This delicious Instant Pot Dakdoritang, or Spicy Korean Chicken Stew, is the ultimate comfort food! Tender, juicy chicken drumsticks are braised in a sweet and spicy gochujang sauce. Soft onion, potatoes, and carrots crumble into the soup for a hearty and soul-warming meal that the whole family will love!
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🍗 What Is Dakdoritang?
Dakdoritang (닭도리탕), also called dakbokkeumtang (닭볶음탕) or dakmaeunjjim (닭매운찜), is a classic Korean dish. A whole chicken is cut into parts and braised on the stovetop in a sweet, spicy, and savory red chili marinade. Traditional vegetables include onion, carrots, potato, and green onion. They call cook together to melt into the most mouthwatering and cozy braised chicken stew.
My husband, who grew up in Seoul, absolutely loves spicy dak dori tang and requests it every week. It's also one of my favorite recipes to meal prep because it's easy to double or triple, plus it stores well. Make life a breeze by cooking dakdoritang in the Instant Pot - it's basically a dump and stir! The pressure cooker allows for effortless cooking and quick flavor infusion. It couldn't be easier, which means you truly can (and should) make Korean style chicken soup every week!
Why You'll Love It
- Easy: This delicious chicken stew is a cinch thanks to the Instant Pot. Dump all the ingredients into the pressure cooker, let it do its thing, and that's it! Very little prep and maintenance required in this recipe.
- A whole meal: Dakbokkeumtang consists of meat (chicken drumsticks), vegetables (onions and carrots), and starch (potatoes). You have all the components of a balanced meal in one recipe.
- Pantry staples: 15 ingredients may seem like a lot, but half of them are pantry essentials for Korean cooking. Put them to good use with Korean Shrimp Tacos or Rabokki!
- Quick: This classic Asian dish only takes 35 minutes to prep and cook! Plus it's all made in one pot.
🧂 Ingredients
- Chicken: I highly recommend bone-in, skin-on chicken for maximum flavor. Traditionally, a whole chicken is cut into parts and braised for this Korean stew. However, chicken drumsticks are very popular and personally my favorite for dakdoritang.
- Gochugaru: Korean ground red chili flakes. There are different levels of coarseness and spice - I like to use finely ground powder in this marinade.
- Mirin: Rice wine that's similar to sake, but sweeter and with less alcohol. Do not use rice wine vinegar as a substitute - they are very different ingredients.
- Gochujang: Fermented Korean pepper paste that forms the base of our sauce. It's smoky, spicy, and a little sweet. Like gochugaru, there are varying levels of spice so start with mild if you're unfamiliar with this ingredient.
- Honey: For sweetness. Substitute with white or brown sugar.
- Soy sauce: I always recommend using low or reduced sodium for better control of the seasoning.
- Chicken broth: My favorite is Bonafide Provisions because of their clean ingredients. You could substitute with water but broth will add more depth of flavor.
- Onion, potato, carrots, ginger, and garlic: Classic vegetables for Korean chicken stew.
- Green onion: Reserve the dark green parts for the stew, while the pale green and white parts will serve as garnish.
- Sesame oil and seeds: We add sesame oil at the end to add richness. Use toasted sesame oil if you can.
Where Can I Find The Asian Ingredients?
- Gochugaru: You can find a very large selection at Asian supermarkets, especially Korean ones like H-Mart. Amazon, Weee!, and some conventional grocery stores have it available, but it's harder to find a high quality powder form online.
- Mirin: Widely available at conventional and Asian supermarkets. My favorite is Kikkoman (Japanese) but you can also get the Korean version, usually labeled as mirim.
- Gochujang: This paste is very popular and easy to find. Trader Joe's recently came out with one, but you can also find it at Whole Foods, Amazon, or Weee! I prefer going to H Mart because they have a huge wall of them with different spice levels. My favorite brand is CJ Haechandle.
Substitutions & Variations
- You can use use any part of the chicken you'd like. Bone-in dark meat will have the best flavor. Chicken wings, thighs, or a whole chicken are commonly used. You may need to add more cooking time if using large chicken pieces.
- Add your favorite vegetables to this soup. Mushroom, Korean radish, and sweet potatoes are popular additions to dakdoritang.
- To make a less-spicy dak dori tang, use mild gochujang. Halve the gochugaru and start with 2 tablespoon gochujang until you're comfortable with the spice levels of your condiments. If it's still too spicy, dilute it with more chicken broth.
🔪 How To Make Instant Pot Korean Spicy Chicken Stew
⬇️ Please scroll down to the recipe card to see full ingredient amounts and instructions.
STEP ONE: First, season the chicken with a generous amount of salt and pepper, then set aside. Doing this first allows the seasoning to penetrate into the meat while you continue with the rest of the recipe.
STEP TWO: Then, prepare all your fresh ingredients. Peel the carrots and potato. Chop the onion, carrots, and potato into bite-sized pieces. I like to keep the potatoes and carrots on the larger side so they can still have a little texture. Finely mince (or grate) the garlic and ginger. Then cut the dark green parts of the green onion to 1" pieces and thinly slice the lighter parts for garnish.
STEP THREE: Add the gochugaru, mirin, gochujang, honey, soy sauce, liquid (either broth and/oor water), and a pinch of salt and pepper into the Instant Pot pressure cooker. Give it a quick whisk.
