Chef Jeong-sun
Aehobak-guk (애호박국, Korean Zucchini Soup)
A clean summer soup of Korean zucchini and salted shrimp, built on quick anchovy-kelp broth and finished before the half-moons lose their shape on a weeknight table.
Culinary Explorer
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Dak-gomtang (Chicken Bone Soup)
Created by
A whole chicken stretched into a clean, pale broth and tender shreds of meat, the everyday answer when beef bones cost too much and the table still needs comfort.
Soups & Stews
Korean
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
1 hr 40 min cook•2 hr total
Yield4 servings
Dak-gomtang lives or dies by the simmer. Boil it hard and the broth turns rough, the meat tightens, and the pot tastes tired before it reaches the table. Keep it steady and quiet, and one modest chicken gives you broth, meat, and supper for four.
This is not samgyetang, the stuffed summer chicken with ginseng and sweet rice. Dak-gomtang is plainer, more frugal, and more useful. My teacher would pull the meat when it was just cooked, then put the bones back in the pot. That is the part people skip. Meat and bones do not need the same time, and a good cook respects the difference.
Tonight this dish asks for patience, not difficulty. Skim the first scum, keep the aromatics simple, shred the meat by hand while it is warm, and season the bowl at the end so the chicken still tastes like chicken. Write it down. Memory is a borrowed bowl.
Gomtang names a Korean family of long-simmered soups, most famously beef bone soups, but households also made dak-gomtang when chicken was more available or beef was too costly. In modern Korean home cooking it sits beside baeksuk and samgyetang as a practical whole-chicken soup, but without stuffing, medicinal herbs, or ceremonial weight. Its place is the everyday table: broth over rice, shredded meat, scallion, salt, and pepper adjusted at the bowl.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken
Quantity
1, 1.4 to 1.6 kg
giblets removed
cold water
Quantity
10 cups
onion
Quantity
1 large
halved
Korean radish
Quantity
250g
peeled and cut into 2 large chunks
leek or scallions
Quantity
1 large leek or 4 scallions
white parts bruised
garlic cloves
Quantity
10
peeled
ginger
Quantity
15g
sliced
dried kelp (dasima) (optional)
Quantity
1 piece, about 4 inches square
kosher salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, divided, plus more to serve
black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to serve
freshly ground
scallions
Quantity
3
thinly sliced
toasted sesame oil
Quantity
2 teaspoons
soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang) (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cooked short-grain rice (optional)
Quantity
4 bowls
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickengiblets removed | 1, 1.4 to 1.6 kg |
| cold water | 10 cups |
| onionhalved | 1 large |
| Korean radishpeeled and cut into 2 large chunks | 250g |
| leek or scallionswhite parts bruised | 1 large leek or 4 scallions |
| garlic clovespeeled | 10 |
| gingersliced | 15g |
| dried kelp (dasima) (optional) | 1 piece, about 4 inches square |
| kosher salt | 2 teaspoons, divided, plus more to serve |
| black pepperfreshly ground | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to serve |
| scallionsthinly sliced | 3 |
| toasted sesame oil | 2 teaspoons |
| soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang) (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
| cooked short-grain rice (optional) | 4 bowls |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 5 to 6 liter soup pot with lid
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Large tray for cooling and shredding chicken
- •Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
- 1
Clean the chicken
Trim excess fat from the cavity and tail end, then rinse the chicken quickly under cold water and pat it dry. Do not soak it. You are removing loose blood and bits, not washing away flavor. If the cavity has dark clots near the backbone, scrape them out with your fingers because they cloud the broth.
- 2
Start cold
Put the chicken in a heavy pot with 10 cups cold water, onion, radish, leek or scallion whites, garlic, ginger, kelp if using, and 1 teaspoon salt. Starting cold draws flavor out gradually and gives you a cleaner broth than dropping the chicken into boiling water.
Pull the kelp out as soon as the water reaches a simmer, about 10 to 12 minutes. Leave it longer and it can make the broth slick and dull. - 3
Skim and simmer
Bring the pot just to a simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat so small bubbles rise steadily. Skim the gray foam for the first 10 minutes. Cover the pot halfway and simmer 45 to 50 minutes, turning the chicken once, until the thickest part of the thigh reaches 74 C or 165 F.
- 4
Pull the meat
Lift the chicken to a tray and let it cool just until your hands can bear it. Pull off the breast and thigh meat in large pieces, then return the bones, wings, skin, and any juices from the tray to the pot. This is the measure my teacher insisted on: cooked meat leaves the pot, bones stay and finish the broth.
- 5
Deepen the broth
Simmer the bones and aromatics another 40 to 45 minutes, still gentle, uncovered if you want the broth a little stronger. Strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids. You should have about 7 cups broth. If you have much more, simmer it down; if you have less, add hot water and taste again.
- 6
Season the meat
Shred the warm chicken by hand into bite-size strands. Toss it with 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon soup soy sauce if using, and half the sliced scallions. Seasoning the meat before it returns to the bowl keeps it from tasting flat inside a good broth.
- 7
Finish each bowl
Bring the strained broth back to a bare simmer and taste it. Add salt 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it tastes clean and chicken-rich, not salty. Put rice in each bowl if serving as gukbap (soup with rice), add shredded chicken, ladle over the broth, and finish with the remaining scallions and black pepper. Serve extra salt on the table so each person can correct the bowl.
Chef Tips
- •A whole chicken gives the best balance of meat, skin, and bone. If you use bone-in thighs instead, use 1.5 kg and simmer them 35 minutes before pulling the meat, then return the bones for another 35 minutes.
- •Do not chase whiteness by boiling hard. Some restaurants make cloudy chicken broth on purpose, but this home dak-gomtang should be light and clean. A quiet simmer gives you that.
- •Soup soy sauce adds depth without darkening the broth too much. If you do not have it, leave it out and season with salt. Regular soy sauce will make the bowl darker and sweeter than it should be.
- •A pressure cooker is a safe schedule change: cook the chicken, water, and aromatics 25 minutes at high pressure, release naturally 15 minutes, pull the meat, then simmer the bones uncovered 20 minutes. The hand-shredding and final seasoning stay the same.
Advance Preparation
- •The broth can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Chill it until the fat firms on top, lift that fat away, then reheat gently.
- •Shredded chicken keeps best moistened with a ladle of broth in a covered container for up to 3 days. Add it back to hot broth only long enough to warm through.
- •For a faster weeknight table, make the broth on Sunday and freeze it in 2-cup portions. Thaw, heat, add shredded chicken and rice, and supper is real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 650g)
Calories
595 calories
Total Fat
16 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
1430 mg
Total Carbohydrates
72 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
39 g
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