I went to AllRecipes recently looking for inspiration, and 90% of what it was showing me was Korean. No complaints there!

This dish ended up being the winner, and it’s pretty delightful/delicious! It’s also simple – the gochujang is really the only slightly unusual ingredient, and that’s certainly been in quite a few of my recipes lately.

Many of the comments on the AllRecipe page emphasize that using a cut of chicken with bones is important to the flavor. They recommend drummettes, which my supermarket didn’t have, so I went with drumsticks. (Apparently, as the name hints, drummettes are smaller.) They worked fine, although for the portions I took to work for lunch, I shredded the chicken off the bone while packing it so I didn’t have to make a mess in front of people.

Lunch!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds chicken drummettes/other bone-in cut of chicken
• 2 large potatoes, cut into chunks
• 2 carrots, cut into 2″ pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 heaping tablespoons Korean hot pepper paste (gochujang)
• white rice, for serving

In a large pot, combine the chicken, potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic over medium heat.

Pour the water and soy sauce over the chicken, then stir in the sugar and gochujang.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 45 minutes. Because this was so little liquid, lots of the chicken and potato were above the line of the liquid, so I covered the pot for the first half hour, stirring every 5-10 minutes, to ensure all of the chicken was cooked fully. For the last 15 minutes let it simmer uncovered, to thicken the sauce. You’ll find that as the chicken and veggies cook, they release some of their own moisture so you wind up with much more than the 3/4 cup of liquid you start with.

Serve over rice. Easy!

Tak Toritang

From AllRecipes.

• 2 1/2 pounds chicken drummettes/other bone-in cut of chicken
• 2 large potatoes, cut into chunks
• 2 carrots, cut into 2″ pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 heaping tablespoons Korean hot pepper paste (gochujang)
• white rice, for serving

In a large pot, combine the chicken, potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic over medium heat. Pour the water and soy sauce over the chicken, then stir in the sugar and gochujang. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 45 minutes. Cover for the first half hour, except when stirring every 5-10 minutes. For the last 15 minutes let it simmer uncovered, to thicken the sauce.

Serve over rice.