Cheonan chicken stew simmered thick with pickled onions: Sottture

My wife and I were trying to figure out what to have for dinner, and out of nowhere I got a craving for dakdoritang (spicy braised chicken stew), so we went to check it out.

The place we visited was Sottture Dakdoritang in Seongjeong-dong. It's the kind of menu that hits the spot on a day when you're craving Korean food, so I was already looking forward to it before we even walked in.

There's a parking lot behind the restaurant, so it was easy to visit by car.

Sottture Dakdoritang menu and prices

At Sottture Dakdoritang we ordered one whole chicken along with potato pancake and a bowl of rice.

In the end we decided to try the self-made fried rice too. I thought the dakdoritang alone would be plenty filling, but with the potato pancake added it already felt like a pretty generous spread from the start haha.

The prices were:

• Whole chicken ₩35,000
• Potato pancake ₩6,000
• Bowl of rice ₩1,000
• Self-made fried rice ₩2,000
• Drink ₩2,000

Pickled onions and sides refilled at the self-serve bar

After ordering, we waited a bit and the side dishes were set out first. They serve sides that go well with dakdoritang, and I especially liked the pickled onions.

It was also convenient that if the sides ran low, you could just grab more from the self-serve bar as needed. That's something I pay attention to when hunting for good restaurants in Seongjeong-dong, Cheonan — not having to keep calling a staff member over made for a relaxed meal.

What the dakdoritang looks like when it arrives

After a bit of a wait, the main dish arrived. The pot was packed full of chicken, potatoes, rice cakes, and scallions — quite a generous portion.

It looked like plenty even for two people, and at first I wondered if we'd actually be able to finish it all haha.

The dakdoritang came already partially cooked, so all we had to do was simmer it a bit more at the table. We boiled it hard for about 3 minutes before digging in, and as the broth thickened it felt like the flavor got richer and richer.

We personally prefer this kind of thick, reduced-down style over a watery broth, so we didn't add any extra broth.

Chicken and rice cakes together in the thick sauce

Once the broth was properly boiling, we started with the chicken — the meat was tender and well seasoned, which immediately made me want rice.

There were more rice cakes than I expected mixed in, so it was fun picking one out here and there as we ate.

There were big chunks of chicken too, which my wife and I shared nicely — I like the breast meat, and she prefers other parts, so we each picked according to our taste haha.

The scallions were also generous, and fishing out ones fully cooked in the broth to eat together worked surprisingly well. It made sense to me why people looking for good chicken stew restaurants in Seongjeong-dong, Cheonan like this dish so much.

Is the potato pancake worth adding?

We also ordered the potato pancake on the side. Honestly I hesitated at first, thinking the dakdoritang alone would be enough, but my wife wanted to try the potato pancake too, so we ordered it.

But once it actually arrived and we tried it, I was glad we'd ordered it.

The outside was crispy and the inside had a chewy texture, so it was great to pick at in between bites of dakdoritang.

Dipping it lightly in soy sauce brought out an even more savory, mellow flavor. Since dakdoritang is spicy and rich, pairing it with something plain like potato pancake turned out to be a good combination.

Why we added a bowl of rice

Eating our way through the dakdoritang, there was no way we could skip rice.

Mashing the potato in the broth and eating it with rice was a special treat in itself.

My wife and I kept taking spoonfuls of rice with the broth, and before we knew it, we'd nearly finished all the chicken too. At first I thought the portion was huge, but somehow I kept eating more haha.

If you're looking for good restaurants in Seongjeong-dong, Cheonan and want a hearty meal, this kind of dish fits the bill well.

Finishing with self-cooked fried rice

The dish I hesitated over most that day was the self-made fried rice.

We were already pretty full, so we went back and forth on whether to order it, but it felt like something would be missing if we finished the dakdoritang without fried rice, so we ordered it after all.

We mashed and mixed in the leftover potato and egg as we stir-fried it. With some of the dakdoritang broth still left in the pot, frying it that way let the seasoning soak into the rice really well, so we could enjoy it deliciously right to the end.

I guess it really is hard to pass on fried rice after eating dakdoritang.

Is one chicken enough for two people?

Overall, the meal that day was quite satisfying. The dakdoritang portion was generous, the broth was rich, and it went well with rice; the potato pancake we ordered as a side was also better than expected.

Even with just one main dish ordered, we got to enjoy a variety of things — chicken, potato, rice cake, scallions, and fried rice — which made it a good spot to visit as a couple.

If you're looking for good restaurants in Seongjeong-dong, Cheonan and craving a spicy, hearty Korean meal, this place is worth a visit.

Next time we visit, I'd like to try some other menu items too.

If you like dakdoritang, it seems like a place worth checking out at least once.