItDown

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yumm! I could also picture the sauce as a great marinade for tofu or tempeh, maybe? And yes, I'm guilty of eating too fast too. It's stupid, it's not like I want the meal to be finished sooner, sometimes I really need to remind myself to slow down :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Man, your last four posts are killing me - so good and beautiful photos Mike. Finally catching up on reading my Feedly roll after a crazy 2 weeks of work.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ah, and I am the opposite, Mike! I eat so incredibly slow.
    Ray's mom is Korean and marinates pork in something like this (I think)...it's so spicy but so good!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your chicken recipes are always spot on, I'm so hungry right now and I really wish I had a gigantic bowl of this to 'wolf' down!

    ReplyDelete
  15. is this an actual Korean dish or an Korean inspired dish? We go out to eat at Korean restaurants fairly often and haven't came across sticky chicken.... it looks good and i'll cook it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. These were so delicious...I didn't have the Korean spice so I used 1 Tablespoon of chili paste. So sometimes I add a twist. I panfried some sliced carrots and Chinese cabbage, got a tortilla, toasted it, added a slather of cream cheese on it and then put the chicken and veggies on top...So many variations...so yum..keep those recipes coming!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Made this after a quick search for gochujang chicken. I'm not sorry I went with my gut and chose this recipe. Simply awesome, the best kind of recipe. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Is gochujang spice a very "hot spice"?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why is there 10grms of fat in one serving? Just curious, using chicken breast and looking at the rest of the ingredients, why is the fat content so high? That's 40grams fat in the whole dish- 4 servings. And it's only one pound of chicken breast. Anyone else find this to be a high fat content?

    ReplyDelete
  20. I just made this dish -- marinated it overnight but didn't have any ginger so left it off. The dish was excellent and my boyfriend would consider it one of his favorite chicken dishes.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Recipe call for 1 TBL of oil, then you say mix the oil with the ingredients and then put oil in the pan. How much oil do you put in the pan or in with the other ingredients? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This confused me too. I put the oil in the marinade as directed and then just added a tbsp to the pan as well to cook it and it turned out delicious.

      Delete
  22. This was excellent. We could not find gochujang paste but used the gochujang sauce in its place. Restaurant quality. The whole family loved it and it will go into the regular rotation.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I cannot wait to try this tonight. It is marinating now. I'll have whole grain rice with this chicken. Thankfully, our daughter bought the gochujang paste, so looking forward to that kick! Regards...

    ReplyDelete
  24. I know its not traditional to add a little Gochugaru to Sticky Chicken but it makes a really tasty dish, a delicious dish in my opinion. If you are someone that likes just a little spice only add a dash of Gochugaru powder. But, getting a bite of the the sweet-tangy Gochujang, with a kick of heat from the Gochugaru followed by the cooling rice is really “a perfect bite.”

    ReplyDelete
  25. This is amazing!! I tweeked a tiny bit. I add 1 teaspoon of Arrowroot flour to thicken the sauce quicker and I have it over broccoli. Yum!

    ReplyDelete