Sweet, spicy, and wonderfully sticky, this easy gochujang chicken is a GORGEOUS way to jazz up your regular chicken dinner. Toss juicy chicken thighs in a zingy gochujang glaze, then bake or air fry until beautifully caramelized. A fab shortcut to lovely Korean fried chicken flavors without the deep-frying. Serve over rice, pile onto flatbreads, or enjoy any way you’d like.
Table of Contents
- Sticky Gochujang Chicken, at a Glance
- Sticky Chicken, Without the Frying Faff
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How to Make Gochujang Chicken
- Kate’s Tips for Perfect Sticky Gochujang Chicken
- Watch How to Make Gochujang Chicken
- Five Ways to Serve Gochujang Chicken
- Sticky Gochujang Chicken FAQs
- Like this recipe? Try these easy ideas next
- Sticky Gochujang Chicken Recipe
Sticky Gochujang Chicken, at a Glance
⏰ Total time: 30 minutes
🍽 Servings: 4
🛒 Key Ingredients: Chicken thighs, gochujang paste, sweet chili jam, honey
🧠 Skill Level: Beginner-friendly
🔥 Cooking Methods: Oven, air fryer, BBQ, or outdoor grill
💪 Protein: 37g per serving
🥗 Perfect For: Quick weeknight dinners, meal prep, easy entertaining, or whenever you’re craving Korean fried chicken
💕 Why You’ll Love: No messy coating, pan-frying, or deep-frying required.
Sticky Chicken, Without the Frying Faff
If you also love the bold, crispy magic that is crispy Korean fried chicken, I suspect you’ll be as obsessed with this easier, lighter, weeknight-friendly twist as I am.
Instead of deep-frying, the chicken is tossed in a sweet, spicy gochujang glaze and cooked until beautifully caramelized and charred – either in the oven, on the grill, BBQ, or in the air fryer. No messy coating, no frying in batches, and no oil being splattered all over your stove. Just mix, cook, and enjoy in just 30 minutes.
It’s also very versatile. I love throwing together a crunchy Asian-style slaw while it cooks, then piling everything onto soft two-ingredient dough flatbreads with spicy gochujang aioli, but it’s just as good spooned over rice (or with air-fryer fried rice) or noodles.
You can thread the chicken onto skewers if you like (I love the char you get this way, and it tends to be easier if you’re cooking the chicken on a BBQ or outdoor grill), but it’s totally optional.
“Absolutely amazing! Loved this and loved that it was so so easy. Cannot wait to make this over and over again“
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chicken thighs. I’m using boneless, skinless thighs as they stay juicy and stand up to the heat needed to get the lovely charring on top. Always use free-range. You can use chicken breasts if you prefer.
- Gochujang paste. This is a real staple for me, so I always have some on hand. It’s a Korean fermented chili paste, and it’s a super flavor powerhouse. It’s spicy, sweet, and deeply savory. Larger grocery stores are starting to stock it more, or if you’ve got an Asian store nearby, you’ll find it there. You can also pick it up on Amazon.
- Rice vinegar. The vinegar helps tenderize the meat as it’s marinating, and I love using rice vinegar with these flavors. You can swap it out for white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar if that’s what you have.
- Honey. Gochujang is strong, savory, and spicy, and benefits from a little sweetness. Honey also helps the chicken get that lovely, charred color. Sweet chili jam also helps and provides a more complex flavor, so I recommend using it if possible.
How to Make Gochujang Chicken
This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the chicken – the full ingredients list and instructions are in the recipe at the bottom of the page for you.
- Mix the gochujang glaze, then add the diced chicken. Toss the chicken through the marinade to coat it well.
- Spread the marinated chicken in a single layer on a lined oven tray (or arrange in your air-fryer), then cook until lovely and charred.
- If you’re serving the chicken with slaw and flatbreads, while it cooks, mix your sesame slaw, then get your flatbreads and spicy aioli ready.
- Once your chicken is looking BEAUTIFULLY charred around the edges, it’s ready to remove from the oven.
- If you’re serving the chicken as flatbreads, divide the slaw between your flatbreads, then top with the charred gochujang chicken, a good drizzle of spicy aioli, and scatter with toasted sesame seeds to serve.
Kate’s Tips for Perfect Sticky Gochujang Chicken
- Use chicken thighs for the juiciest result. Boneless, skinless thighs stay lovely and tender, even under the high heat needed to get those lovely charred bits. Chicken breast works, but be careful not to overcook it, as it dries out quickly.
- You don’t have to marinate the chicken. The gochujang glaze is strong enough to make a big impact even if you toss the chicken through it and cook it straight away.
- Give the chicken enough space. Arranging the chicken pieces in a single layer helps them to cook evenly and ensures you end up with caramelized edges. Work in batches if you need to.
- For extra charred edges, use your broiler. If your chicken is cooked but you’d like more char on it, pop it under the broiler (grill) at the highest heat for a couple of minutes. Just watch it closely because it can burn easily.
