Gochujang Chicken Stir-Fry
This Gochujang Chicken Stir-Fry is on my permanent recipe rotation. It is a simple stir-fry with a spicy homemade sauce that leans heavily on my favorite Korean condiment, gochujang.
Gochujang Chicken Stir Fry
Chicken + Veggies + an awesome stir-fry sauce that has gochujang, soy, mirin, garlic, and Korean chili flakes is what turns this ordinary stir-fry into something amazing.
I like to keep these sauce ingredients in the house, always and forever. If you don't cook a lot of Asian foods you might have to make a special trip, but it is well worth it.
Plus, gochujang lasts for almost ever in the fridge, so go ahead and buy the big tub. You'll use it eventually!
Why You'll Love This Dish
- Big Flavor Fast - Cooks in under 20 minutes with bold, spicy flavor.
- Customizable Heat - Easy to adjust the spice level with gochujang and chili powder.
- Balanced Sauce - A little sweet, a little savory, and just enough kick.
- Simple Ingredients - No hard-to-find stuff or complicated steps.
- Veggie-Packed - Makes a full meal with just one pan.
Recipe Shopping List
Wondering if you have to hit the store? Here's the list of items you'll need to make this recipe. For specific amounts, please refer to the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Oil - For high-heat stir-frying. Use avocado, canola, or any neutral oil that holds up to heat.
- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast - Quick-cooking and lean. Thighs are a great alternative if you want a juicier bite.
- Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder - Basic seasoning blend to bring out the natural flavor of the chicken.
- Sesame Oil - Adds deep, nutty flavor at the finish. A little goes a long way.
- Asparagus - Crisp, tender, and quick to cook. Can be subbed with broccoli, green beans, or bell peppers.
- Gochujang - Korean fermented chili paste. Delivers heat, tang, and deep umami all in one.
- Minced Garlic - Adds aromatic sharpness and rounds out the sauce.
- Korean Chili Powder - Brings heat and a touch of smokiness. Optional if you're dialing back the spice.
- Soy Sauce - Savory, salty, and the backbone of the sauce.
- Dark Brown Sugar - Balances the spice with a rich, molasses-like sweetness.
- Cornstarch - Thickens the sauce so it clings to every bite.
- Mirin - Adds a hint of sweetness and acidity. Can sub with rice vinegar plus sugar.
- Water - Helps bring the sauce together and adjust its consistency.
Serve with some Homemade Egg Rolls
How To Make This Recipe
This is just the overview so you can see what you're actually getting into here. When you are cooking, you'll want to use the full recipe at the bottom of the page.
- Mix The Sauce - Stir all sauce ingredients together and set aside.
- Season The Chicken - Toss with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sesame oil.
- Stir-Fry The Chicken - Cook in small batches over high heat until golden and cooked through. Set aside.
- Cook The Veggies - Stir-fry asparagus (or other veg) until just tender.
- Combine & Sauce - Return everything to the pan, pour in the sauce, and stir until everything is coated and the sauce thickens.
Enjoy with some Fried Rice!
Recipe Tips
- Prep your sauce first, and have it ready and near the stove.
- In fact, prep everything first. Stir-fry goes really fast once you start the cooking process. If you don't have everything you need within arm's reach you'll regret it!
- High-heat oil and HIGH HIGH heat are necessary! Crank up your burner as high as it'll go, and it still won't be high enough for a proper stir-fry, but it'll probably be good enough for a close approximation.
- Work in small batches! You don't want to cool the pan down too much with a lot of food in it. You need to work in small 1-2 cup batches when you are stir-frying.
- Relax! Even if you don't follow all of these directions, you are still going to have a fabulous meal.
How about some Fried Pork Dumplings?
Recipe FAQ
Besides magic, you mean?
Gochujang is a Korean fermented condiment made up of red chili paste, soybeans, glutinous rice powder, and salt. It is spicy and sweet and adds a great punch of flavor to stir-fry sauces, soups, marinades, stews, and even salad dressings.
GOOD news! Gochujang is becoming more and more common in major chain grocery stores! Go and look at the Asian section, and see if you can find some at your local grocer.
You can also go to the nearest Asian market, or if you are more hermit-like at the moment, there are some links down in the recipe card where you can buy these ingredients right from Amazon.
Probably? But I have only ever made it using these exact ingredients so I can't really say whether any specific substitutions will work or not.
Feel free to experiment, but if your experiment fails please don't come back here and leave me mean comments. 😀 That's the risk you take when you go off-book, which I fully support - until you come back here yelling at me because your improvisation didn't work out quite the way you envisioned. 😉
Or if you do, prepare for snarky replies cause MY HOUSE MY RULES.
Have some Grilled Teriyaki Salmon
Serve This With...
This dish is really a meal onto itself, but I do recommend making some Basmati Rice to serve along with it. If you want to make something decidedly NOT Korean, but still in the Asian realm - whip up some of my homemade Egg Rolls!
