
Korean Chicken Soup (Dak Galgooksu)
This Korean chicken soup (dak galgooksu) simmers a whole chicken with garlic, ginger, and scallions to produce a fragrant, healing broth. Homemade wheat-and-potato starch noodles and sautéed zucchini join in at the end, making each bowl both restorative and deeply comforting.
Ingredients
Broth
- 1 whole chicken (2.5-3 lbs)
- 10-14 cups water
- 16 peeled garlic cloves about ½ cup
- 1 medium onion cut into quarters
- 1 medium zucchini cut into matchsticks (about 1½ cup)
- 2 green onions chopped
- 3-4 thin slices ginger
Chicken flavoring
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- salt and pepper
- Soup flavoring
- 1 tbsp soup soy sauce
- 1/2 onion sliced thin
- 2 tsp. fish sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- ground black pepper
Noodles
- 3½ cup all-purpose flour plus ⅓ cup flour to dust
- ½ cup potato starch
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Place the cleaned chicken in a stockpot large enough to hold the chicken and 12 cups of water. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, scallions, and 12 cups of water. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off any foam on top. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes. Adjust cooking time for cut pieces of chicken. Start making your noodles (below).
- Sprinkle the julienned zucchini with salt for about 15 minutes and then squeeze out the water. Briefly sauté in a heated pan with a little bit of oil. Set aside.
- When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones. Shred the meat into small bite-sized pieces. Mix with the chicken flavorings: the mashed garlic, sesame oil, salt, and pepper. Combine well.
- Strain the broth and remove the excess fat. You can line the strainer with a paper towel or use a fat separator.
- Return the broth back to the pot. Add the onion slices, sesame oil, fish sauce, and soy sauce. Bring it to a boil and boil for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Make the noodles: Combine flour, starch, 1 tsp. kosher salt, 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil, and 1¼ cup water in a large bowl.
- Mix with a wooden spoon to form a lump. Knead it by hand until it forms a ball. Put it into a plastic bag, seal it, and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes.
- Take the dough out of the plastic bag, knead it for 2 to 5 minutes, and then put it back in. Take out the dough and knead it again for a couple of minutes. It will be smooth.
- Divide the dough into 2 balls. Dust a large cutting board with flour and roll the dough out with a rolling pin to a circle about 18 inches wide and 1/16 inch thick. Flip it over occasionally to make it even, round, and flat. If you need to, sprinkle some flour on it when you flip, to keep it from sticking.
- Evenly spread some flour on the dough, and fold it over 3 or 4 times. Cut it into thin noodles, about 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle some flour on them, and gently mix them up to separate them and spread the flour evenly.
- Make noodles with the other ball of dough, repeating the steps above.
- Bring the soup to a boil. You can add the noodles directly to this broth and boil until done, about 4 minutes. Or boil in a separate pot of salted boiling water then strain and add to broth — it all depends on if you like your broth a little cloudy and thick.
- In each serving bowl, add broth, noodles, some chicken, and zucchini. Serve with chopped green scallions and Korean chili flakes on the side.
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