The fermented chili paste is a cornerstone ingredient of Korean cooking. Like most fermented foods and condiments, it packs a wallop of complex flavor, striking a balance between savory and sweet, with a pleasant, umami-laced funkiness and complex, smoky chili heat. Its flavor is potent—a little goes a long way—and it has a tremendous shelf life. (After opening, it can last in the refrigerator for two years.) It’s also extremely versatile; we use it in everything from dakgangjeong (sticky, garlicky, spicy Korean fried chicken bites) to simple vegetables (like zucchini or potatoes) and baby back ribs.
Gochujang gives proteins tremendous depth of flavor
But about that dakgangjeong, or what we’ve started calling “the real KFC” (Korean Fried Chicken). When editorial director J.M. Hirsch tried this chicken served up by street vendors in Seoul, he observed: “the coating is ethereally thin, yet as satisfyingly crisp as the perfect potato chip. The meat is so moist I have to check myself. Was it fully cooked? It was! And that sauce ... It hits every note, high and low, in that maddeningly delicious way that keeps you going back for more.” Our adaptation has that same depth of flavor, thanks to a gingery soy-based mixture that gets used two ways: first as a marinade, then as the liquid component of the batter that coats the chicken pieces. We fry the chicken twice for a crunch that stays, even after we coat it with the sticky, spicy-sweet gochujang glaze.
Don’t feel like frying? Gochujang does incredible things in a simple chicken stir-fry—in addition to the gochujang and chicken, all you need is a few pantry staples (like soy sauce and table sugar) and it takes half an hour to prepare, start to finish. It’s also the key to our hands-off-ish slow-cooked pulled pork—just toss a pork butt in a Dutch oven, along with gochujang, miso, hoisin sauce, ginger, and a bunch of cilantro, and let it all cook down until the pork is tender and succulent. Shred it up and pile it on some soft buns with miso-onions and gingery pickled carrots.
Honestly, there isn’t a protein gochujang doesn’t improve. Craving a whole roasted chicken? Make a gochujang compound butter and slather it under the skin to infuse the meat with spicy-sweet flavor. How about a beefy noodle bowl (that takes all of 25 minutes)? And if you’re a tofu fan—and you really should be—we have two options: A spicy-sweet braise that takes inspiration from the Korean soy-simmered tofu dish dubu jorim (we press the tofu first to keep it extra firm and ensure it absorbs as much of the braising liquid as possible) and a traybake of crispy “oven fried” tofu, brushed with a sticky-sweet gochujang-honey glaze, which concentrates and caramelizes in the oven (with tender-crisp, lightly charred bok choy on the side).
It can also perk up picnic salads like you wouldn’t believe. Add a little gochujang and toasted sesame oil to your next egg salad, and you’ll be astonished by just how deeply savory it is. (We also add peas; it’s a little unorthodox, but the pops of green color and flavor add a much needed fresh note.) And if you can get your hands on a rotisserie chicken and head of cabbage, you’re half an hour away from a punchy, crunchy chicken salad that’s savory, spicy, and way more interesting than the gloppy, mayo-drenched chicken salads you’ll find at the grocery store.
Even Italian pasta benefits from a little gochujang
You’d expect to find gochujang in chilled Korean noodle bowls, but it can also add tremendous depth and complexity to Italian food. (Trust us, it works.) Zuppa forte, also known as zuppa di soffritto, is an old-school Neapolitan dish made by slow-cooking meats with garlic and other aromatics, along with tomatoes and preserved chilies, until reduced and concentrated. The rich, thick, spicy paste-like mixture can be spread on crusty bread, though it’s more commonly diluted and used as soup base or pasta sauce. A combination of pancetta and deeply browned tomato paste anchored our version of the dish, but the preserved chilies were a little more difficult to approximate. We landed on gochujang, which may seem out of place, but the thick, fermented paste delivers a similar complex spiciness along with the notes of umami you get from fermentation.
It’s also fantastic in macaroni and cheese. We use a combination of super sharp cheddar, milk, and sodium citrate, a science-y sounding ingredient that keeps things creamy, without the flavor-muting qualities of a classic béchamel. (We also use sodium citrate to make our beer cheese, which, come to think of it, would be pretty excellent with a little gochujang mixed in.)
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