Watch How to Make Gochujang Chicken
Five Ways to Serve Gochujang Chicken
My favorite way to serve this lovely sticky chicken is piled onto soft flatbreads (these two-ingredient dough garlic naan are excellent), with a crunchy Asian-style slaw and a big drizzle of spicy gochujang aioli. It makes a fab, easy dinner that’s great for meal prep, but this is truly such a versatile recipe. You could also:
- Make a loaded rice bowl. Pile it on top of steamed rice, or air-fryer fried rice, with crunchy veggies like cucumber, shredded cabbage, edamame, scallions, and cilantro.
- Stuff it into fluffy steamed bao buns. Swap the flatbreads for fluffy bao for a fab better-than-takeout dinner – I love this for entertaining too. Guests are always impressed, and they’re a lot easier than you might think.
- Serve it with noodles. Toss it through instant ramen, or add it as a protein boost to this saucy sesame soba noodle salad or green goddess soba noodle salad.
- Pair it with sharing sides. I love the chicken as a centerpiece when entertaining – it works brilliantly with miso roasted sweet potatoes, a smacked cucumber salad, life-changing loaded baked rice, and a grilled broccoli crunch salad.
Sticky Gochujang Chicken FAQs
You can prepare everything ahead of time and then just cook the chicken when you’re ready to serve. The spicy gochujang aioli can be made a week in advance, and the slaw with dressing will be fine for 2 days (or prepare the slaw and then just toss with the dressing ingredients when you’re serving).
Alternatively, you can cook the chicken too and then either serve it cold (still delicious!) or pop it in the microwave for a minute to reheat. It will keep for three to four days in the fridge.
The gochujang paste does give this chicken a kick, so if you’re worried about spice, reduce the amount of gochujang in the marinade to ½ tablespoon, or even ¼ tablespoon if you’re very worried.
This would also be great with crispy skin on roast potatoes and green goddess salad, used in a grilled chicken poke bowl, stuffed into fluffy steamed bao buns, served with smacked cucumber salad, green goddess soba noodle salad, saucy sesame soba noodle salad, or piled on top of steamed rice.
You sure could! Cooking on a barbecue or grill is my favorite way to cook marinated chicken like this – you just can’t beat the flavor you get from the smoke and fire.
I recommend threading the chicken onto skewers if you’re going to do this – this will stop any pieces falling through the grates, and it makes them easy to turn over. If you use wooden skewers, make sure to soak them in water for about 20 minutes before you use them, to help prevent them from burning on the grill.
Grill over medium-high heat for about five minutes on each side until super charred and cooked through. If you have a probe thermometer, it needs to read at least 165°F (74°C). Or, slice into a piece if you’re unsure if it’s cooked – it should be white and juicy.
You don’t! The gochujang glaze is strong enough that it’ll make an impact even if you just quickly toss it through the chicken. You can marinate the chicken up to 24 hours in advance of cooking it, though, if you’d like to get ahead.
Like this recipe? Try these easy ideas next
If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.
Sticky Gochujang Chicken
Ingredients
Method
- Prepare the chicken. If you're using your oven, preheat it to 425°F (220°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the chicken thighs into roughly 1-inch chunks. To a mixing bowl, add 1 tablespoon gochujang paste, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon sweet chili jam. Add the chicken and toss well to coat.
- Cook the chicken. In the oven: Spread the chicken out on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Cook for 20 minutes, or until it’s cooked through and nicely charred around the edges. If you're unsure, cut into a piece to check it's no longer pink in the center. For extra char, switch your oven to the broiler (grill) setting, and broil for a couple of minutes, until deeply charred.In the air fryer: Arrange the chicken in a single layer in your air fryer basket, then air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes. You’re looking for juicy pieces with dark golden, caramelized edges.On the BBQ or outdoor grill: Thread the chicken onto skewers, then cook for roughly five minutes each side over medium-high heat, until gorgeously charred and cooked through.
- Make the slaw (optional). While the chicken cooks, finely shred the cabbage (use a sharp knife or mandoline). Halve the cucumber lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon, then dice it finely. Thinly slice the scallions, and roughly chop the cilantro. Add everything to a large mixing bowl with ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil, 1 teaspoon fish sauce, and 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds. Toss well to combine.
- Make the gochujang aioli (optional).Add ¼ cup of aioli and 1 tablespoon gochujang paste to a small bowl and mix into a creamy, cohesive sauce.
- Garnish and serve.Scatter the sesame seeds over the sticky chicken, then serve it however you like – loaded onto flatbreads with the slaw and spicy aioli, spooned over rice or noodles, or paired simply with the crunchy slaw for a light, fresh dinner.
Absolutely amazing! Loved this and loved that it was so so easy. Cannot wait to make this over and over again.
This was really delicious. I had some issues and had to tweak a few things, but the overall recipe was fantastic. Great flavors.
Loved this recipe so much ! We put a bit of yogurt in the Gochujang sauce and it was perfect !
Ahhhh I’m so happy to hear this Bethan!! Love the idea of adding yogurt to the sauce too x
This has entered our regular rotation. Love it. The charred bits along with warm flat bread makes it something that we can’t just have one of.
I LOVEEEE hearing this Michael!! I agree – the charred bits are elite xx Kate