Wood-fired chicken restaurant in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul: cheese nurungji

If you are looking for wood-fired chicken near Munrae Station

I was wondering what to have for dinner in Munrae, and instead of chicken for the first time in a while, I wanted something a little more special—so off I went. This time, I visited Jangjakgun Munrae (장작꾼 문래점)!

It was about a 7-minute walk from Exit 3 of Munrae Station, an easy enough distance to stroll over after work. There are so many good places near Munrae Station that I was debating where to go, but the wood-fired whole chicken caught my eye.

Today, we are going for wood-fired whole chicken instead of fried chicken, haha.

Jangjakgun grills whole chickens over oak logs. They say the chickens are cooked slowly over a 400°C wood fire, and maybe because of that, even the look was clearly a little different from regular chicken.

Ordering spicy half-and-half nurungji chicken and rice balls

We ordered the spicy half-and-half nurungji chicken for ₩26,000! We also got rice balls for ₩4,000 as a side. A whole chicken alone felt like it might be a little lacking, so we added the rice balls too—and this pairing was quietly so good, lol.

As soon as the chicken arrived, the mozzarella piled on top immediately caught my eye. There was plenty of rich cheese, and when I lifted it with my chopsticks, it stretched right out—it looked delicious before I even took a bite. If you love cheese, you are already sold at this point 😂

Spicy sauce, cheese, and the texture of nurungji

The spicy half-and-half nurungji chicken comes with spicy sauce and rich mozzarella. On my first bite, the sweet-and-spicy sauce came through first, followed by the nutty, soft flavor of the cheese. Rather than a style where the heat just hits you hard, the cheese made it feel a little gentler. Personally, this combination worked better than I expected.

And you cannot leave out the nurungji (crispy scorched rice) with wood-fired whole chicken, right? I pulled off a little of the nurungji underneath the chicken, and its crunchy bite made it fun to eat. The chicken itself was tender and mild, while the nurungji below was nutty and crisp, so eating them together completely changed the texture. Tender chicken, then crunchy nurungji—this was surprisingly addictive.

The chicken also definitely felt different from oil-fried chicken. Maybe because it was grilled over logs, there was a subtle smoky aroma on the outside, while the meat inside stayed relatively mild. With the spicy sauce and cheese on top, the flavor felt a little bolder than plain wood-fired chicken. I usually cannot eat much chicken because it starts to feel greasy, but since this was wood-fired without a batter coating, I kept reaching for more than I expected.

I also had some pickled radish and yeolmu kimchi (young radish kimchi) in between. After eating the spicy sauce and cheese continuously, your mouth can start to feel a little heavy, but the crisp side dishes reset the palate now and then. That is quietly important when you are eating whole chicken, haha.

Rice balls that softened the heat

I picked up the rice balls one by one too. The mild rice balls went really well alongside the spicy chicken sauce. In particular, the rice softened the spice a little, so I think people who find heat burdensome would be fine eating it with the rice balls. Personally, ordering the rice balls along with the chicken was a good choice rather than having the chicken alone.

As we ate, the cheese gradually melted and clung nicely to the chicken, making it easy to eat. I stretched the cheese once for photos, then immediately got too busy eating, lol. You know that moment when you get anxious the cheese will set while you are waiting to take blog photos 😂

A wood-fired style unlike fried chicken

To give my honest review, it may feel like a somewhat different food if you visit expecting typical fried or sauced chicken. Rather than chicken where you expect a crispy coating, it was closer to a whole chicken where you enjoy the subtle oak wood-fire aroma, tender meat, and nutty nurungji together. So personally, if you like this wood-fired style, I think it is worth trying at least once. And if you like spicy flavors paired with cheese, the spicy half-and-half nurungji chicken should suit you especially well!

How it worked for a Munrae Station dinner meet-up

I also thought it would work well when making plans near Munrae Station. It is the kind of meal you can order one of, add rice balls or sides, and eat slowly, so it suits an evening of talking over dinner with friends. For people searching for chicken at a good restaurant near Munrae Station while deciding on dinner, this could be a slightly different option.

Especially if you are looking for whole chicken at a good Munrae restaurant, the menu is a little different from a typical chicken place, so wood-fired chicken fans may want to keep it in mind. It is also reasonably accessible from the Yangpyeong-dong area, so it could be worth looking up when searching for chicken there too. We chose something spicy that day, but next time I would like to try the basic herbal nurungji chicken as well.

If I revisit, the biggest reasons would definitely be the nurungji and the wood-fire aroma. There is fun in scraping up the crisp nurungji at the end rather than just eating chicken, and its mildness differs from fried chicken, so I think it will come to mind now and then. Next time, I would like to choose another side too. They have things like golbaengi somyeon (sea snail with thin noodles) and soup tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes in broth), so if you visit in a group, they seem good for sharing a bit of everything.

Honestly, there are so many chicken places these days that if you are just going out for chicken, you have a huge number of choices. But if you are looking for whole chicken at a good Munrae restaurant, this was a place with a clear reason to choose it: wood-fired whole chicken. I would especially recommend the spicy half-and-half nurungji chicken we had if you like spicy sauce topped with cheese. When you want something tasty in Munrae after work and crave something a little different from chicken, it is exactly this kind of feeling.

When I visit next time, I think I will have the basic nurungji chicken with one other side. This time I really enjoyed the spicy sauce and cheese combination, so now I am curious about the straightforward flavor of the wood-fired chicken itself too. In the end, I visited while looking for whole chicken at a good Munrae restaurant, and the crispy nurungji was what stayed with me more than I expected at Jangjakgun Munrae. If you are wondering about dinner near Munrae Station, give wood-fired whole chicken a try :) It has a nutty, subtle smoky charm that is completely different from crispy fried chicken 🔥