Samgyetang: Heat Beats Heat
Written by Joe Wabe
Many summers ago, when I first came to Korea and enrolled in a language course, I remember one hot summer day when our teacher took us out on a short field trip to experience the taste of Korean cuisine. The menu, as she described it, was going to be some sort of ginseng chicken soup called samgyetang (삼계탕). “Chicken soup on a hot day?” I remember asking with a bit of skepticism, but she was quick to reply, “Yes! Heat beats heat,” with a certain assurance.
“Let’s do this!” I thought as I prepared my mind for this challenge. After all, I come from a family of “chicken-soupers,” and I believed this act of defiance was going to be an interesting one. In my family, we love and worship chicken soup, and I was used to having it for all occasions – rainy days, Sunday lunches, hangovers, colds, late dinners, etc. – but never on a hot day! Our teacher explained that there are three days during summer considered to be the hottest – chobok (초복), jungbok (중복), and malbok (말복), according to the traditional Korean calendar – and in order to beat the boiling summer heat, samgyetang was a preferred dish to enjoy on those days. She also mentioned that it was considered highly medicinal due to one of its main ingredients being ginseng, which also gives the stew part of its name. The Chinese character for “ginseng” is pronounced sam, while gye is “chicken,” and tang means “soup.”
One of the reasons why I love this recipe is not only because it’s a power booster, but also because it’s very easy to put together. Within an hour (including prep time), you’ll be enjoying an aromatic, flavorful, fulfilling, and nourishing summer soup that’ll keep you going for a full day. This broth is rich and delicious, and if my grandma were still alive, I’d tell her this is nothing like any other chicken soup we’ve tried before.
Ingredients
1 small broiler chicken (about 1–1.3 kg)
2 fresh ginseng root
1 cup of sweet rice, soaked 1 to 2 hours before.
5–6 plump garlic cloves
2 fresh ginger roots
3 to 4 jujubes (dried red dates)
1 chopped green onion
1 tbs salt
pepper
6 cups of water
1 pack of milk vetch roots (these are sold together with other roots for samgyetang)
1 hot summer day
Preparation
- Rinse and clean chicken. Make sure the cavity is clean and dried.
- Stuff the chicken with the rice, 3 garlic cloves, and 2 jujubes then cross the chicken legs and tie them with a string.
- Add the water, chicken, ginseng, rest of jujubes and garlic, and the pack of milk vetch roots.
- Bring to boil and then simmer for about 40 min.
- Season the soup with salt and pepper.
- Garnish with chopped green onions and serve.
Your summer will be a lot cooler now. Have fun.
The Author
Joe Wabe is an established photographer and Gwangju local business entrepreneur. He has been contributing to the GIC and the Gwangju News for more than eight years.