Dakjang Tteokguk Chicken Broth Recipe [Korean Food]

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Today’s recipe is Dakjang Tteokguk — a twist on the classic clear chicken broth rice cake soup (tteokguk), enriched with the distinctive umami depth of ganjang soy sauce. If you only know the milky gomtang-style tteokguk or the clean anchovy broth version, this is a great opportunity to discover another approach. The combination of ganjang’s unique savoriness and rich chicken broth makes for something genuinely special. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

📋 At a Glance

Dish: Dakjang Tteokguk (Chicken Soy Sauce Rice Cake Soup)
Servings: 2–3
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Key ingredients: chicken drumsticks, boneless chicken thigh, tteokguk rice cakes, guk ganjang soy sauce, chicken broth
Notes: A creative take on tteokguk using chicken broth enriched with guk ganjang. Mild flavor, umami-rich, family-friendly for all ages
Difficulty: ★★☆ (Medium) — 55 min total, approachable for first-timers

Ingredients Overview

Think of this as the classic tteokguk method — where beef would traditionally be used — with chicken taking the beef’s place. I personally love loading in plenty of chicken; adjust the quantities to your preference based on how much you like.

Ingredients for 2–3 Servings

Tteokguk rice cakes 250–300 g
Chicken drumsticks 300 g
Boneless chicken thigh 350 g
1 stalk green onion (scallion)
½ onion
8–10 whole peppercorns
Water 1.5 L
Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
Minced garlic 1 tbsp
Guk ganjang (Korean soup soy sauce) 4 tbsp
Lee Kum Kee chicken stock powder 2 tsp
Mirin (cooking wine) 1 tbsp
Fish sauce (or tuna fish sauce) 2 tsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Nothing unusual in the ingredients list. The fish sauce is purely for added umami — substitute with tuna fish sauce, or leave it out entirely if preferred. Prepare 250–500 g of tteokguk rice cakes depending on how much you’d like to eat.

Recipe Summary

Prepare 1 stalk green onion, ½ onion, and 8–10 whole peppercorns. Also slice some green onion for the garnish at the end. Soak the tteokguk rice cakes in cold water for 10–15 minutes.
Prep the chicken. Score the drumsticks and cut the boneless thigh into bite-sized pieces.
Add 1 L water to a pot with the drumsticks, green onion, onion, peppercorns, and 1 tbsp mirin. Simmer for 15 minutes.
In a wide pan, heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the bite-sized boneless thigh pieces and 1 tbsp minced garlic. Stir-fry together.
Once the chicken is partially cooked, add 4 tbsp guk ganjang and one ladle of chicken broth to the pan. Reduce.
From the simmered broth, remove and discard the onion, green onion, and peppercorns. Transfer the drumsticks from the broth into the pan.
Once the chicken in the pan is sufficiently reduced, transfer everything into the broth pot. Add 500 ml water and the soaked tteokguk rice cakes. Bring to a boil.
Once the broth is boiling, add 2 tsp fish sauce (or tuna fish sauce) and 2 tsp Lee Kum Kee chicken stock powder. Add a pinch each of salt and pepper to season. Continue cooking briefly.
Ladle into bowls and top with sliced green onion. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

👩‍🍳🍳 This recipe is quite generous in quantity — adjust the drumstick and boneless thigh amounts as needed.
🧂 No fish sauce? Substitute with tuna fish sauce or anchovy fish sauce, or omit entirely.
🍗 I used 400 g drumsticks and 350 g boneless thigh — I really like chicken.

🍗 Prep time: 15 min
🍳 Cook time: 40 min

Ingredient Prep

Let’s get the prep started. The vegetables are minimal — just green onion and onion. Prepare 1 stalk green onion, ½ onion, and 8–10 whole peppercorns. You can place them in a broth bag (soup infuser bag) ahead of time for easy removal later, as I did.

Also slice some green onion diagonally for the garnish at the end. Soak the tteokguk rice cakes in cold water for 10–15 minutes until softened.

Prep the chicken — nothing elaborate. Score the drumsticks and cut the boneless thigh into bite-sized pieces. That’s all the prep needed for the chicken.

