How Korean Chefs Make 1,700 Of Spicy Stew Over Wood Fires Every Day | Big Batches

Every weekend, Samgori Farms in Damyang County, South Korea, cooks 1,700 pounds of chicken and vegetables inside of their 40 wood-fueled woks. The final result, dakbokkeumtang, a spicy chicken stew full of potatoes, onions, and carrots, and a secret chili sauce. We visited chef Kim Chun-gu and his crew of 21 cooks to see what it takes to make dakbokkeumtang in such big batches. Cooking this dish begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Workers coat the tops of 20-kilogram iron woks with soybean oil and add handfuls of dried oak into the base of the grills. When the grills are ready, workers use propane torches to light the wood on fire. After five minutes, the woks reach their optimal temperature, and an entire bucket of the dakbokkeumtang mixture is poured inside. While maintaining the wood fire is challenging, it's worth the flavorful payoff. Oak wood has a smokier flavor than apple and cherry wood. It also burns at a high temperature without emitting too much smoke. Even though this dish is cooked on high heat, it still takes a while to cook. Thinly cut onions are added into the wok and cooked for a minute. At 11 a.m., the first batch of dakbokkeumtang is ready to be served. Workers wheel the woks out to the customers' tables and scoop the stew into metal bowls. And a single order costs around $55. When I was a kid, I always loved chicken more than anything else. Because of that I naturally fell in love with dakbokkeumtang. I like potatoes, sweet potato and vegetable dishes. I also like chicken breasts. Samgori Farms opened three years ago, and since then, business has centered around one dish. dish. Preparing for a weekend of cooking starts early in the morning, putting vegetables and chicken in the kitchen. The restaurant uses around 600 sweet potatoes, potatoes, and carrots every weekend, along with 1,000 green onions and onions. But the most important part of the dish is the locally sourced chicken. Once the chicken and vegetables have been chopped and added into the buckets, it's time for the most important part of the dish, the secret seasoning. The bright red gochugaru and gochujang paste help create the dish's signature color and spicy red pepper flavor, while the red wine helps get rid of the meaty smell. DAK bokkeumtang has been a staple of Korean cooking since the 20th century, following the mass production of poultry in the country. And while chicken might be a fairly new ingredient, a famous red chili has been grown and eaten in Korea for over 1,000 years. The stew used to be called DAK doritang, containing the Japanese word for chicken, dori. The National Institute of Korean Language decided to change it to DAK bokkeumtang, literally translating to stir-fried chicken soup. Today, it's typically served with white kimchi, cucumber pickles, and chive pancakes. And in some cases, there is a bonus at the end. At Samgori Farms, when most of the dish has been served, the remaining sauce is pushed back into the center of the wok. Ramen noodles are added in and enjoyed, so nothing goes to waste.