15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken — Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that’s so tender and juicy! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes?
Spicy Korean Chicken Recipe
I love spicy food whether it’s Mexican, Thai, Indian, or Korean, count me in. I love a recipe even more when it’s easy, made in a skillet, and ready in 15 minutes.
This Korean spicy chicken is a perfect recipe for busy weeknights or when you’re trying to up your what-to-do-with-chicken-again game. We’ve all been there. This gochujang chicken is wonderfully tender, moist, juicy, and perfectly spicy. The kind of heat that makes you want to keep eating more. And more.
There are layers of flavors from soy sauce, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, and more. If you’re not a spicy food fan, then this probably isn’t the recipe for you. Or you’ll definitely want to reduce the amount of gochujang sauce you add.
What is Gochujang Sauce?
Gochujang sauce is a Korean sauce that’s great for dipping, marinating, seasoning, or glazing. I find it in the Asian section of my regular grocery store or you can always Amazon it.
In my opinion, it has a similar heat profile to chili garlic sauce (or possibly sriracha) and could probably be used interchangeably with either of those two (traditionalists, please no hate mail), noting the ultimate flavor profile will change a bit, but the overall heat level will likely remain about the same.
I throw this out there for anyone concerned about spending $4.99 on a sauce for one recipe. Now you have other recipe options to use it with!
How to Make Korean Chicken
Add the gochujang sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic to a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the chicken, cover, and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
Use a slotted spoon to separate the chicken from the marinade and place in a well oiled skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until chicken is cooked through. While the chicken cooks, add cornstarch and water to a bowl and stir to combine.
Add the cornstarch slurry to the side of the skillet and turn the heat down. Gently stir the slurry into into the pan sauce. Keep stirring for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Spoon the thickened sauce over the chicken pieces or just flip them around in the sauce to coat them evenly.
Remove pan from the heat, add the green onions, sesame seeds, and serve immediately. I like to pair this spicy Korean chicken with rice, but you could also do fried rice, cauliflower rice, or just make a salad. Something cool to tone down the heat factor wouldn’t be a bad option at all!
Tips for the Best Korean Chicken
When cooking the chicken, make sure to stir it a few times so that it cooks evenly throughout. If you’ve diced the chicken small enough, it should cook within 5 to 7 minutes.
The cornstarch slurry isn’t completely necessary, but I like to add it in to thicken up the sauce. I don’t like when the sauce is super runny, but if you don’t have cornstarch on hand or simply prefer not to use it that’s fine!
Note that there’s really no substitution for the gochujang sauce in this recipe. It gives this Korean spicy chicken its signature flavor — I promise it’s worth buying a bottle!
Lastly, I find reduced-sodium soy sauce best for this recipe. Regular soy sauce is a little too salty for me, and I much prefer the lower sodium versions for the Korean chicken marinade.
More Asian Chicken Recipes:
- P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps {Copycat Recipe} – Skip the restaurant version and make at home in 20 minutes! Easy, healthier because you’re controlling the ingredients, and they taste way better!
- Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps – EASY, ready in 20 minutes, and layered with FLAVOR galore!! High protein, gluten-free, and the Thai twist is AMAZING! Your NEW GO-TO chicken wrap recipe!!
- Easy Better-Than-Takeout Chicken Fried Rice – One-skillet, ready in 20 minutes, and you’ll never want takeout again after tasting how good homemade is!! Way more flavor, not greasy, and loads of juicy chicken!
- Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken — This Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken is coated in the most incredible peanut sauce. Serve it over rice for an easy meal, and garnish with green onions and extra peanuts for added crunch!
- Sesame Mango Chicken — An EASY Asian-inspired recipe with tender sesame chicken, juicy mango, and soy-garlic-ginger infused cabbage and carrots!
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15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup gochujang sauce
- ¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 4 to 5 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite sized pieces
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 scant teaspoon cold water
- green onions, diced into thin rounds for garnishing
- sesame seeds, for garnishing
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the gochujang sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken, cover, and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
- To a large skillet, add the olive oil, and using a slotted spoon add the chicken (discard leftover marinade), and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 to 7 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through; flip intermittently to ensure even cooking.
- While the chicken cooks, to a small bowl add the cornstarch, water, and stir to combine until dissolved.
- After the chicken has cooked through, add the cornstarch slurry to the side of the pan (don’t dump it over the chicken), turn the heat to medium-low, and gently stir the slurry into into the pan sauce. Keep stirring for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened up to desired level. Spoon the thickened sauce over the chicken pieces or just flip them around in the sauce to coat them evenly. Note – the cornstarch addition is not absolutely necessary but I prefer the sauce thicker and with more body rather as opposed to runny and find the extra 1 to 2 minutes worth it.
- Remove pan from the heat, add the green onions, sesame seeds, and serve immediately. Chicken is best warm and fresh but will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Even More Easy Asian Recipes:
Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps – EASY, ready in 20 minutes, perfectly SPICY yet wonderfully fresh!! Just enough heat to keep you going back for more! A new dinnertime WINNER!!
We used this marinade for chicken legs and loved it! I added about a half Tbsp more of gochujang and still could have added more to suite our tastes, but we really love spicy foods. I was only able to marinade for 1.5hrs and will definitely try to let it sit longer next time. Don’t skip the cornstarch step! Since we used drumsticks instead of cubed chicken, we cooked the drumsticks in the cast iron until almost completely done, added in the extra marinade, added the cornstarch mixture, and finished it off in the oven at 400 F. We used the extra marinade that was left on the pan to top our steamed rice and loved it! We’ve added this marinade to our list of recipes to cook often!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that you loved the marinade for chicken legs and will use it often!
