Sam Gye Tang - Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup - (삼계탕)

The MR is actually not really a fan of chicken, so I try and stay away from it as much as possible. But I thought I would go ahead and make sam gye tang anyhow since I haven't made it in a long time. Plus, the MR and Munchkin both enjoy the dak jook that I make with the leftover sam gye tang all the time.

Needed:

• 1 cornish game hen
• 3 ginseng roots (you can buy the freah kind if you want, but I tend to just buy the dry ones because it's a lot less $$)
• 4-5 dried chestnuts (or fresh ones)
• 7-10 whole garlic cloves
• 10 daechus (dried jujubees)
• sweet rice - enough to stuff the hen with
  

These are the items you will be using for your broth. Garlic cloves, ginseng root, chestnuts, and daechus.



Take your chicken out of it's package and give it a nice bath and make sure to drain as much blood out of the cavities as possible.



Bring the chicken to a boil in a pot of water and when you see this gunk start to appear, remove it from the heat.



Give it a nice rinse under cold water and make sure you carefully clean out the inside too. There's a lot of blood and gunk that gets accumulated inside after that quick boil. Once the chicken is cleaned off, you're now ready to stuff the chicken.



Add enough sweet rice to fill up half the chicken, then add a clove of garlic and a chestnut, fill the rice to to top and seal it off by positioning a daechu and garlic piece like this. You can go ahead and sew the chicken shut if you want to. But in my experience if you stuff it closed carefully like this and make sure there's a tight fit, most of the rice doesn't escape. Oh, and excuse me for making you stare at the a** of a chicken. =P



Clean the pot, add the chicken and fill with as much water as you can. Make sure you use a pot that is narrow and high to give the chicken a snug fit. You need at least 5 inches of water to cover the chicken because most of it will evaporate anyhow. So be sure to use a pot high enough.



Bring the soup to a boil and keep skimming any remaining fat that rises to the top. You don't want to boil the water too harshly. Make sure it's a slow boil. Cover the pot and let it boil for up to 3-4 hours. Every 30 minutes or so use a large ladle to flip the chicken over to ensure even cooking.



This is what the broth looked like after about 1.5 hours. I removed all but 2 daechus (jujubes) at this point, but left everything else in there.



About 3.5 hours later the broth was ready.



I took this picture for presentaton. You're ready to serve! You can tear the chicken meat away and add some soup. Add salt to taste with some green onions as garnishment and you can add rice directly to the soup and enjoy. Don't forget the delicious sweet rice inside the chicken!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Total cooking time: 90 minutes

Every so often, I will buy a Rorisserie chicken from the market and we will eat about 1/3 of it for dinner and then I use the rest for some chicken noodle soup.



I like buying the chicken flavored with some herbs.



Tear apart the meat and save the bones on the side.



Then I get out one of my trusty tea bags and fill it with about 10 whole garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of peppercorns and a few bay leaves.



I also place the smaller bones and some seasoned chicken skin into the bag.



Then throw everything into a pot with roughly 12 cups of water and 1 TB of chicken bouillon and let it boil for about 30 minutes or longer.



After 30 minutes, the broth will become rich and then you can throw in the shredded chicken pieces and let it boil for about 10 minutes.



Chop up your veggies...about 1-2 cups of each. I tend to use less carrots because I'm not a fan. =P



Add them in the following order: carrots, celery and onions last and let each boil for about 5 minutes before adding the next vegetable. Then finish it off with about 1 cup of egg noodles.



When the noodles are done, you're ready to serve. Season it with some SALT (I used about 1 TSP) and PEPPER to your taste.

