Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang

This Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang comes together easily, all in one pot, with only 15 minutes of prep. Boneless chicken thighs and spinach are simmered in sweet, spicy, garlicky chili sauce that's to die for. The key to this easy flavorful recipe is store-bought Gochujang (Korean chili sauce). When you see how easy this amazing sauce is, you'll want to cook everything with it.

Gochujang is Korea's favorite chili sauce and an essential cooking ingredient in Korean cuisine. Gochujang is made from fermented soybeans and chilies. It has a wonderful range of sweet, spicy and umami flavors. You can purchase Gochujang at Asian markets, online and in the Asian section of many grocery stores.

The sauce for this Korean chicken stew has a good amount of Gochujang, mixed with sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and brown sugar. This mixture of ingredients is pure heaven. I have become totally enamored with it and I've been trying out a variety of different recipes using this sauce. Last night I marinated salmon in it - wonderful! 

Update: My newest obsession with this amazing sauce is this Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs Recipe.

How To Make Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang

To make the sauce for this stew, store-bought Korean Gochujang Sauce is mixed with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, brown sugar.  For the stew, you'll need boneless chicken thighs sliced into bite-sized strips, lots of fresh baby spinach, and green onions.

1. Marinate the chicken: Put the chicken and green onion bottoms in a big bowl, add sauce ingredients, toss to combine and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Simmer the Stew: To cook the Korean chicken stew, bring ⅓ cup of water to a boil in a heavy pot. Add the chicken and marinade ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. That's it, done.  I love that there's only one pot needed here and no messy or oily sautéing. An easy recipe.
3. Stir in Spinach and Scallions: After the stew cooks for 30 minutes, throw in the sliced green onion tops and fresh baby spinach leaves and stir until the spinach is wilted. Don't be alarmed if when you add the spinach to the pot it comes up to the top or even higher. Raw spinach is mostly water and it's about ten times more voluminous when raw than when cooked. As soon as the spinach makes contact with heat it will start to deflate. Just keep stirring and tossing the spinach into the hot stew and within a minute or two it will be perfectly incorporated.

How To Serve Korean Chicken Stew

This Korean chicken stew calls out for rice to soak up all the delicious sauce. I've served it with white rice because it's more popular in my house than brown. But I think brown rice would be delicious too and you'll get the added nutritional benefits of a whole grain. While your stew is simmering and filling the air with its incredible aroma, you'll have just enough time to set the table and make a pot of rice.

This Korean chicken stew is best enjoyed hot. I like to serve it in shallow bowls, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and a big self-serve bowl of rice on the side.

Other delicious easy chicken recipes from around the world

• Chinese Orange Chicken
• Curried Butternut Squash, Lentil and Chicken Stew
• Asian Honey Soy Chicken
• Quick Chicken Pizzaiola
• Chicken Piccata

This recipe is minimally adapted from a recipe in Cooking Light Magazine. Cooking Light is one of my long-time favorite recipe sources for delicious healthy recipes.

Here's the recipe for Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang Sauce. If you try this recipe I hope you'll come back to leave a rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think.

Korean Chicken Stew with Gochujang Sauce

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★★★★★

5 from 15 reviews

• Author: Lisa
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 4-5 servings 1x

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Description

An easy one-pot recipe for Korean chicken stew with spinach simmered in an addictive sweet and spicy sauce that uses store-bought Gochujang. Serve this with rice for a delicious meal that the whole family will love.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat and cut into ½-inch strips
• 1 large bunch of green onions, cut in half crosswise so the bottoms (white and light green part) are separate from the dark green tops. Cut the bottoms into ½-inch pieces. Slice the tops thinly.
• ⅓ cup Gochujang (Korean chili sauce)
• 2 ½ tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of minced ginger root (from a 3-inch piece)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 large cloves)
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 8-10 ounces of fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 3 cups of cooked rice (white or brown) to serve with the stew

Garnish: 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

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Instructions

1. Put the chicken, green onion bottoms and all the marinade ingredients: Gochujang,  soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and brown sugar, into a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat ⅓ cup water over high heat in a Dutch oven or a heavy pot with a lid. As soon as the water boils, add the chicken and all the marinade ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Give the stew a stir and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes more, to thicken the sauce.
3. While the stew is simmering, get your rice cooking.
4. Remove stew from heat and immediately add green onion tops and spinach to the pot. Stir and toss until the spinach has wilted from the heat of the stew.
5. Divide the stew among shallow bowls. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with rice.

Notes

Nutrition information for this recipe is calculated for the stew only and doesn't include the rice.

Nutrition information is calculated by Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator for websites. We strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but nutrition information can vary based on many factors. If your health and well being is in question we recommend you check with a licensed dietitian or nutritionist.

• Prep Time: 15 min
• Cook Time: 30 min
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stove top
• Cuisine: Korean

Keywords: Korean chicken, spicy Korean Chicken with spinach, chicken with Gochujang sauce and spinach, quick and easy Korean chicken stew

Originally published Nov 29, 2018. Updated May 10, 2021 with a few new photos, clarifying details and step-by-step instructions added to the written post. The same delicious recipe!