Can I use paste vs sauce? If so please explain. Thank you
How can I use Gochujang paste to make sauce for this recipe? Thanks.. Looks great
Sauce and paste in this context may be similar in terms of the consistency of the product, but different manufacturers’ may use a different name. You want something approximately the consistency of barbecue sauce.
If you truly have a paste, you may have to thin in with probably water, but this is something I’ve never done so can’t say for sure.
Hi, I found a simple recipe that I had the ingredients for to turn the paste into a sauce: 2-3 Tbs of paste ( used 3), 1.5 Tbs rice vinegar, 1 Tbs maple syrup, and 1 Tbs sesame oil… whisk it all together. Essentially the only new ingredient was maple syrup that the main recipe doesn’t require. I then used this as the base for the ingredients your recipe has. I also added all the sauce to the pan after cooking the chicken, and added some large diced onion and red pepper. The result… simply amazing with so many layers of taste! I cook a lot and this was one of the most tasty yet simple and fast Asian recipes I’ve ever cooked. THANK YOU for sharing… I plan to peruse your website for many more recipes. Be safe from all this virus craziness.
Great job on the research and glad your dish turned out amazing and that it was one of the best Asian recipes you’ve ever cooked! That’s awesome to hear amidst the chaos!
Oops… I just put the full amount of paste in as is. Hopefully it comes out well when I cook it up tonight.
I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this based on your reference to a “bottle” of gochujang sauce, but to clarify, you do mean prepared sauce and not the gochujang you buy in a rectangular red tub at the Asian market?
Yes prepared sauce what you can find in the average American supermarket, not something you need to go to an Asian market for.
Is there a difference between gochujang sauce and just gochujang?
Not to my knowledge, no. I used the word sauce because I wanted to give people an idea of what it was, i.e. not a vegetable, it’s a sauce, a condiment so to speak.
This really is a great recipe, I’ve been making it once a week. Instead of discarding the extra marinade I cook the chicken in it, then add a bunch of veggies to the pan after the chicken has been cooked and removed, after a little bit the sauce thickens and it is just truly delicious! Thanks Averie!
This really is a great recipe, I’ve been making it once a week. Instead of discarding the extra marinade I cook the chicken in it, then add a bunch of veggies to the pan after the chicken has been cooked and removed, after a little bit the sauce thickens and it is just truly delicious! Thanks Averie!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad this has been a weekly favorite! Great way to use the extra marinade, too!
OMG!!! IT came out perfect; absolutely amazing. It was spicy, but not hot, which I loved, and it had so much flavor. I’ve already sent the recipe to five people whom I know would love it, so thank you very much for sharing. Also I took some of the leftover chicken and made a bomb quesadilla for brunch this morning for myself and some friends. They loved it, and kept asking where I got the recipe. Kudos to ya!!
OMG!!! IT came out perfect; absolutely amazing. It was spicy, but not hot, which I loved, and it had so much flavor. I’ve already sent the recipe to five people whom I know would love it, so thank you very much for sharing. Also I took some of the leftover chicken and made a bomb quesadilla for brunch this morning for myself and some friends. They loved it, and kept asking where I got the recipe. Kudos to ya!!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it came out absolutely perfect and that you passed the recipe along!
I have my chicken marinating , even as I type… the marinade is delicious…I will let you know how it turns out!!! I’m excited
I have my chicken marinating , even as I type… the marinade is delicious…I will let you know how it turns out!!! I’m excited
I am sure you will love it! Glad the marinade is great so far.
This chicken came out amazing. It reminded me of what I get at korean restaurants! The corn starch gave the sauce a good stickyness
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad it was reminiscent of a Korean restaurant dish!
I just posted a 5 star review on this Korean chicken recipe and forgot to mention that it is indeed spicy. But it’s not that heartburn spicy (no tums needed), just a nice throat warming comfortable spiciness. I would cut back on the gochujang sauce if you don’t like that much heat but we all loved it as is.
I made this for company last night! OMG!!! It was so easy (as are most of your recipes) but it tasted better than a restaurant any day. I discovered you a few weeks back while looking for a coconut curry recipe. Since then, I’ve not made one dinner that wasn’t absolutely delicious. Thank you Averie for your blog. You deserve to be in the top 10. I’ve been referring you to all my friends and family.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad you are so happy with my recipes! I remember your comment the other day regarding the curry and thanks for continuing to comment and try out more of my recipes. And thanks for the recommendations to your friends and fam and for saying I deserve to be in the top 10. I really appreciate it :)
We loved this! The gochujang by itself has a pretty good amount of heat to it but after cooking the chicken, it was toned down with all the other ingredients that went into the marinade (I’m sure the brown sugar helped a bit)! I served it over cauliflower rice and the finished sauce was wonderful over that too.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that you thought this was wonderful! I agree, the sauce mellows a bit after cooking it down, along with the other ingredients too. Cauliflower rice sounds great!
I’d love to try this too! We have been getting some good thai, korean and vietnamese restaurants in the past couple of years and have enjoyed trying them all. I think I have seen gochujang sauce at one of my regular grocery stores–now I know what to use it for!
Now you know what to do with it, exactly! I think you will really enjoy this one too!