Dak Juk: (Almost Spring) Chicken Congee
Mar 14th, 2010 by Yoko
I’ve been on a Korean cuisine kick lately. I think it has a lot to do with living near an HMart– we’ve been buying lots of ingredients to make Korean recipes, with delicious success. It also helps that the salespeople often offer free samples while shopping so that you can try before you buy.
I don’t know much about cooking Korean food, so Lipby kindly bought me a cookbook for my birthday, in which I’ve tried some of the recipes so far. I’ve also been reading Maangchi’s food blog and watching her entertaining videos.
I used her recipe for Dak Juk (jook, also known as congee or okayu, with chicken) here. I had thought I bought a package of cut-up whole chicken, but had mistakenly bought a package of whole chicken legs. It turned out just fine. I also used slightly less garlic than called for in her recipe, also because I didn’t buy enough. The garlic is what makes the dish– the cloves will melt into the jook and flavor it. I also added a couple knobs, unpeeled, of ginger, just for some contrasting flavor.
And do make the dipping sauce for the chicken– it’s addictive.
This was just like making homemade chicken soup, with an Asian twist. Americans have chicken soup when they’re feeling under the weather, and Asians have congee, so this is the best of both worlds.
