This Instant Pot adaptation of a classic Korean chicken dish is so quick and easy! It’s packed with so much flavors!
My love for the Instant Pot grows with each use! I’ve been making this classic Korean chicken dish, called dakbokkeumtang (닭볶음탕) or dakdoritang (닭도리탕), using the Pressure Cooker function of the Instant Pot. I love how quick this juicy, flavorful dish is!
If you’ve tried my original dakdoritang recipe, it takes 3 to 4 hours of cooking time in the slow cooker, or 45 minutes over the stove top. With this Instant Pot recipe, a few minutes to sear, a few minutes for pressure to build up, and 10 minutes to pressure cook! That’s it!
The flavor of this Instant Pot adaptation is very similar to the original recipe — spicy, savory, and slightly sweet! However, I’ve made a few minor changes for this recipe, adding some doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste) and oyster sauce, which are packed with intense savory flavors.
What chicken parts to use
Dakbokkeumtang is made with small, bone-in chicken pieces. Since this dish is very commonly made at home, you can buy a whole chicken pre-cut for this dish at markets in Korea.
Korean markets around here also sell small chicken pieces which are labeled for dakbokkeumtang or dakdoritang, but they are large drumsticks cut in half crosswise. I used them in this post. Wings, small drumsticks, and thighs are all good choices.
If the chicken parts are big and you don’t want to bother cutting them in half through the bones, make a couple of slits on the thick parts of the meat for the sauce to penetrate well.
Frequently asked questions:
Can I use boneless and/or skinless chicken parts? Although not the best option, you can certainly use boneless and/or skinless chicken. If using boneless, reduce the cooking time by a couple of minutes.
Do I need to add water to this recipe? The sauce (which includes 1/4 cup water or broth) and other ingredients in this recipe yield sufficient liquid for pressure cooking, leaving a good amount of sauce at the end. The sauce is delicious mixed in with steamed rice.
Can I cook this recipe in a slow cooker or over the stove top? Yes, you can. Simply omit 1/4 cup water (or broth) from the sauce recipe and follow the applicable cooking methods in my original dakdoritang post which provides both slow cooker and stove top methods.
What do I need to adjust if I want to use a stove-top pressure cooker? You can sear the chicken in a skillet before adding to your pressure cooker. Also, stovetop pressure cookers have a higher pressure point. You will need to reduce the cooking time slightly depending on your pressure cooker.
Will this sauce be good for braising other types of meat? The sauce will be great with any meat of your choice.
Have you tried this Instant Pot Spicy Chicken recipe? Please rate the recipe below and leave a comment! Stay in touch by following me on YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds bone-in chicken parts cut into small pieces (excess fat removed)
- 6 ounces potatoes cut in big chunks (or mini potatoes)
- 1/2 medium onion cut in big chunks
- 2 small carrots cut in big chunks (or baby carrots)
- 2 scallions or a few stalks of garlic chives
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons gochugaru
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons gochujang
- 1/2 tablespoon doenjang
- 2 tablespoons rice wine
- 4 tablespoons oyster sauce or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup water or chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Combine the sauce ingredients except sesame oil and seeds, and mix well.
- Rinse the chicken pieces, drain, and pat dry with paper towels.
- Press the “Saute” button on the Instant Pot. When the pot is hot, add 1 tablespoon of canola or vegetable oil. Sear the pieces in two batches.
- Place all the chicken pieces in the pot, and add the potatoes, onion, and carrots. Pour the sauce over, and mix well to evenly coat the chicken and vegetables.
- Close the lid tightly, and seal the vent. Press the “poultry” function, and using the “+” or “-” button, adjust the time to 10 minutes. When finished, the Instant Pot will automatically turn to the “Keep Warm” mode. Turn the pressure valve to “venting” to quickly release the pressure. Open the lid.
- Stir in the scallion (or garlic chives) and the sesame oil and sesame seeds. If you want, remove the meat and vegetables from the pressure cooker, turn the Instant Pot Saute function back on, and reduce the sauce to the desired level with the lid open.
Thank you for this instant pot recipe. It’s fantastic! One of my favorite Korean dishes.
I was so excited to find a recipe for Instant Pot dak doritang! It tastes great, and I’m pumped to have an IP recipe for this.
Thank you for making an Instant Pot-specific recipe! I always ask my umma for cooking instructions but when she’s busy your website is my go-to.
What an awesome recipe ! I made this tonight to christen my new Instant Pot Duo60 and it turned out amazing. Followed your recipe exactly.
Thank you for the recipe.
Thank you for the recipe! However can I make this without searing the chicken first?
Simply omit the process and add a couple more minutes to cooking time.
If I don’t have doenjang what can I substitute? Thanks!!
You can leave it and just add more soy sauce, about 1 tablespoon.
Thank you for the recipe! It was quite spicy for me but tasty so I will maybe use 2 tablespoons of gochugaru next time haha. I added more potatoes (4 medium sized), 5 small carrots and 1 whole medium onion as I really like the veges in this dish. I didn’t have rice wine and sugar so I used rice wine and maple syrup. I will try using guk ganjang next time as I wonder if there will be a major taste difference between oyster sauce.
Also I didn’t have the same pressure cooker so had to estimate, tried 10 mins, then another 15 and another 15 with the cuckoo cooker. So about 40 mins altogether. Potatoes and carrots were cooked just enough with room for more heating (I didn’t want them to be too soft on the first serve as there would be left overs). Amazing how the instant pot cooker used in this recipe cooks this in 10 mins!