Pour 1 L of water into a pot and add the drumsticks — boneless thigh doesn’t go in yet. Add the broth bag with green onion, onion, and peppercorns, and add 1 tbsp mirin.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Start on high heat, reduce to medium once boiling, then lower to low heat after 15 minutes.

Chicken drumstick boneless cooking method

Cooking the Dakjang Tteokguk

While the broth simmers, work on the other component in parallel. Heat 1–2 tbsp vegetable oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the bite-sized boneless thigh pieces and 1 tbsp minced garlic. Stir-fry together.

The goal here is a light reduction rather than a full sear, so once the chicken is partially cooked, lower the heat. Watch carefully — any burning will add unwanted bitterness.

Add 4 tbsp guk ganjang and one large ladle of chicken broth to the pan. No additional seasoning needed here — everything will come together when combined with the main broth later.

Raise the heat back to medium and reduce. Stir occasionally to prevent burning and keep the liquid from evaporating too quickly.

Combining the Broth and Cooking the Rice Cakes

Remove and discard the onion, green onion, and peppercorns from the simmered broth. Transfer the drumsticks from the broth into the pan. Set the broth aside for a moment.

Once the chicken has reduced a bit but before the sauce gets too thick, stir the drumsticks in. This is less about deep reduction and more about coating the chicken with the ganjang sauce — it makes a noticeable difference to the final flavor.

Once all the chicken is coated, transfer everything into the broth pot. The chicken-fat and ganjang sauce at the bottom of the pan is pure concentrate — scrape it all in.

Add 500 ml water and the soaked tteokguk rice cakes. Cook until the rice cakes are just starting to soften — they don’t need to cook all the way through at this stage.

Seasoning and Finishing

Once the broth returns to a boil, add 2 tsp fish sauce (or tuna fish sauce) and 2 tsp Lee Kum Kee chicken stock powder. Add a pinch each of salt and pepper to taste.

Check and adjust seasoning, then simmer briefly to finish. Use seasoned salt rather than adding more ganjang — more ganjang at this point would shift the balance too far toward a soy-sauce soup.

Soaked tteokguk rice cake cooking method

Ladle into serving bowls and top with sliced green onion. Adjust with salt and pepper to taste — the soup should be pleasantly savory without being bland.

Finished Gallery

Finished

And here’s the finished Dakjang Tteokguk. The soy sauce might sound like it would dominate — but sautéed in chicken fat with garlic and then reduced down, it creates a gently clinging, deeply satisfying flavor that doesn’t read as soy sauce at all. It just works.

Dried seaweed flakes as a garnish seemed appealing at first — but the seaweed flavor ended up too assertive and got in the way of the broth. Better to add a touch more seasoned salt if needed and enjoy the soup together with the rice cakes and chicken.

This is a complete, satisfying meal — deeply recommended for New Year’s Day or any time you want something heartier than standard tteokguk. No spice means it works for everyone at the table: kids and adults alike will enjoy the umami-rich broth, the tender chicken, and the soft rice cakes. For anyone exploring Korean home cooking, Dakjang Tteokguk is a genuinely rewarding recipe to try. You won’t regret it.

For the history and cultural context of tteokguk in Korean cuisine, see the Wikipedia article on Tteokguk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Dakjang Tteokguk?

Chicken broth enriched with guk ganjang (Korean soup soy sauce) to create a deeply umami, lightly colored tteokguk — a Korean rice cake soup. Unlike the classic milky gomtang broth or the clear anchovy broth versions, this one uses chicken thigh sautéed with garlic and ganjang and then combined with chicken broth for a distinctive, complex flavor. No spice at all, making it suitable for children and adults alike.

Q. What is guk ganjang and where can I find it?

Guk ganjang is a light Korean soy sauce brewed specifically for use in soups and broths. It’s lighter in color than regular soy sauce but more pungent in flavor. Available at Korean grocery stores or online. If unavailable, substitute with a small amount of regular low-sodium soy sauce, reducing the quantity by about half and adjusting the remaining seasoning with salt.

Q. Is fish sauce necessary?

Completely optional. Fish sauce (or the Korean alternatives tuna fish sauce or anchovy fish sauce) adds a layer of umami but is not essential to the dish. The Dakjang Tteokguk has a complete, satisfying flavor profile without it. If unavailable or not preferred, simply omit it and adjust the final seasoning with salt to taste.

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