Holiday Ayo - Samgyetang is a traditional South Korean food made from young chicken and then boiled for several hours until the meat is tender.

This food is a symbol of summer food in Korea. 'Sam' is taken from the word which means ginseng, 'gye' means chicken and 'tang' which means soup. Literally, this food means ginseng chicken soup.

source: Asian Inspirations

This dish is very famous as a food consumed to fight the hot weather in summer. Koreans have a belief in fighting heat with heat too.

This dish is usually eaten on Sambok days, because Koreans have a tradition of consuming foods that can restore stamina and are healthy. Sambok is the 3 days that mark the hottest period of the year, namely chobok, jungbok and malbok.

The chicken used in this dish is whole easy chicken boiled with various herbs and spices. The entrails of the chicken are previously removed, then rice or glutinous rice which has been soaked beforehand and ingredients of medicinal plants that are beneficial to health are added.

source: Asta Homeware

The main key of this dish is the addition of ginseng which is known to have extraordinary health benefits.

Besides ginseng, there are also garlic, ginger, jujube, and other ingredients. Sometimes, other herbal ingredients are also used to make samgyetang such as milk vetch root, as well as chestnut and ginkgo nuts.

Before cooking, the stomach of the chicken is filled with soaked rice. There are also other ingredients such as ginseng, jujube and rice added in the chicken. When filling, make sure you leave space in the stomach cavity of the chicken because the rice will expand when cooked.

source: Beauty Journal

Samgyetang is usually served with pepper and salt separately. Because, this dish is not seasoned when cooked. So, everyone can season according to taste when they are going to eat this dish.