15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken

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15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken â€” Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that’s so tender and juicy! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes?

spicy Korean chicken in a metal skillet

Spicy Korean Chicken Recipe

I love spicy food whether it’s Mexican, Thai, Indian, or Korean, count me in. I love a recipe even more when it’s easy, made in a skillet, and ready in 15 minutes.

This Korean spicy chicken is a perfect recipe for busy weeknights or when you’re trying to up your what-to-do-with-chicken-again game. We’ve all been there. This gochujang chicken is wonderfully tender, moist, juicy, and perfectly spicy. The kind of heat that makes you want to keep eating more. And more.

There are layers of flavors from soy sauce, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, and more. If you’re not a spicy food fan, then this probably isn’t the recipe for you. Or you’ll definitely want to reduce the amount of gochujang sauce you add.

What is Gochujang Sauce?

Gochujang sauce is a Korean sauce that’s great for dipping, marinating, seasoning, or glazing. I find it in the Asian section of my regular grocery store or you can always Amazon it.

In my opinion, it has a similar heat profile to chili garlic sauce (or possibly sriracha) and could probably be used interchangeably with either of those two (traditionalists, please no hate mail), noting the ultimate flavor profile will change a bit, but the overall heat level will likely remain about the same.

I throw this out there for anyone concerned about spending $4.99 on a sauce for one recipe. Now you have other recipe options to use it with!

close up of spicy Korean chicken in a metal skillet

How to Make Korean Chicken

Add the gochujang sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic to a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the chicken, cover, and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.

Use a slotted spoon to separate the chicken from the marinade and place in a well oiled skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until chicken is cooked through. While the chicken cooks, add cornstarch and water to a bowl and stir to combine.

Add the cornstarch slurry to the side of the skillet and turn the heat down. Gently stir the slurry into into the pan sauce. Keep stirring for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Spoon the thickened sauce over the chicken pieces or just flip them around in the sauce to coat them evenly. 

Remove pan from the heat, add the green onions, sesame seeds, and serve immediately. I like to pair this spicy Korean chicken with rice, but you could also do fried rice, cauliflower rice, or just make a salad. Something cool to tone down the heat factor wouldn’t be a bad option at all!

15-Minute Spicy Korean Skillet Chicken - Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that's so tender and juicy!! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes!!

Tips for the Best Korean Chicken

When cooking the chicken, make sure to stir it a few times so that it cooks evenly throughout. If you’ve diced the chicken small enough, it should cook within 5 to 7 minutes.

The cornstarch slurry isn’t completely necessary, but I like to add it in to thicken up the sauce. I don’t like when the sauce is super runny, but if you don’t have cornstarch on hand or simply prefer not to use it that’s fine! 

Note that there’s really no substitution for the gochujang sauce in this recipe. It gives this Korean spicy chicken its signature flavor — I promise it’s worth buying a bottle! 

Lastly, I find reduced-sodium soy sauce best for this recipe. Regular soy sauce is a little too salty for me, and I much prefer the lower sodium versions for the Korean chicken marinade. 

15-Minute Spicy Korean Skillet Chicken – Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that’s so tender and juicy!! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes!!

More Asian Chicken Recipes: 

  • P.F. Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps {Copycat Recipe} â€“ Skip the restaurant version and make at home in 20 minutes! Easy, healthier because you’re controlling the ingredients, and they taste way better!
  • Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps â€“ EASY, ready in 20 minutes, and layered with FLAVOR galore!! High protein, gluten-free, and the Thai twist is AMAZING! Your NEW GO-TO chicken wrap recipe!!
  • Easy Better-Than-Takeout Chicken Fried Rice – One-skillet, ready in 20 minutes, and you’ll never want takeout again after tasting how good homemade is!! Way more flavor, not greasy, and loads of juicy chicken!
  • Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken — This Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken is coated in the most incredible peanut sauce. Serve it over rice for an easy meal, and garnish with green onions and extra peanuts for added crunch! 
  • Sesame Mango Chicken — An EASY Asian-inspired recipe with tender sesame chicken, juicy mango, and soy-garlic-ginger infused cabbage and carrots!

15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken â€” Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that's so tender and juicy! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes?

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4.60 from 86 votes

15-Minute Spicy Korean Chicken

By Averie Sunshine
Fast, EASY, perfectly SPICY chicken that's so tender and juicy! Who needs takeout or a restaurant when you can make this AWESOME chicken at home in 15 minutes?
Servings: 4 servings
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Ingredients  

  • â…“ cup gochujang sauce
  • ¼ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 4 to 5 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
  • 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite sized pieces
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1 scant teaspoon cold water
  • green onions, diced into thin rounds for garnishing
  • sesame seeds, for garnishing

Instructions 

  • To a large bowl, add the gochujang sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and stir to combine.
  • Add the chicken, cover, and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
  • To a large skillet, add the olive oil, and using a slotted spoon add the chicken (discard leftover marinade), and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 to 7 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through; flip intermittently to ensure even cooking.
  • While the chicken cooks, to a small bowl add the cornstarch, water, and stir to combine until dissolved.
  • After the chicken has cooked through, add the cornstarch slurry to the side of the pan (don’t dump it over the chicken), turn the heat to medium-low, and gently stir the slurry into into the pan sauce. Keep stirring for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until sauce has thickened up to desired level. Spoon the thickened sauce over the chicken pieces or just flip them around in the sauce to coat them evenly. Note – the cornstarch addition is not absolutely necessary but I prefer the sauce thicker and with more body rather as opposed to runny and find the extra 1 to 2 minutes worth it.
  • Remove pan from the heat, add the green onions, sesame seeds, and serve immediately. Chicken is best warm and fresh but will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Damn Delicious.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 575kcal, Carbohydrates: 31g, Protein: 57g, Fat: 24g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 18g, Cholesterol: 145mg, Sodium: 2029mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 20g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Even More Easy Asian Recipes: 

Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps – EASY, ready in 20 minutes, perfectly SPICY yet wonderfully fresh!! Just enough heat to keep you going back for more! A new dinnertime WINNER!!

Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps - EASY, ready in 20 minutes, perfectly SPICY yet wonderfully fresh!! Just enough heat to keep you going back for more! A new dinnertime WINNER!!

Easy Sweet and Sour Asian Noodles - So much flavor in these easy noodles that are ready in 30 minutes!! Plenty of vegetables add great crunch! You won't miss takeout when homemade tastes way better and is healthier!!
 
Easy Better-Than-Takeout Shrimp Fried Rice â€” One-skillet, ready in 20 minutes, and you’ll never takeout again!! Homemade tastes WAY BETTER!! Tons more flavor, not greasy, and loaded with tender shrimp!!
 
Easy Better-Than-Takeout Shrimp Fried Rice - One-skillet, ready in 20 minutes, and you'll never takeout again!! Homemade tastes WAY BETTER!! Tons more flavor, not greasy, and loaded with tender shrimp!!

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

Recipe Rating




Comments

  1. 1 star
    How do you label something a 15 minute recipe and the first step takes an hour?  What an attention craving jerk what a liar!

  2. 5 stars
    I made this recipe with seitan instead of chicken since I’m vegan. It was DELICOUS! Spicy but the brown sugar helps tons. Had it with sauteed mushrooms over fresh noodles. I would definitely recommend trying this with seitan, tofu, or tempeh if you don’t eat meat!

  3. 5 stars
    I made this recipe with seitan instead of chicken since I’m vegan. It was DELICOUS! Spicy but the brown sugar helps tons. Had it with sauteed mushrooms over fresh noodles. I would definitely recommend trying this with seitan, tofu, or tempeh if you don’t eat meat!

    1. Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this worked great with seitan! I bet it would also be nice with tempeh (need to try it myself)! And yes to the sauteed mushrooms, too!

    1. Please read some of the previous comments because I have given my thoughts on this already.

  4. 5 stars
    Just finished making this, added mushrooms and onions to stretch it out a bit, and its so good. Packing it up with rice to take to work this week :)

  5. 5 stars
    Just finished making this, added mushrooms and onions to stretch it out a bit, and its so good. Packing it up with rice to take to work this week :)

    1. Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it turned out so well and you were able to bulk it up a bit with the mushrooms and onions.

  6. 5 stars
    Just made this: was tremendous! Looking forward to doing more of your recipes now. Some of them look amazing; glad I found this site.

  7. 5 stars
    Just made this: was tremendous! Looking forward to doing more of your recipes now. Some of them look amazing; glad I found this site.

    1. Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you found my site, too, and will be making more recipes!

  8. 5 stars
    We used this marinade for chicken legs and loved it! I added about a half Tbsp more of gochujang and still could have added more to suite our tastes, but we really love spicy foods. I was only able to marinade for 1.5hrs and will definitely try to let it sit longer next time. Don’t skip the cornstarch step! Since we used drumsticks instead of cubed chicken, we cooked the drumsticks in the cast iron until almost completely done, added in the extra marinade, added the cornstarch mixture, and finished it off in the oven at 400 F. We used the extra marinade that was left on the pan to top our steamed rice and loved it!  We’ve added this marinade to our list of recipes to cook often! 

  9. 5 stars
    We used this marinade for chicken legs and loved it! I added about a half Tbsp more of gochujang and still could have added more to suite our tastes, but we really love spicy foods. I was only able to marinade for 1.5hrs and will definitely try to let it sit longer next time. Don’t skip the cornstarch step! Since we used drumsticks instead of cubed chicken, we cooked the drumsticks in the cast iron until almost completely done, added in the extra marinade, added the cornstarch mixture, and finished it off in the oven at 400 F. We used the extra marinade that was left on the pan to top our steamed rice and loved it!  We’ve added this marinade to our list of recipes to cook often! 

    1. Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that you loved the marinade for chicken legs and will use it often!

    1. Sauce and paste in this context may be similar in terms of the consistency of the product, but different manufacturers’ may use a different name. You want something approximately the consistency of barbecue sauce.

      If you truly have a paste, you may have to thin in with probably water, but this is something I’ve never done so can’t say for sure.

      1. Hi, I found a simple recipe that I had the ingredients for to turn the paste into a sauce: 2-3 Tbs of paste ( used 3), 1.5 Tbs rice vinegar, 1 Tbs maple syrup, and 1 Tbs sesame oil… whisk it all together. Essentially the only new ingredient was maple syrup that the main recipe doesn’t require. I then used this as the base for the ingredients your recipe has. I also added all the sauce to the pan after cooking the chicken, and added some large diced onion and red pepper. The result… simply amazing with so many layers of taste! I cook a lot and this was one of the most tasty yet simple and fast Asian recipes I’ve ever cooked. THANK YOU for sharing… I plan to peruse your website for many more recipes. Be safe from all this virus craziness.

      2. Great job on the research and glad your dish turned out amazing and that it was one of the best Asian recipes you’ve ever cooked! That’s awesome to hear amidst the chaos!

      3. Oops… I just put the full amount of paste in as is. Hopefully it comes out well when I cook it up tonight.