Buldak Recipe: 4 Tips for Making Korean Fire Chicken

Buldak (literally “fire chicken”) is a popular street food and bar snack from Korea. The dish consists of chicken coated in a spicy marinade of gochujang and gochugaru, then roasted over live flames. (If you don’t have a firepit, you can make grilled, sautéed, or roasted buldak.)

Most recipes for buldak incorporate a top layer of melty, bubbly cheese, which helps cut the spiciness.

There are many theories as to the origins of buldak. Still, the spicy entrée didn’t become a quintessential South Korean dish until the early 2000s, when a vendor’s fiery barbecue display and gochujang-coated chicken kick-started a spicy food craze and a host of imitators (including buldak-flavored instant ramen).

Thanks to the widespread adoption of the “buldak” technique, the term entered the general public domain in 2008—a mere seven years after it was first patented.

Customize buldak to suit your heat tolerance—add a bit more soy sauce or rice syrup to taste, balancing the spice with salt and sweetness. If you like, add tteokbokki (chewy Korean rice cakes) to the cooked chicken for extra texture.

1. 1. Get the right ingredients. Buldak is a Korean dish that relies on Korean ingredients. You can find some of the more specific ingredients in buldak, like gochujang, gochugaru, and rice syrup, in Asian grocery stores or online.
2. 2. Choose bone-in or boneless chicken. You can make buldak with either bone-in or boneless chicken, but the latter will ultimately be easier to portion into bite-sized pieces. To seal in the deep chicken flavor of bone-in pieces, grill or roast the meat until it’s tender and fully cooked, then strip the meat from the bones and simmer the pieces in the marinade.
3. 3. Add layers of heat. Buldak marinade relies on gochugaru chili powder, gochujang chili paste, ginger, garlic, and fresh chilies to provide different levels of heat. Consider adding your favorite hot sauces, like sriracha, or other fermented products, like chopped kimchi.
4. 4. Serve with a chilled beverage. Like all spicy food, buldak pairs well with cold beer or makgeolli, a milky white, fizzy Korean rice wine.