I think with a stir-fry like this though, if you want to go all out and stay in the same flavor region you should really make these Mandu from Korean Bapsang. Not only because her recipes are delicious, but also because she is one of the nicest people I've ever met.
Gochujang Chicken Stir-Fry
Super flavorful stir-fry is flavored with a spicy gochujang stir-fry sauce. Mix up some extra because you are going to want to put that stuff on all the things!
Ingredients
- 3-4 tablespoons oil
Protein
- 3 cups diced boneless, skinless chicken breast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- drizzle sesame oil
Vegetables
- 5 cups chopped asparagus
Sauce
- ¼ cup gochujang
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon Korean chili powder
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Mix together the sauce ingredients and set aside.
- Mix together the chicken with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and sesame oil. Set aside.
- Preheat your wok with 1 tablespoon of oil in it over high heat until it is almost smoking.
- Working in small batches that are between 1-2 cups in size, stir-fry the chicken until it is cooked through and then set aside while you cook the other batches.
- Keep re-adding small amounts of oil to the pan as necessary, crank up that heat, and let it get good and hot between batches. Cook the vegetables for 2-3 minutes, until tender crisp, working in batches and setting aside the cooked vegetables when the batch is done.
- Add all of the ingredients back into the pan over high heat, and pour over the sauce ingredients. Stirring continuously, cook until the sauce is thickened and all of the ingredients are covered with the sauce.
- Serve over rice, or on its own if you hate carbs (and life).
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 223Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 80mgSodium: 783mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 4gSugar: 7gProtein: 34g
Nutrition data provided here is only an estimate. If you are tracking these things for medical purposes please consult an outside, trusted source. Thanks!
How necessary is the mirin? Can I replace it with something else?
Recipe sounds great.
You can skip the mirin or substitute another sweet wine or even maybe some additional vinegar? You want something slightly acidic to offset the rest, but this is a pretty flexible sauce and you'll likely enjoy it regardless.
We love spicy food, and have used Korean chili paste in many recipes, but this was too spicy for us. Had to cool it down with Thai sweet chili sauce.
It definitely depends on what heat level of gochujang that you buy. I don't tend to gravitate towards the ultra-spicy versions, so that may impact things if you do! I'm glad you were able to cool it down a bit, and hope you enjoyed it!
Awesome! I love hot but thankfully left out chili powder entirely and it was still satisfyingly spicy!
Awesome! Thanks for the update. I'm so glad you liked it!
This sauce was amazing. I needed to use up some veges and leftover lamb so I coated it in your recipe above and I’m in love. Will probably do the same again tomorrow - thanks!
Thank you so much for letting me know! I am so glad you like it.
Yum! I used a bunch of veggies - mushrooms, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choy - and skipped the chilli powder because hubs is sensitive to heat. It was amazing, fast, and no fuss! Definitely adding it to the list of faves. Thank you!
Yum! I bet it was incredible. Thanks for sharing!
Would this work with tofu instead of chicken, and would I need to go anything different?
It would work with tofu, but I'm not sure what specifically you'd need to adjust. I have never cooked with tofu as a primary ingredient, so I wouldn't be much help I'm afraid! Let me know how it goes if you try it. This sauce is so good, I want to make it into a soup. 😀
I am planning to use in a large stir-fry with udon noodles. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sounds amazing! I've used this sauce before with noodles, and it works great. You might need to add some additional water to the mix though!
This is bloody delicious! Great recipe. I used some snow peas and asparagus. You can use sherry or Chinese cooking wine instead of mirin. I also added a dash of rice wine vinegar to the chicken marinade which made it very tender. 5 stars!!
Does anyone have any recipes for the other Korean fermented soy bean products (there are versions in green and brown packets - the one for this recipe is the chilli version in the red packet)
Glad you liked it, Ben! You should check out the Korean Bapsang blog for more recipe ideas with these ingredients. She's incredible, and has a huge library of authentic Korean recipes. Here's the link: https://www.koreanbapsang.com/ Check out the ingredients tab too, I think you'll find your "green" packet there!
Excellent. This is the first dish I have made in a long time. My dish came out a bit darker and I used green beans. Delicious. Thank you for posting this recipe.
I double the sauce and used ribeye instead of chicken.
Veg: carrot, broccoli, yellow bell pepper, green onion.
It was delicious. Thank you for the sauce idea. The chile powder adds depth to the gochu, and the mirin's acidity helps cut through the spice and heat.
I will definitely make this again. Thank you, Nicole.
Great idea! This sauce really goes with just about any protein you can throw at it. Appreciate the feedback! Tell your friends!
Something is wrong with the app and I can't access the recipe even though I have signed up for the membership. I've made this in the past and love it so hoping to get access to the recipe. Thanks.
Hey Luke! You should be able to see this recipe if you login to your Grow account. I'll also send you an email copy of this too.