STEP FOUR: Next, add all the vegetables and meat into the pot. Mix everything together - I use cooking gloves to evenly mix everything by hand. Then seal the Instant Pot, press the "Pressure Cook" button (make sure it's on the High Pressure setting), and set the timer to 6 minutes. Let release naturally for 5 minutes before doing a quick release.
STEP FIVE: Stir in the sesame oil and seeds. Season to taste and let cool slightly before serving.
💭 Top Tips
- Use bone-in chicken for the best flavor. Chicken drumsticks are my favorite to use in dakbokkeumtang, but wings or thighs would also work great. Feel free to use a mix of these as well.
- If your drumsticks or chicken pieces are very large, cut slits through the skin and meat to allow the spicy sauce to penetrate into the meat.
- Season the chicken first. This will give the salt and pepper time to work into the meat while you make the marinade and prep the veggies. I recommend waiting 10-15 minutes to allow for penetration.
- Dakdoritang is traditionally served with a bowl of white rice. You could also serve it with ramen noodles, tteokbokki rice cakes, or Vietnamese Garlic Noodles.
🥡 Storing & Freezing
Storing: Let any leftover Instant Pot Dakdoritang cool completely. Then store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freezing: Dak dori tang is great to double and freeze! But the potatoes may become soft and grainy after thawing, so you can leave them out if you plan to freeze.
To freeze, first let the stew cool completely. Then store in heavy plastic zip-top bags or air-tight containers while leaving ½" space at top. Keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To thaw, let the chicken stew defrost in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Reheating: Microwave in 1 minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until hot. You can also cook over low heat on the stovetop until warm. Add a splash of broth or water as needed.
📖 Recipe FAQs
Yes you can! Bone-in will provide more meaty flavor, but boneless will still work just fine. As long as the meat is cut into individual parts (individual chicken breasts, thighs, etc), you can keep the cooking time the same.
My personal favorite are Russet, or Idaho, potatoes. They're affordable and I love the fluffy texture. They become very soft and crumbly once cooked, but if you like more texture to the potato, use a Yukon Gold or waxy potato. Even sweet potatoes would work!
It depends on the heat level of the gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) and gochujang (Korean chili paste). You can find these at the Asian supermarket with varying levels of spice. Start with mild and if needed, decrease the amount of both ingredients to your preferred spice.
🍽 Looking For More Asian Recipes?
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below and consider leaving a comment. It's always greatly appreciated!
📋 Recipe
Instant Pot Dakdoritang (Spicy Korean Chicken Stew)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken drumsticks
- 2 tablespoon gochugaru
- 2 tablespoon mirin
- 3 tablespoon gochujang
- 1½ tablespoon honey
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup chicken broth or water
- ½ onion chopped
- 1 Russet potato peeled and quartered
- 2-3 carrots peeled and chopped
- ½" knob ginger minced; about 1 tsp
- 5-6 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
- 3-4 green onion dark parts cut into 1" pieces and white parts thinly sliced for garnish
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds plus more for garnish
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry. Season all over with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper, then set aside.
- To the Instant Pot, add gochugaru, mirin, gochujang, honey, soy sauce, broth, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Add onion, potato, carrot, ginger, garlic, and dark green parts of the green onion. Nestle in chicken drumsticks and mix until everything is evenly coated.
- Place the lid on and seal the Instant Pot. Cook on Manual Pressure: High for 6 minutes, then let release naturally for 5 minutes before doing a quick release.
- Stir in sesame oil and sesame seeds. Season to taste. Serve hot and garnish with light parts of green onion, plus additional sesame seeds if desired.
Notes
- You can use use any part of the chicken you'd like. Bone-in dark meat will have the best flavor. Chicken wings, thighs, or a whole chicken are commonly used. You may need to add more cooking time if using large chicken pieces.
- If your drumsticks or chicken pieces are very large, cut slits through the skin and meat to allow the spicy sauce to penetrate into the meat.
- To make a less-spicy dak dori tang, use a mild gochujang. Halve the gochugaru and start with 2 tablespoon gochujang until you're comfortable with the spice levels of your condiments. If it's still too spicy, dilute it with more chicken broth.
Nutrition
👩🏻🍳 Products I Used
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Nicole
So delicious. I used 2 T gochujang and 1T of gochugaru and heat was perfect for the kids. I also put on sautee mode for about 5 min to thicken the sauce. Next time, I plan microwave veggies separately and add at the end so they keep their texture, and will use a bit more honey. If I have time, I may also marinate the chicken in advance. Will def make again soon! Thank you!
Jessica
Thank you so much Nicole!
D
Thanks for a great dinner tonight!
Jessica
Thanks D!
Cordelia
I made this and it was delicious- I used boneless chicken because that's what I had but it still came out fantastic! My two year old begged to try it because it smelled so good and even though it was spicy he said it was so tasty!
Jessica
Love it! Thanks Cordelia!
Tiphanie
I’ve made this twice so far… first time with rice, second time with instant ramen noodles! My whole family loves this recipe & it’s so easy in the instant pot! I used boneless thighs, because that’s what I usually have on hand. Thank you for the recipe! It’s a winner in this house.
Jessica
So glad to hear your family loves it! Thank you!