Chicken Skewers or Dakkochi

Most people traveling abroad find that foods sold on the street are very good and are much cheaper than in some fancy restaurant. I did not travel a lot, but as grew up in Vietnam, I agree with this statement. Reading more and more in the travel magazines makes me interested in finding out more about all the recipes which create a simple but tasty street food. Let's start with this South Korean Dakkochi recipe. It is a chicken skewered with green onions and its spicy sweet sauce. The chicken is marinated with cooking wine, such as sake or dry sherry, then threaded by a soaked bamboo skewer and grilled over charcoal. This method makes the chicken soft and juicy. I added more vegetables to make a complete meal out from it, and it does not change the taste from the original one.

Ingredients:
1 lb. chicken thighs and breasts
2 tbs sake
1/4 tsp black pepper
Sauce:
2 tbs chili paste (Korean style)
3 tbs ketchup
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs soy sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbs olive oil or peanut oil
Vegetables:
A few green onions
1/2 sweet green bell pepper
1/2 sweet red bell pepper
1/2 cup red onions
A few button mushrooms

Directions:
Wash and dry the chicken. Cut chicken into cubes (about 1 inch).
Cut all the vegetables the same size as the chicken.
Soak the bamboo skewers in the water for 10 minutes. This method prevents the bamboo skewers from burning during grilling.

Thread the skewer through the chicken and then through each of the vegetables. Do more or less vegetables or meat as you like.

In the summer, you can use the BBQ oven outside, or this can be done inside over a stovetop grill or nonstick pan.
After raising the surface temperature of the BBQ, stovetop grill, or nonstick pan to high heat, add some oil and then place the skewered chicken/vegetables onto the heated surface. Cook each side of the skewer for 2 minutes,(4 sides) , brushing the spicy sauce all over the chicken and vegetables.

 

 

 Be generous with the sauce because in this recipe the spicy sauce completes the taste of this recipe. Serve with some crushed peanuts on the side.