Dakgalbi: The Chicken Dish Born From a Pork Shortage in 1960

In 1960, a butcher in Chuncheon ran into a problem.

He needed to sell pork. He couldn't get any.

He didn't give up. Instead, he bought two chickens. Cut them into pieces the way he'd cut pork ribs. Marinated the meat for twelve hours. Grilled it over charcoal.

That improvisation became dakgalbi.

dakgalbi

Quick Answer

Dakgalbi is chicken marinated in a gochujang-based sauce, stir-fried on a griddle with ingredients like sweet potato, rice cake, and cabbage.
It originated in Chuncheon. In 1960, a butcher named Kim Yeong-seok, unable to source pork, prepared chicken the way he'd prepare pork ribs and grilled it over charcoal instead.
It caught on in the 1970s, centered on the back alleys of Chuncheon's Myeongdong district — a cheap, filling meal for soldiers on leave and university students, which earned it nicknames like "college-student galbi" and "commoner's galbi."
These days, cheese dakgalbi — the same dish with melted cheese on top — is common enough that it's an easy entry point for foreign tourists.
Finishing the meal with fried rice, made from the leftover sauce, rice, seaweed, and sesame oil, is part of the expected sequence — cooked until the bottom turns as crisp as scorched rice.

1. What Dakgalbi Actually Is

Dakgalbi is chicken marinated in a gochujang-based sauce, stir-fried on a griddle together with vegetables.

Main ingredients: chicken, sweet potato, rice cake, cabbage.
Sauce: gochujang-based — sweet and spicy at once.
Cooking method: everything gets stir-fried together on a hot griddle, usually by restaurant staff working right at your table.

Chicken, sweet potato, rice cake, and cabbage all come together on one plate, and you're moving through a range of textures and flavors in the same meal. These days, cheese dakgalbi — the same dish finished with melted cheese — is everywhere too. That combination of spicy sauce and melted cheese has made it a particularly easy dish for foreign tourists to jump into.

2. The Real Origin: What Happened in 1960 When There Was No Pork

Dakgalbi's origin story is more specific than you'd expect. In 1960, in Chuncheon's Jungang-ro 2-ga district, a butcher named Kim Yeong-seok sold pork for a living.

Pork became hard to source. So he bought two chickens instead. He prepared them the way he'd prepare pork ribs, marinated the meat for twelve hours, and grilled it over charcoal. He called it "dak-bulgogi" — grilled chicken.

In other words, dakgalbi didn't start out under the name "dakgalbi" at all. It began as one man's improvisation, searching for a substitute for pork ribs.

3. The 1970s: Becoming "College-Student Galbi"

Dak-bulgogi turned into the dakgalbi we know today in the 1970s. It started catching on around the back alleys of Chuncheon's Myeongdong district.

Back then, dakgalbi was cheap. It was a meal soldiers on leave and university students could eat their fill of without worrying about the cost. That's how it picked up nicknames like "college-student galbi" and "commoner's galbi."

There's also a regional reason Chuncheon became dakgalbi's birthplace. The area had a well-developed poultry farming industry, along with several chicken processing facilities — meaning the ingredients were simply easy to come by there.

You can find dakgalbi anywhere in Korea today, but there's something worth appreciating in the fact that this dish began at a specific moment, with a specific person, for a specific reason.

4. How to Eat It Properly: From Wraps to Side Dishes

Eating dakgalbi starts with the show itself — watching and hearing the ingredients sizzle on the griddle. Restaurant staff usually do the stir-frying tableside.

Start with a wrap. Once the chicken is cooked through, wrap a piece in lettuce or perilla leaf and eat it in one bite.
Try it plain, too. Skip the wrap and taste the sauce-soaked chicken on its own.
Eat the rice cake and sweet potato alongside it. Their chewy and soft-starchy textures bring a different kind of satisfaction than the chicken does.

Eat it this way, and you keep moving between different layers of flavor and texture within a single plate.

5. It Ends With Fried Rice

Finishing the chicken doesn't mean the meal is over. The real finale comes after.

Rice, seaweed, and sesame oil get stir-fried right into the leftover sauce still sitting on the griddle, turning into fried rice. Usually you just call the staff over and they handle it. As the leftover sauce works its way into the rice, a completely different flavor emerges from what was just a chicken dish minutes earlier.

The key is the last step. The rice gets pressed against the hot griddle and stir-fried until the bottom turns as crisp as scorched rice. Do it right, and what started as a drinking-food order turns into a full, satisfying meal.

FAQ

Is dakgalbi originally from Chuncheon? Yes. It started in 1960 in Chuncheon, when a butcher prepared chicken in place of unavailable pork, and it became widely known in the 1970s through Chuncheon's Myeongdong back alleys.

Is cheese dakgalbi the original version? No. Topping it with cheese is a later variation. That said, it's become so common today that plenty of people picture cheese dakgalbi first when they hear the name.

Do I have to order the fried rice at the end? It's not required, but a lot of people treat it as part of the expected sequence. Many feel the meal isn't complete without the fried rice made from the leftover sauce.

Is dakgalbi a spicy dish? It's on the spicy side, being gochujang-based, but there's sweetness balanced in too, so it reads more as a well-rounded heat than pure spice. If you're sensitive to spice, cheese dakgalbi softens the impact.

What to Do Next

Dakgalbi started as one man's improvisation when pork wasn't available, and it's since become a dish the whole country eats. That improvisational spirit is still baked into how the dish works today — cooked on a griddle, eaten in wraps, finished with fried rice. That whole arc is one complete experience.

Three things to try:

Next time you order dakgalbi, eat it deliberately through the sequence — wrap, then sides, then fried rice.
If the spice feels like too much, start with cheese dakgalbi.
If you ever get the chance, visit Chuncheon's Myeongdong dakgalbi alley and feel the atmosphere of where it all started.

TL;DR

Dakgalbi began in 1960 in Chuncheon, when a butcher prepared and grilled chicken the way he'd prepare pork ribs, after running out of pork to sell.
It became popular in the 1970s through Chuncheon's Myeongdong back alleys, earning the nickname "college-student galbi" — and cheese-topped versions are common today.
Dakgalbi comes with a built-in course: eaten in wraps, paired with rice cake and sweet potato, and finished with fried rice cooked until crisp in the leftover sauce.

Related reading: Budae-jjigae → (another griddle-and-pot dish with its own sharply documented origin — a US base story instead of a university-town one)

Sources: 닭갈비 - Wikipedia (Korean); 군인·대학생이 키운 '춘천의 맛'…춘천 닭갈비 60년 역사 - Segye Ilbo; [현대에 생겨난 한식 요리는? ④] 돼지갈비 대체품 춘천 닭갈비 - Good Morning Chungcheong