Seoul : Dakhanmari 닭한마리

30th November 2012.
Seoul, South Korea.

You probably know Samgyetang but another very popular Korean Chicken Soup is dakhanmari (닭한마리) . It roughly translates to “One whole chicken”. You could find many of such restaurants in the Dakhanmari Alley of Dongdaemun but the most famous one is Jinnokkwa Halmae. We didn’t get to eat at Jinnokkwa Halmae due to the long queue but the approach to the dish is similar.

The whole chicken (chopped into segments when served) was placed in a huge pot of soup and simmered with tteok (rice cakes), ginger, potatoes and green onions. Here you could opt to add spices into the soup or if you prefer (like us) enjoy it separately. Minced garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, chili, mustard, ganjang and fresh spring onions are mixed together on a separate dish. You would then use it as dip for the tteok, chicken and noodles. It was very delicious.

The soup itself tasted great (although it was quite oily). It was flavourful and after leaving it to simmer for a while before adding noodles to the soup. After a while, you could enjoy the noodles in a soup form with those tender chunks of chicken meat or mix it with the spicy but tasty combination of minced garlic, spring onions, soy sauce, chili, mustard and gochujang. You could season the mix to your liking by adding more soy sauce or reducing the garlic etc.

One dakhamari set (enough for 2-3) cost 18000 KRW. The noodles cost an extra 2000 KRW.

Dakhanmari Alley

Dongdaemun.