Braised gochujang chicken and vegetables
You’d think, wouldn’t you, that this kind of a bung-together-and-forget simmered recipe would be made for the slow cooker, wouldn’t you. So did we. But THREE tests and many chicken legs later (SO many bloody legs), we can hand-on-heart report that it is, in fact, way better and far less hassle to just simmer it on the stove. The dish takes less time, actually tastes better and, in the slow-cooker, the vegetables never quite get properly tender – even after 6 hours on high. Plus, the legs become a bit weirdly dried out, although we didn’t use as much liquid in the slow cooker as in this version (slow cooking doesn’t require as much liquid in general, as the stove-top equivalent of anything). We can also report from the trenches that it doesn't take much for a household of humans to quickly tire of recipe-tested chicken legs, no matter how delicious they are.
We took a cleaver to the boney ends of our drumsticks before cooking; trimming them off makes them look a little neater on the plate and also creates slightly more room in your saucepan. But you don’t need to do this if you’re not handy with, or don’t have, a cleaver. You also have the option of thickening the resulting sauce with a little cornflour – or not. We tried both ways and are agnostic on which version is better; we think we lean slightly toward the runnier, unthickened sauce but there’s not much in it.
SERVES 4-6
3½ tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste), or to taste
2½ tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
125ml (½ cup) light soy sauce
115g (⅓ cup) Korean rice syrup
80ml (⅓ cup) clear rice wine
2½ tbsp clear rice vinegar
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped or shredded ginger
500ml (2 cups) boiling chicken stock
12 skin-on chicken drumsticks (about 1.75kg)
2 purple sweet potatoes (about 400g), peeled and cut into 1cm slices
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1cm slices
400g small potatoes, halved if large
2 tbsp cornflour (optional)
3 spring onions, finely sliced
toasted sesame seeds, to serve
Combine the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, rice syrup, rice wine, rice vinegar, garlic and ginger in a bowl. Add the boiling chicken stock, then stir to combine well.
Place the chicken and vegetables in a large saucepan, then pour over the mixture in the bowl. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and cook for about 1 hour or until the chicken and vegetables are tender.
If you’re using the cornflour to thicken, carefully strain off all the liquid into another pan and bring to a simmer. Mix the cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water in a small bowl to form a smooth slurry. Stirring constantly, add the cornflour slurry to the liquid in the pan and bring back to a simmer, then continue stirring until the mixture boils and thickens a little. Taste the sauce then season with salt and pepper. Divide the chicken and vegetables among bowls, pour over the sauce, scatter with spring onion and sesame seeds, then serve with steamed rice.
