A little bit of sweet, a little bit of spice — we’ve got the perfect recipe to satisfy all your cravings.
We asked chef Lis Lam her favourite Korean dish for all you foodie Green Liners.
Lam is the founder and recipe creator behind The Subversive Table, a food blog dedicated to showcasing how to make easy Asian recipes from the diaspora. She showed us how to make juicy gochujang chicken in two ways, including an easy pairing with rice and eggs, which Lam says helped her get through graduate school (I might need to try it ASAP and ditch the SOS cereal).
If you’re feeling fancy, you can also elevate this dish and transform it into a modern-day bibimbap.
“I think cooking is a life skill,” says Lam. “This is one of those standard, easy, basic recipes you put on your repertoire. You can eat it multiple different ways. It’s always good.”
Watch her video below, download the PDF of her recipe or scroll down for the step-by-step instructions.
Ingredients
To make your gochujang chicken:
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 lbs)
- 1/2 to 1 cup of Gochujang — Korean fermented chili paste
- 1/2 to 1 large onion, sliced
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch of ginger, minced
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp of sesame seed oil
To make Lam’s graduate school survival meal:
- 1 serving of rice
- 2 eggs
- Some kimchi
- 1 serving of rice
- 2 eggs
- Some kimchi
To make Lam’s modern-day bibimbap:
- Sesame oil
- 1 serving of rice
- Corn
- Mozzarella cheese
- Green onions
- Perilla leaf
📸: Lucas Bustinski/The Green Line.
Step 1: MARINATE YOUR CHICKEN
In a large bowl, add one or two tablespoons of gochujang paste, two tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of mirin (or rice wine) and two tablespoons of sugar to balance out the heat.
Then, add one tablespoon of sesame oil, six cloves of grated or minced garlic and half a sliced onion.
Add in your chicken thighs and mix everything together. Ideally, your chicken should marinate for eight hours overnight, but it’s not mandatory.
Step 2: Cook the chicken
You can choose to cook the chicken in the airfryer or in the oven. The airfryer gets the juiciest chicken — caramelizing the marinade into crispy perfection.
In the airfryer: Set the air fryer to 400 F and set the timer for 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the thighs.
Make sure to flip the chicken back and forth.
In the oven: Preheat the oven using the broil button. Make sure the oven rack is six to eight inches away from the heat source at the top.
Broil the chicken for six to eight minutes per side.
Step 3: Plate your dish
For Lam’s graduate school survival meal: Slice the chicken and add it onto a bowl of rice.
Fry two eggs and add them to your plate. For your veggies, have it with a side of kimchi.
For a modern-day bibimbap bowl: Add a little bit of sesame oil at the bottom of a stone pot. Then, add rice, the sliced chicken, corn and some mozzarella cheese. You can add some sliced green onion and perilla leaves to garnish.
📸: Lucas Bustinski/The Green Line.
Cost breakdown
Grocery prices will vary from one store to the other, so the costs below are just an estimate.
- 8 chicken thighs – $13.56
- Gochujang, Korean fermented
- chili paste – $6.39
- An onion – $1.73
- Garlic – $1.52
- Ginger root – $1.32
- Soy sauce – $5.99
- Mirin – $5.68
- Sesame seed oil – $5.87
- Bag of rice – $14.05
- 8 chicken thighs – $13.56
- Gochujang, Korean fermented
- chili paste – $6.39
- An onion – $1.73
- Garlic – $1.52
- Ginger root – $1.32
- Soy sauce – $5.99
- Mirin – $5.68
- Sesame seed oil – $5.87
- Bag of rice – $14.05
About the chef
Lis Lam is a Korean American now living in Toronto. She started The Subversive Table as a way to make space for her third-culture identity. She says her recipes aren’t 100 per cent Korean, but they aren’t 100 per cent American or Canadian either. Lam’s culinary purpose is creating easy and accessible recipes for homecooks.
Lam’s advice for amateur cooks is to “just start cooking.”
“The best way to learn to be a better cook is to find out what you want to eat and then, learn how to cook it, and you’ll be more motivated to cook,” she said. Because she loves food, that’s been her biggest motivator.
You can read more about Lis Lam’s story, and her yummy recipes, by checking out her website.
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