Samgyetang
A Korean soup eaten on the hottest days of summer — by local logic, hot food in heat restores the body's balance. It is served as a whole small chicken stuffed with glutinous rice in a milky white broth. Two things must be done right: soak the rice for an hour, since dry rice never cooks inside the bird, and fill the chicken only two-thirds full — the rice swells and would otherwise split the skin.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Soaking the rice 60 min
- Stuffing 20 min
- Simmering 90 min
- Serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the glutinous rice for an hour
Cover the glutinous rice with cold water and soak an hour, then drain. Dry rice inside a chicken cannot cook through in an hour and a half — it stays hard at the core even as the meat comes away from the bone.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chickens · 150 g glutinous rice · 10 cloves garlic · 6 pcs jujubes · 2 pcs ginseng
Clean the birds and cut off the tail
Rinse the chickens inside, remove any giblets and cut off the tail — its glands give a long-simmered broth an unpleasant note. Dry the cavity with paper before stuffing.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chickens · 150 g glutinous rice · 10 cloves garlic · 6 pcs jujubes · 2 pcs ginseng
Fill only two-thirds full
Fill each chicken's cavity with rice, garlic, 1–2 jujubes and a ginseng root, to two-thirds of its volume. Glutinous rice doubles — packed to the brim it splits the skin and the whole stuffing escapes into the broth. Do not force in rice that will not fit — add it to the pot later, where it lightly thickens the broth.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chickens · 150 g glutinous rice · 10 cloves garlic · 6 pcs jujubes · 2 pcs ginseng
Two-thirds, no more — glutinous rice doubles in size.Close the cavity with crossed legs
Cross the legs and tuck one through a slit in the skin, or tie with string. The seal must be tight, because rice will escape into the broth through any gap.
Ingredients: 2 pcs chickens · 150 g glutinous rice · 10 cloves garlic · 6 pcs jujubes · 2 pcs ginseng
Legs crossed and tucked — the seal has to be tight.Cover with cold water and heat slowly
Stand the chickens snugly in a pot, add cold water just to cover, then the ginger, the white parts of the spring onion, the remaining jujubes, any leftover rice and the chestnuts, if using. Too much water gives a thin broth — the birds should barely fit.
Ingredients: 2000 ml water · 30 g ginger · 3 pcs spring onions · 6 pcs chestnuts
Simmer 90 minutes until the broth whitens
Bring to the boil, skim, then cook 90 minutes covered over low heat, at a gentle simmer. The broth gradually clouds and turns milky — gelatine and fat from the skin and bones, plus a little starch from the rice. The chicken is done when a leg pulls easily away from the body.
Ingredients: 2000 ml water · 30 g ginger · 3 pcs spring onions · 6 pcs chestnuts
The milky broth is gelatine and fat from skin and bone.Do not salt during cooking
Add no salt to the pot. In Korea samgyetang is served deliberately unseasoned, with salt and pepper in a small dish alongside — pieces of meat are dipped in it, and everyone salts the broth to their own taste.
Ingredients: 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tsp sesame oil
Serve in a hot bowl with salt beside
Move each chicken into its own deep bowl with its broth and serve immediately, boiling hot. Scatter with spring onion and, if you like, add a few drops of sesame oil. Set the dish of salt and pepper alongside, and kimchi too if you have it.
Ingredients: 2 tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tsp sesame oil
Before you start
Ginseng fresh or dried
Fresh ginseng is faintly bitter and earthy; dried gives a milder note but needs soaking first. Without it the soup is still good, but it is no longer samgyetang — ginseng is the defining ingredient, not a garnish.
The chicken must be small
Korea uses young birds of about half a kilo — look for them sold as poussins. A large chicken will not fit a single portion, and the rice and the meat by the bone take much longer to cook. Two small ones always beat one large.
Eat it straight away
Samgyetang does not keep: the rice inside softens to mush and the meat disintegrates on reheating. If anything is left, pick the rice and meat off the bones and make a thick rice porridge (juk) in the broth the next day.
