korean fire chicken with cheese (cheese buldak)

Korean fire chicken with cheese. In Korean, bul = fire (or light) and dak = chicken, hence ‘buldak.’

This comes across as late night bar food (can’t you just see the empty soju bottles and dots of colored lights on the ceiling??), but it’s actually a (very) versatile recipe. As you can tell by the name, it’s a spicy one, but oh so tasty,

Oftentimes, in the scramble for dinner, I’m wondering what protein I should make—something quick, delicious, and simple that goes well with rice and/or noodles and heats up well as leftovers. You’re looking at it. You can eat this with or without the cheese topping and have it with white rice, fried eggs, pasta tossed in soy sauce and sesame oil, toasted bread, roasted potatoes, fries—it tastes good with ALL of these things.

When you make this, you’ll notice the juice from the chicken thighs mixing with the spicy sauce—do not throw this out—save the sauce as well—you will never look at a piece of toasted bread or leftover rice the same ever again. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

For 3 servings

• 3-4 boneless chicken thighs (about 1 ½ pounds) cut into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces

• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

• 1/4 cup of gochujang

• 1/2 tablespoon of finely ground gochugaru

• 1 tablespoon of (light or dark) brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons of apple juice

• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (for frying)

• 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce

• 2 teaspoons of rice or apple cider vinegar

• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

• Cut the chicken thighs into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces

• In a separate bowl, mix together the gochujang, gochugaru, brown sugar, apple juice, soy sauce, garlic powder, sesame oil, vinegar and salt.

Pictured: gochujang, gochugaru, brown sugar, apple juice, soy sauce, garlic powder, sesame oil, vinegar and salt

Mix it together!

• Add the chicken to the sauce and mix.

• In a pan, on high heat, with the tablespoon of vegetable oil, fry/stir the sauced chicken for 8-10 minutes.

• After frying for 8-10 minutes, turn off the heat.

• Cover the chicken with the cup of mozzarella cheese.

• The residual heat will melt the cheese on top, however, if you’d like a more golden/crisped top, you can heat up the oven to broil and cook the top for 2-3 minutes.

• The juice from the chicken things will have mixed with the sauce. I recommend having pieces of toasted bread or a bowl of white rice to accompany and mop up all the spicy goodness!