I’m new to the instant pot but this was so easy and absolutely delicious! Definitely putting this on rotation. Thank you so much!!
Awesome! Happy to hear that!
Are you using a six quart or eight quart instant pot?
6 qt
The ingredients simply says “Sauce” – what is this?
Sorry it should have been a subheading. Fixed it. Thanks!
This has quickly become a favorite comfort food in our house. The instructions are very easy to follow and turns out perfect every time. I used this for making dakbokkeumtang for myself for the very first time!
On a side note to anyone checking comments for tips:
I cook mine with boneless skinless chicken thighs on high pressure for 8 minutes.
Split the sauce in half, half for the dish and the other half I add 1 c. chicken broth to and freeze for sipping when we don’t feel good.
I forgot to buy an onion once and added 1.5 tsp onion powder to the sauce and it turned out fine.
Just made this tonight, and it tastes exactly the same as my mother’s cooking growing up! My family really enjoyed this delicious home-cooked meal like mom’s.Thanks so very much! 🙂 Can’t wait to make the other recipes on your website!
Thank you! That’s great to hear!
This is a staple recipe especially in fall/ winter. I add shitake mushrooms and have swapped out most of the sugar with a little bit of spicy honey and including sweet potato pieces. Delicious every time! I also like to repurpose the sauce to make fried rice. Thank you for the recipe!
Fabulous recipes!!!!!
Can I use my Cuckoo JHVR1009F Smart IH pressurized rice cooker instead of an Instant Pot for this recipe?
Hmm I don’t know that one, but why not?
Thanks for posting this! At our house we like to cut the sugar down to 2 tbps and add a little bit more veggies – the potatoes and carrots are an especially big hit 🙂
Also I’ve found that this recipe tends to result in the Instant Pot saying “burn” – anyone else have this problem? I usually add 1/2 cup of water instead of 1/4 cup and this happens less often.
Thanks for posting this recipe! It’s great!
Great recipe. I’ve made this a few times now and I’ve made some adjustments for larger quantities in the instant pot.
I regularly double the amount of meat and marinade for 5-6lbs and use just chicken drumsticks. I saute in heavy pan instead of instant pot while veggies are cooking and recombine everything in this at the end.
I double the garlic, reduce the sugar by half to 1tbs to taste, and only add sesame oil and seeds at the end if necessary as stew can be oily from the chicken. Gochugaru quality varies so I use half fancy spicy rough and half plain powder gochugaru,reduce by 1 TBS or more if too spicy. I first pressure cook 2 chopped carrots and 5 quartered potato for 5 minutes in steamer basket. Remove the water, adding about half cup to the marinade paste if it’s too thick to coat chicken. Pressure cook chicken for 22 minutes, natural release 4 minutes. Combine chicken and sauce with vegetables. Optional light stir fry the veggies with some chopped Korean long hot peppers to keep them warm while chicken is cooking.
Thanks! Sounds like you are a great cook, Chris!
Hi Hyosun, a quick question on the 1/4 cup of water/broth — does this go in the sauce mixture? I wasn’t sure. Thank you! Can’t wait to try this.
Yes. It just needs a little more liquid than what the seasoning ingredients produce for pressure cooking.
I used my 3qt instant pot duo and used manual high pressure mode for 10 minutes. It worked out well.
Great to know! Thank you for the great review!!!
This is such an easy recipe! Spicy and yummy food too! Thank you!
Delicious! Loved it.
Used less gochugaru (chili flakes) and added more carrots and potatoes.
Great website.
What size of instant pot do you use? I got the burn message and wondered if I should increase the liquid (1.5-2 cupsminimal for 8qt pot per the manual). I’ve tried the slower cooker version and it was VERY tasty. I certainly hope this could work in the IP (and many other recipes) as it saves time. Thank you for all the great recipes!
My pleasure! Mine is 6 qt.
I tried this recipe and it was great, thank you for sharing! It’s so fast in the Instant Pot and the potatoes and carrots had the perfect texture with the time cooked. I saw other recipes that called for less sugar so wondering how different it would tast with less.
You’re welcome! And thank you! Try with less sugar. It’s all about personal preference.
Is this recipe very spicy? If yes, can I just put in 1 tablespoon of gochugaru?
Hi Angie – Yes it’s quite spicy. You can certainly reduce gochugaru to 1 tablespoon. Hope you try it!
I’ve attempted this recipe twice and each time the gochugaru sticks to the bottom and burns, making my instant pot unable to build up enough pressure. how did you get it to work with this recipe?
hmmm that’s interesting! I make this recipe all the time and never had that problem. Did you use all the sauce ingredients? Did you use all the vegetables in the recipe? You should have plenty of liquid to generate the steam as you can see all the liquid still remaining in the final step photo.
yup, all the ingredients. maybe it has to do with the kind of gochugaru i have. it’s very coarse. maybe there is a finer powder i can buy that will suspend in the liquid, as opposed to drop down to the bottom and burn.
Try to put the onion at bottom of the pot. The onion will protect the sauce building up at the bottom and will produce enough moisture not to burn the pot.
Great tip!
Also sounds like you’re using gochuGARU instead of gochuJANG, the latter of which is a paste versus your chili flakes (gochugaru). Hope this helps.
the sauce has definitely given the chicken pieces good colour that makes the dish attractive to the eyes,for me I would add a little bit of spices to make the dish interesting.
Can I still make this dish if my family doesn’t eat spicy food? What ingredient would I leave out? Thanks!
Yes you can. Omit gochugaru or use the sauce from this recipe:
https://www.koreanbapsang.com/2014/01/slow-cooker-dakjjim-korean-braised.html