Samgyetang- Korean Chicken with Ginseng Soup

Recently, Siwon of Super Junior tweeted a pic of samgyetang soup. Samgyetang is a Korean chicken and rice soup with ginseng, jujubes, and garlic. Lots of garlic.

I remember a friend of mine raving about the samgyetang she had in Busan when she had visited earlier this year. It also happens to be a favorite dish of one of my favorite idols, Hong Ki of FT Island.

The picture that Siwon tweeted along with the description from my friend had me looking up the recipe.

Photo Courtesy of Choi Siwon's Twitter

Now, I love to cook. And I like to cook as authentically as possible. If there's any inkling that a recipe may be otherwise, I move on. Lucky for me, there's YouTube. I happened to see this Korean ahjumma demonstrating dukkbokki in one video and found she had one for samgyetang. Hallelujah! Can't go wrong. It's simple with only a few ingredients. The only thing that kinda makes me squeamish is the whole ginseng root. But apparently to all Koreans, it's a necessity and it's good for you. Otherwise it would just be chicken soup.

Now that the weather is colder, I'm going to be making this. And hopefully post a review on this, unless I eat it too fast. I hear you're supposed to eat this in the summer, but I would love this to warm me up on a cold winter day.

Here's the video, you can also find it on Maangchi's page. (Of course I don't take credit nor own the video and any pictures on this post.) Check out the other recipes too on http://www.maangchi.com. Then come back to see a review, or let me know how yours turned out. Enjoy!

Ssam (쌈) or wraps

Ssam literally means "wrap" or "to wrap". They can be made out of anything you can imagine- lettuce, cabbage, seasoned meats, thin rice sheets. Think of Mexican tacos but Korean-style.

Ssam are normally eaten with a variety of stuffings. Some like to eat it with rice or bap(밮?), with meat, chicken or pork and topped with go chu jang sauce (a spicy pepper paste), garlic, onions, kim chee and/or maybe an assortment of veggies. Then, everything is wrapped up in the wrapper of your choice. (Take a look at the photo for an example. I don't own it by the way. I wouldn't think about taking a photo of something this yummy. It'll be gone in seconds. Credit goes to the owner.)

The tricky part is trying to shove it all in your mouth. If you've ever seen Korean dramas or Nichkhun in Mnet Scandal, you'll see how hard it is. If you're not careful, you can easily spill it all over yourself. And if you have a cute dress on, you do not want spicy pepper paste on it. It's best to eat with friends you are comfortable with as they won't mind if you look like a piggy.

If you do happen to eat on a date, it is customary (I believe) to accept a ssam that is wrapped for you. If you can not eat it all in one bite, please do cover your mouth and face away from your date.

I personally only eat it with family. I usually prepare mine using lettuce (Sang chu ssam (상 추 쌈) = lettuce wrap) with thin slices of beef that has been topped with go chu jang or dipped in a sauce made with peanut oil, salt and pepper. If I'm especially hungry, I put in some rice. Either way it's healthy and really delicious! It's perfect for hot summer days. I highly recommend using ice cold red leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce.

Hungry for some right now!