Chicken Kalguksu 칼국수 — Sweet & Savorhie

Another classic Korean comfort food, Kalguksu is a noodle dish that is made from a hearty broth filled with vegetables and knife-cut noodles. “Kal” literally means “knife” and “guksu” means noodles. Traditionally, the dough is made fresh and hand cut using a knife to create long flat noodles with bouncy texture, but for the sake of convenience, I used store bought noodles, but you can easily make them at home. Kalguksu is often made using seafood or pork, but today I’m sharing my favorite chicken kalguksu recipe— the broth is made from the whole chicken making it much more nutritious and hearty.

Instant Pot Chicken Kalguksu (Knife Cut Noodles)

Ingredients (Serves 4)

3 lb whole chicken
1 package kalguksu
16 cups water
1 medium onion, quartered
15-20 peeled garlic cloves
1/2 medium zucchini cut into matchsticks
1/2 carrot julienned (1/2 cup)
1/2 small potato julienned (1/2 cup)
Sesame oil
Salt
ground black pepper
Fish sauce

To clean & prepare chicken:

Liberally sprinkle chicken with coarse sea salt and scrub clean while running under cold water. Remove giblets and clean inner cavity and cut off any excess skin. Transfer directly to instant pot to avoid any contamination.

Directions:

Add water, garlic, and onion to instant pot along with the chicken and cook on manual for 30 minutes.

Once chicken is cooked, removed from instant pot and transfer to a plate to cool.
Using a sieve remove garlic from broth and reserve for later use in a small bowl. Discard onion.
Add 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce and 1 TBSP of salt to taste. Adjust according to personal preference.
Leave about 2 cups of broth in inner pot and set the remainder of broth aside for later use.

Take julienned carrots, zucchini and potato and place them separately in divided sections in the trivet. lightly coat with sesame oil and sprinkle salt to taste. (If you don’t have a trivet, you can also steam veggies separately.)
Place egg rack into pot and trivet basket on top. Set on manual for 0 minutes and quick release.
Remove trivet and egg rack and set aside. Add 6 more cups of broth back into pot and press sauté.
Once chicken has cooled, remove skin and bones and pull meat apart, shredding into thin pieces.
Take reserved garlic and using the back of a fork; gently mash into a paste. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp salt and pepper.
Take shredded chicken and gently toss in garlic mixture, making sure to coat evenly. Set aside.
Remove noodles from package and rinse in water to remove excess flour and starch. Once water runs clear take noodles and add to pot once pot reads HOT.
Cook noodles for about 4 minutes adding broth if soup becomes too thick.
Ladle noodle and soup into a bowl and top with carrots, potato & zucchini. Top with generous serving of the seasoned chicken.