Samgyetang: Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup with Sweet Rice and Jujube

⏱ 110 min · Serves 2

A whole young chicken stuffed with sticky rice, garlic, ginseng and jujubes, simmered until the broth turns milky and restorative. This is Korea's answer to feeling human again — clean, deeply savoury and gently sweet, finished at the table with sea salt, pepper and a scatter of spring onion.

Per serving: 690 kcal · 62.0g protein · 45.0g carbs · 28.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 small whole chicken (poussin/spring chicken), about 800g–1kg
• 80g sweet glutinous rice (chapssal)
• 2 fresh ginseng roots (or 2 dried ginseng roots, soaked 30 min)
• 6 dried jujubes (Korean red dates)
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• 20g dried astragalus root (optional, for the broth)
• 2 chestnuts, peeled (optional)
• 1 tbsp goji berries
• 2 litres cold water
• 4 spring onions, 2 halved for the pot, 2 finely sliced to serve
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• Flaky sea salt and coarse black pepper, to serve

Method

1. Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in cold water for 1 hour, then drain well.
2. Trim excess fat from the chicken's cavity and neck, and rinse it inside and out under cold water. Pat dry.
3. Stuff the cavity with the drained rice, 4 garlic cloves, 2 jujubes, 1 ginseng root and the chestnuts, leaving a little room for the rice to swell. Cross the legs and tie them tightly with kitchen string, or thread a small skewer through the skin to seal the opening so the rice stays put.
4. Sit the chicken breast-up in a deep pot that fits it snugly. Add the remaining garlic, jujubes and ginseng, the astragalus if using, the halved spring onions, and pour over the cold water so the bird is just covered.
5. Bring to the boil over high heat, then skim off any grey foam. Reduce to a bare simmer, cover, and cook for 70–80 minutes, until the thigh meat pulls easily from the bone and the rice inside is soft. Top up with hot water if the level drops below the bird.
6. Add the goji berries in the last 5 minutes. Taste the broth — it should be milky and mildly sweet. Do not salt the pot.
7. Carefully lift the chicken into two deep bowls (or serve whole in the pot at the table) and ladle over the broth with the garlic, jujubes and ginseng.
8. Serve with small dishes of flaky salt mixed with coarse black pepper for dipping the meat, plus sliced spring onion and sesame seeds to scatter. Break the bird open at the table and spoon the rice into the broth.