Our Korean-style chicken bulgogi is an easy, simple, and delicious recipe that the whole family will love. Chicken thighs are marinated in our homemade Korean bulgogi-style sauce.
This chicken bulgogi is incredibly easy to make, even for a busy weeknight dinner option. Our homemade marinade really elevates the sliced chicken thighs. Plus, the homemade marinade is super easy to make. Once you realize just how easy the homemade marinade is, you will be wanting to make this recipe every week in your meal rotations.
Key features and tips
Make sure to plan a day ahead so the chicken can marinate overnight. Marinating the chicken thighs overnight really ensures the flavors of the marinade is soaking into the meat to give you the best flavor outcome. We suggest at least letting the chicken marinate overnight, you could marinate it a bit longer too. No harm in letting it soak up all the flavors longer!
We are using chicken thigh meat for our recipe. Using chicken thighs is our go-to for this recipe because thighs don’t dry out as easily as chicken breasts and thighs have a little bit of fat content. We believe it just makes for a juicier, and more flavorful outcome when using this cut of dark meat. Feel free to swap out thighs and use chicken breasts if you have nutritional reasons or even if it is simply due to preference. We just can’t guarantee the same delicious outcome if chicken breasts are used since we have not tested it out ourselves as of yet. Plus, we are partial to using chicken thighs in most instances over chicken breasts, but that is just our personal preference.
We suggest in the recipe to slice the chicken thighs thinly. We left the chicken thigh meat pieces on the larger size, but just thin. You can even slice it up into bite-sized pieces if you want, or however, you prefer. The goal is just to expose as much of the surface of the thigh meat to the marinade.
Ingredients needed to make chicken bulgogi
- Chicken thighs, skinless/boneless
- Avocado oil
- Toasted sesame seeds (optional)
For the marinade:
- Soy sauce
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- Sesame oil
- Fresh garlic
- Fresh ginger root
- Sugar
- Honey
- Fish sauce
How to make this easy chicken recipe
Step 1: Prepare the chicken thighs
Trim the chicken of the excess fat, and thinly slice the chicken thighs.
Step 2: Make the marinade & marinate the chicken overnight
Mix together all of the ingredients for the marinade. In a large bowl or ziplock bag, add the marinade and the chicken thigh meat. Mix together well to ensure all of the chicken pieces are covered with the marinade. Let it marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Step 3: Stir-fry the chicken
Heat up a frying pan on medium heat. Add the oil to the pan. Once the pan is hot, then add the marinated chicken. (Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook this in batches.)
Step 4: Continue cooking until it starts to carmelize
Cook the chicken until it is well done and no longer pink inside. Once the chicken is no longer pink inside, turn the heat down to low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes and continue to stir to ensure it doesn’t burn. Cook until the juices have evaporated and it starts to slightly caramelize.
Step 5: Enjoy
Remove from heat and serve immediately. Top with toasted sesame seeds (optional) and enjoy!
Serving suggestions
Serve this chicken bulgogi with freshly steamed rice. We quickly stir-fried some scallions in just salt and pepper to serve alongside our chicken bulgogi. Plus, the scallions make for a beautiful plate presentation. You could also add in shredded carrots, sliced onions, and scallions during the last 10 minutes of cooking the chicken bulgogi if you’d like to add in more veggie power. We kept our recipe very simple and basic, but the possibilities are endless. If you are trying to stay low carb, you could just serve this chicken bulgogi with a vegetable of your choice. We have several vegetable side dish recipes on our site such as Easy Asian Pan-Fried Zucchini, Easy Stir-fried Bok Choy, Korean-style Fresh Cucumber and Chive Salad, or Fresh Korean Spinach Salad.
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Easy Chicken Bulgogi
Chicken thighs are marinated in our homemade Korean bulgogi-style sauce.
Ingredients
- 2lb chicken thighs, skinless/boneless (thinly sliced)
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
For the marinade:
- 4 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ginger root, minced
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp fish sauce
Instructions
- Trim the chicken of the excess fat, and thinly slice the chicken thighs.
- Mix together all of the ingredients for the marinade. In a large bowl or ziplock bag, add the marinade and the chicken thigh meat. Mix together well to ensure all of the chicken pieces are covered with the marinade. Let it marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
- Heat up a frying pan on medium heat. Add the oil to the pan. Once the pan is hot, then add the marinated chicken. (Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook this in batches.)
- Cook the chicken until it is well done and no longer pink inside. Once the chicken is no longer pink inside, turn the heat down to low. Cook for an additional 10 minutes and continue to stir to ensure it doesn’t burn. Cook until the juices have evaporated and it starts to slightly caramelize.
- Remove from heat and serve immediately. Top with toasted sesame seeds (optional) and enjoy!
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