Korean · Lunch · Dinner
Samgyetang (Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup)
삼계탕
Small whole chickens stuffed with sticky rice, garlic and jujubes, gently simmered with fresh ginseng into a clear, soothing broth. A lighter take on the classic Korean summer tonic, with the fat skimmed off for a cleaner bowl.
- Prep
- 75 min
- Cook
- 75 min
- Total
- 150 min
- Serves
- 4
Calories come from: Carbs 25% · Fat 47% · Protein 28%
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Ingredients
For 4 servings- 2 small (about 550 g each whole, about 330 g edible each)Cornish game hens (small whole chickens), weight given is edible meat and skin
- 1/2 cup100 gglutinous (sweet) rice
- 2 roots40 gfresh ginseng roots
- 624 gdried jujubes (red dates)
- 12 cloves36 ggarlic cloves, peeled
- 640 gpeeled chestnuts (optional)
- 8 1/2 cups (2 litres)2,000 gwater
- 2 stalks30 ggreen onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp6 gsalt
- 1/2 tspground black pepper
Steps
- 1
Rinse the glutinous rice and soak it in cold water for 1 hour, then drain well; discard the soaking water.
- 2
Do not rinse the hens; pat them dry inside and out with paper towels and trim away the loose fat around the cavity and neck.
- 3
Discard the paper towels, then wash your hands, knife, board and any surfaces the raw poultry touched with hot soapy water.
- 4
Wash the ginseng roots and jujubes; leave the ginseng whole.
- 5
Stuff each hen with half the drained rice, 2 garlic cloves, 1 jujube and 1 chestnut, leaving a little room for the rice to swell.
- 6
Cut a small slit in the skin of one thigh and tuck the opposite drumstick through it to close the cavity, or tie the legs with kitchen twine.
- 7
Place the hens breast-side up in a large pot with the 2 litres of water, the ginseng, and the remaining garlic, jujubes and chestnuts.
- 8
Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off any foam that rises.
- 9
Reduce to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for about 60 minutes, until the rice inside is soft and the thickest part of the thigh reaches 74 °C / 165 °F.
- 10
Skim as much fat from the surface of the broth as you can.
- 11
Lift out the hens, cut each in half, and place in 4 bowls with the stuffing, then ladle over the hot broth with the garlic, jujubes and ginseng.
- 12
Serve with the salt, pepper and sliced green onions on the side so each person can season their bowl.
Swaps, storage and make-ahead
Swaps
- Use bone-in chicken thighs or legs instead of whole hens and simmer the soaked rice loose in the broth, or tie it in a cheesecloth pouch, if small hens are hard to find.
- Replace fresh ginseng with a few slices of fresh ginger or dried ginseng from an Asian grocery if fresh roots are unavailable.
- Swap glutinous rice for short-grain white rice for a slightly less sticky stuffing that is easier to find.
- Leave out the chestnuts or use more garlic and jujubes if you need to avoid tree nuts or want a lighter stuffing.
Storage
Take the rice stuffing out of the hens and refrigerate it, the chicken and the broth in separate covered containers as soon as they stop steaming, and always within 2 hours. Eat the rice stuffing within 1 day and the chicken and broth within 3 to 4 days, reheating until steaming hot. The broth freezes well for up to 3 months, but the rice stuffing turns mushy, so don't freeze it.
Make ahead
Up to a day ahead, peel the garlic and chestnuts and wash the ginseng and jujubes. Soak the rice and stuff and truss the hens just before cooking, because raw poultry shouldn't be stuffed ahead. You can also cook the soup a day early: remove the stuffing, chill it separately from the chicken and broth, and lift the solidified fat off the broth before reheating everything until steaming hot.
Nutrition values are for the recipe as written.
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Allergens and nutrition
No major allergens in the ingredients.
Check the labels of packaged ingredients for allergens and suitability for your diet.
Full nutrition
| Per serving (724 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 456 kcal | 63 kcal |
| Protein | 31.1 g | 4.3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 28.5 g | 3.9 g |
| of which sugars | 0.3 g | 0 g |
| Fiber | 1.5 g | 0.2 g |
| Fat | 23.3 g | 3.2 g |
| of which saturated | 6.5 g | 0.9 g |
| Sodium | 707 mg | 98 mg |
Nutrition is calculated from USDA FoodData Central data and may differ from what you cook.
