Spice Up the Grill

So I mentioned awhile back how I was in this Korean kick, but I always end up ordering the same thing at Korean restaurants. That’s Korean BBQ chicken.

Part of it has to do with the fact that I think eating chicken is healthier than the other popular dishes, which contains a lot of beef or short ribs (kal bi). The other part of it is I LOOOOVE the smell of Korean BBQ chicken. I don’t know if it’s the charring marinade or what, but I can smell Korean BBQ chicken a mile away and it always gets my stomach growling.

In surfing the Web, I couldn’t really find a recipe for Korean BBQ chicken. That might be because it’s a very Americanized dish served up as Korean fast food. Some of the recipes really looked just like recipes for shoyu chicken, which is basically teriyaki chicken. So below is my attempts to make Korean BBQ chicken, using the Korean kochujang hot pepper paste that I got at a Korean grocery store in Oakland.

The chicken turned out pretty good. One thing about this recipe is the soy sauce acts as a curing agent so your chicken does change in texture. I think that’s why sometimes it can seem a bit rubbery. For me, the main attraction is the cooking process because I just love the smell. So maybe this Memorial Day you can grill up this chicken. I bet you your neighbors will come around asking what you’re cooking. Enjoy!