Narrator: Every weekend, Samgeori Farms
in Damyang County, South Korea,
cooks 1,700 pounds of chicken and vegetables
inside of their 40 wood-fueled woks.
The final result: dakbokkeumtang,
a spicy chicken stew full of potatoes, onions, and carrots
and a secret chili sauce.
Narrator: We visited chef Kim Chun-gu
and his crew of 21 cooks to see what it takes
to make dakbokkeumtang in such big batches.
Cooking this dish begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Workers coat the tops of 20-kilogram iron woks
with soybean oil and add handfuls of dried oak
into the base of the grills.
Narrator: When the grills are ready,
workers use propane torches to light the wood on fire.
After five minutes,
the woks reach their optimal temperature
and an entire bucket of the dakbokkeumtang mixture
is poured inside.
Narrator: While maintaining the wood fire is challenging,
it's worth the flavorful payoff.
Narrator: Oakwood has a smokier flavor
than apple and cherrywood,
with a lighter taste compared to hickory and mesquite woods.
It also burns at a high temperature
without emitting too much smoke.
Even though this dish is cooked on high heat,
it still takes a while to cook.
Narrator: Thinly cut onions are added into the wok
and cooked for a minute.
At 11 a.m., the first batch of dakbokkeumtang
is ready to be served.
Workers wheel the woks out to the customers' tables
and scoop the stew into metal bowls.
And a single order costs around $55.
Narrator: Samgeori Farms opened three years ago,
and since then, business has centered around one dish.
Preparing for a weekend of cooking
starts early in the morning,
cutting vegetables and chicken in the kitchen.
Narrator: The restaurant uses around 600 sweet potatoes,
potatoes, and carrots every weekend,
along with 1,000 green onions and onions.
Narrator: But the most important part of the dish
is the locally sourced chicken.
Narrator: Once the chicken and vegetables
have been chopped and added into the buckets,
it's time for the most important part of the dish,
the secret seasoning.
Narrator: The bright-red gochugaru and gochujang paste
help create the dish's signature color
and spicy red-pepper flavor,
while the red wine helps get rid of the meaty smell.
Narrator: Dakbokkeumtang has been a staple
of Korean cooking since the 20th century,
following the mass production of poultry in the country.
And while chicken might be a fairly new ingredient,
the famous red chili has been grown
and eaten in Korea for over 1,000 years.
The stew used to be called dakdoritang,
containing the Japanese word for chicken, dori.
The National Institute of Korean Language decided
to change it to dakbokkeumtang,
literally translating to "stir-fried chicken soup."
Today, it's typically served with white kimchi,
cucumber pickles, and chive pancakes.
And in some cases, there is a bonus at the end.
At Samgeori Farms, when most of the dish has been served,
the remaining sauce is pushed back
into the center of the wok.
Ramen noodles are added in and enjoyed,
so nothing goes to waste.