Spicy Chicken Boolgohgi Kebabs For Beer Making Folk...

The Man used to work for a certain well known once-rogue craft brewery, and he still loves to brew beer at home regularly. So yesterday was a brew day for him, and now we've got two big jugs of Belgian Pale Ale bubbling and fermenting in our living room (it was a veritable Fermentation Fest up in here this weekend).

impromptu brewers' dinner

Because brewing a crapton of beer is an all-day and usually outdoor affair, it can easily turn into a little bit of a shindig. And when you've got friends coming over to help you lift big, heavy, lobsterpot-like mash tuns and boil kettles, you certainly can't let them go hungry.

But it's also one of those somewhat regular and casual things that isn't quite like a party for which you plan menus and such. So you dig deep into the fridge and pantry to see what odds and ends you can feed a few hungry guys who are drinkin' beer while makin' beer and their significant others who come bearing potlucky type things later in the afternoon. And you try to space them far enough apart so no one thinks about how the food you're serving them doesn't match because you assume everyone gives as big a crap about the food you're serving as you do.

Let's see... There were corn tortillas and blended pico de gallo fixins, so fresh chips (fried in oil with a little dab of bacon grease) and salsa were put out.

And when the chips ran out there were figs, a small chunk of the Man's homecured brown sugar bacon from last week, a little baby chunk of Parmiggiano and some honey, hence Figs Two Ways:

And then for dinner, since you bought a tray of chicken thighs earlier in the day during your weekly grocery run so they're the only unfrozen protein in the fridge other than the catfish you also bought (the pork bones were placed in the freezer), you make spicy dahk (chicken) boolgohgi aka boolgogi aka bulgogi kebabs because no one doesn't love the flavor of boolgohgi and because kebabs seem to magically make more food out of less meat.

That, some perennially crowd-pleasing crunchy soy slaw augmented with some fish kebabs fashioned from the cod and veg provided by one (pescavegetarian) guest, some pork chops provided by another, a 12-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and some other beer odds and ends and !Voila!

Impromptu Brewers' Dinner.

Dahk (chicken) boolgohgi (BOOHLgohgee) is usually made spicy whereas the beef kind isn't. But the base of the marinade is quite similar. I like to use thigh meat because the texture, flavor and fat content holds up better to the marinade than breast meat. This recipe is specifically for kebabs, but you could certainly use whole pieces of boneless thigh meat or even the entire thigh if you like, and cooking times will differ.

Generally speaking, I'm not a big advocate of overnight marinating. There are very few proteins that won't cure (essentially turn into ham is the way I like to think of it) under the saltiness of most marinades if left to sit in them overnight. The marinating point of diminishing returns is even earlier on meat that's cut kebab-size (1" to 1.5" cubes). Ideally, I would let this marinate for 45 minutes to an hour, and no more than two hours.

SPICY KOREAN CHICKEN BOOLGOHGI KEBABS
Makes about 12 kebabs
Serves 4-ish

- 12 to 15 bamboo skewers soaked in water for at least an hour before they go on the grill

- 2 to 2.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into roughly 1.5-inch *cubes* (to the extent that you can cut chicken thigh meat into cubes, which is to say not really)

If you can't find the boneless, skinless meat, just get a roughly 3.5 pound tray of chicken thighs, remove the skin and trim the meat off as close to the bone as possible. I did, and made my weekly chicken stock from the scraps (only I left a little extra meat around the bone to feed Honeydew).

- 2 Tablespoons minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root (or you could use about 1/4 teaspoon dry ginger powder)
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- 1/8 cup sugar
- 1/8 cup gochoojahng (Korean red chili paste) aka gochujang (you can substitute with sriracha - not quite the same, but you'll get a tasty result)
- 1/8 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1.5 Tablespoons neutral oil (like vegetable, canola, grapeseed)

- 1 large onion, cut into 1" pieces for skewering and tossed with 2 teaspoonfuls of oil

1) In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the onion, making sure to incorporate all of them thoroughly.

2) Cover the bowl and set in the fridge to marinate (about 1 hour ideally, and not more than 2). Remember to take the meat out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you're ready to grill.

If you're using a charcoal grill, start your coals about 20 to 25 minutes before you want to grill. You want a gentle, medium low heat over which to cook these kebabs.

If gas, just pre-heat your grill to medium low 5 to 7 minutes before cooking.

3) Skewer your kebabs so they look like this:

6 single layers of onion with 5 roughly 1" layers of chicken skewered between them. As you've probably discovered by now, it's a little challenging to get 1" cubes of meat from chicken thighs, but you generally want a 1" thickness of meat between veg, so you might have to add odd pieces of chicken to the bigger ones to achieve this thickness.

I used only onions primarily because I think it tastes simple and delicious this way. I don't think other traditional kebab vegetables go as well with this recipe. Plus there was soy slaw on the side, which complemented the kebabs quite nicely.

Everyone seems to *LOVE* this slaw.

4) Over a medium low grill, cook the kebabs  about 15 minutes, covered, turning them every 5 minutes.

They should look like this close up:

A little spicy, slightly sweet yet savory and super tasty with some plain steamed rice (I still can't seem to keep most white folk from dousing their steamed rice with soy sauce. :/) and a bite of that slaw.

This marinade, by the way, also works for dwaeji boolgohgi, which is spicy Korean style pork BBQ, and is especially delicious when made with thinly sliced pork belly. I often leave the ginger out when I make that, though.

A spicy/salty/sweet combo that's always a huge hit, and too easy not to try, really. :)

shinae

P.S. Here's the chicken stock:

Before china cap but after I removed the
meaty bones for Honeydew...

after china cap :)