Yesan Market-exclusive shishito chicken stir-fry at Sijang Dakbokkeum

Where is Sijang Dakbokkeum in Yesan Market?

Sijang Dakbokkeum (시장닭볶음) is a chicken stir-fry (dakbokkeum) restaurant inside Yesan Market, at 174 2 Yesansijang-gil, Yesan-eup, Yesan-gun, Chungnam, South Korea. It is open daily from 11:00 to 20:30.

Today I visited Yesan Market, and the place I stopped at has a name that already smells like a rice thief: Sijang Dakbokkeum 🐔🔥

I spotted it while walking around the market 😊 The homey signboard made it easy to find from far away. I just love this kind of market atmosphere 🥰

Is the shishito pepper chicken stir-fry really one of a kind in Korea?

In front of the entrance there was a sign saying the shishito pepper chicken stir-fry can be had only at Yesan Market, nowhere else in the country 🔥 Seeing "only one in Korea," I couldn't just walk past. At times like this, curiosity beats appetite 😆

I headed straight into the shop 🚪 From the entrance you can feel the cozy old-market mood, and just looking around was fun 😊

How do you order at Sijang Dakbokkeum, and is there a wait?

You order at the kiosk in front of the shop. When I visited there were groups waiting, but the estimated wait time showed 0 minutes 😄 A wait with no waiting, a strangely magical situation.

Shishito pepper chicken stir-fry costs ₩25,000

There was no need to think about the menu: I ordered the shishito pepper chicken stir-fry 🐔🌶️ It was ₩25,000, and steamed rice and drinks can be ordered separately.

It's supposedly a one-of-a-kind dish, and I figured if I skipped it I'd think about it all the way home 😂

Receipt review event and self-serve aprons

Sijang Dakbokkeum was also running an event: write a Naver receipt review and get an apple sparkling drink 🍎 Eat well and get a drink too, a perk too good to miss 😊

Chopsticks and aprons are self-serve, so take as many as you need. If the chicken stir-fry sauce splashes on your clothes, today's memory could be saved on them permanently, so definitely grab an apron 😆

The kitchen is open, so you can catch a glimpse of the food being cooked 👀 It looked neatly kept, and food was being prepared quickly over several burners 🔥

How does the shishito pepper chicken stir-fry at Sijang Dakbokkeum taste?

Glossy sauce coated shishito peppers, onions and plenty of whole garlic cloves. When the long-awaited dish finally arrived, I gasped at how it looked 🤩

With all that garlic in there, it feels kind of like health food. That's just my imagination, right? 😂

The chicken pieces were chunky too, which was very satisfying 🐔 The sauce had soaked deep into the meat, and after one bite I immediately wanted rice. This isn't chicken stir-fry, it's a rice-summoning spell 🍚

True to the name, the shishito peppers were really big 🌶️ Their distinctive aroma goes well with the sweet sauce, and they were great eaten together with the chicken. I thought the peppers were supporting actors, but they had almost leading-role presence 😆

How much is the apple slushie at Sijang Dakbokkeum?

The shop also sells an apple slushie for ₩5,000 🍎 The fun look of it being slipped into a tube caught my eye. Even the dessert comes out cute, so very Yesan Market 😊

I bought one right away and got my apple slushie. Watching it slide down cold, I felt the heat from the chicken stir-fry already going away 🧊🍎

The apple slushie sits inside a pineapple-shaped tube 🍍 It looks cute and is easy to carry, so it was great to sip while wandering around Yesan Market. Taste and photos both covered, a very busy slushie 😆

Where do the ingredients at Sijang Dakbokkeum come from?

One side of the shop has a notice of where the ingredients come from. Chicken meat, chili pepper, green onion, garlic, shishito peppers and onion were labeled as Korean, and only the boneless chicken was listed as from Brazil 😊 I liked being able to check the origins like this.

Is leftover shishito chicken stir-fry still good as takeout?

The portion was generous, so I packed up the leftovers and ate them again at home 🏠 Even after some time the sauce stayed rich, so it made a great side dish for rice.

Good food keeps its rice-calling power even when the place changes 🍚😂 Big chunks of chicken, shishito peppers and a rich sauce made a bowl of rice vanish in no time, a real Yesan Market treat 😋🔥