Chicken Kalgooksoo - (닭칼국수)

My mom's favorite childhood comfort food is chicken kal gooksoo. She always talks about how my grandmother used to make the noodles and broth all by hand from start to finish. Well, we're NOT going to be doing that here today.  I will make noodles in the future, but today will be an instant day.  =P

Ingredients needed:

• Kalgooksoo Noodles
• Cornish Game Hen
• Broth: 5 dae chus (jujubes), 10 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs of ginger, and some large green onion
• Sauce: 1/4 CUPsoy sauce, 1/4CUP gook ganjang, 2TB sesame oil, 2TB red pepper powder, 1TB minced garlic, 2 sprigs of green onions, and 1 sprig of large green onion
• Vegetables – 1/2 squash, 1/2 onion, 1 small potato
  

STEP ONE: MAKING THE BROTH

              
 
This particular brand of kalgooksoo was recalled in July of 2009 so be sure to double check on it before buying.  I’ve since found another brand to buy.

You can basically use any type of chicken meat that has bones in it. Today, I decided to defrost a Cornish game hen I had sitting in the freezer.



Make sure to wash the chicken thoroughly and transfer it back into the clean pot.



I like using a pasta pot because it makes it easier later. You can use a regular pot, if you don't have a pasta pot. Doesn't really matter.



While the chicken in boiling, I prepare the vegetables. I use one whole onion, 5 dae chus, 10 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs of ginger, and some large green onion.



Wash and cut the veggies like this....



When the chicken starts to boil and you see all this stuff~~~



Remove it from the heat, throw away all the water and give the whole pot a good wash down. Give the chicken a little bath while you're at it too.



After everything is all nice and clean, add the chicken and the vegetables back into the pot and add enough water to cover the chicken.



Bring to a boil, and then cook on medium heat for about 2.5 hours. While boiling, you're going to need to keep an eye on the broth and skim off all the excess fat that rises to the top.



After about 1.5 hours, I take OUT some of the vegetables before they get too soggy and start falling apart in the broth.



Reduce the broth to about half and add more water if you feel like you need to.



I think I cooked the chicken for close to 3 hours before I finally pulled it out.



Look at how milky the broth is. Yummy~ You can also just cook sam gye tang and use leftover broth from that. There's not really much difference. I've made sam gye tang, then kalgooksoo, then dakjook using the same broth. Whenever I do that the MR jokes that he's 'chickened out for the next month'~



Then I let it cool and take apart the chicken and put it aside. I saved the bigger bones and placed it inside a teabag.



At this point I transferred the broth to an easy pour pot and threw the teabag full of bones back in there and added more water.



I let only the bones cook in there for about another hour and at this point I add some salt. You don't need to add too much salt because the kalgooksoo sauce is salty as it is. The broth is now done. This is actually tomorrow's breakfast, so at this point I just stored the chicken in the fridge.

Part II - Assembling the kalgooksoo...will be TOMORROW.

---

STEP TWO – SEASONING SAUCE

For my kalgooksoo sauce, I use equal parts soy sauce and gook ganjang with a splash of sesame oil.



I just mix everything inside a storage container so that I can pop it into my fridge until I need it.



Then I add a generous amount of red pepper powder (1-2 spoonfuls), about a spoonful of minced garlic, green onions, and large green onions.



Throw in some sesame seeds.



Mix it around really well and you're done. You can store it inside the refregerator until you're ready for it the next day.

---

STEP THREE:  ASSMBLING THE KALGOOKSOO

You can pretty much add whatever vegetables you want. I like to use onions, squash, and potatoes.



After cutting up the veggies, I add the chicken broth to a pan and throw in the potatoes and onions. The potatoes take a while to cook, so keep stirring away.



In another pot, I cook the gooksoo. You know that kalgooksoo is done when it boils over. Once it boils over, give it a taste test~ it should be done.



After the potatoes are ripe, I add the chicken from the night before.



Then I finally add squash and season it with a dash of salt and pepper.



Place the noodles into a bowl, put the chicken/veggie mixture on top and pour the heated broth on over everything. 


 
Do a taste test and then add some kalgooksoo sauce.  Enjoy!  Everyone in our family loves this and it’s all gone within the day.  You can use any leftover broth to make some dak jook.