Boneless dakbokkeum with cheese and glass noodles: Sijang, Yesan

The gochu dakbokkeum I'd been wanting to try at Yesan Market

Whenever I come to Yesan, I always seem to stop by Yesan Market. I've bought castella cake here, makgeolli too... but there are a lot of other famous spots I still haven't been to. Two places I've been wanting to check out — one of them is Sijang Dakbokkeum, known for its gochu dakbokkeum (shishito pepper stir-fried chicken).

I had some business in Yesan today, so I stopped by Yesan Market and decided today was the day to try the gochu dakbokkeum. It's right next to the famous noodle shop, so it was easy to find.

Apparently it's the only one of its kind in the whole country — only found here at Yesan Market!

Sijang Dakbokkeum location and hours

• Address: 충남 예산군 예산읍 예산시장길 2, 174호
• Hours: Daily 11:00–20:30
• Takeout, separate men's/women's restrooms, waiting area, delivery, parking

The most popular menu item is, first, the boneless gochu dakbokkeum, and second, the bone-in gochu dakbokkeum — or so Naver told me haha. The Sijang Dakbokkeum sign has a retro look even from the outside!

The dining hall is small. You can get it to go and eat at the tables in the plaza, or just take it home.

Menu board and country of origin

Here's the menu board. Everything from the chicken meat to the other ingredients is domestic. Only the boneless chicken is from Brazil.

'Deliciously spicy!' — I was really curious what that would taste like.

Rice, water, drinks, and alcohol are all sold at the grill-rental stall in the market plaza. Rice was ₩1,000, water ₩500. And the restaurant hygiene rating was 'excellent'!^^

Open kitchen cooking and the KakaoTalk alert

Near the entrance there's an open kitchen where the owner personally cooks everything to order.

My friend and I both ordered the boneless gochu dakbokkeum, with bunmoja (glass noodles) and cheese added. We were first in line, and it took 10 minutes for the food to come out. They send a KakaoTalk message when the food is ready, and you go pick it up.

Right next to the entrance there's a cooking station where you can watch the whole process — we even got to see a little fire show haha. It got me really excited for that smoky wok flavor.

Since it was hot out, they were also selling slushies. Perfect cool and sweet pairing with dakbokkeum on a hot day like this.

Cheese + glass noodles was my favorite combo

After 10 minutes, the alert message came through — food's ready! We rushed over to grab it and sat down at the table right in front of Sijang Dakbokkeum to eat. Here comes the gochu dakbokkeum!

My favorite combination: gochu dakbokkeum + cheese + bunmoja. Next time, I think swapping the glass noodles for sausage could be good too — there was already tteok (rice cake) mixed in, so it was pretty filling.

There was plenty of cheese too, which made it great for wrapping up with the sweet-spicy chicken. The rice I bought from the plaza was also really generous in portion.

Sijang Dakbokkeum is known as a pretty famous spot even within Yesan Market — apparently in the past, so many customers came that people had to line up and wait. Of course there's still a crowd now too. After trying it, I get why... spicy-sweet, so addictive. Definitely add the cheese!

Chicken with shishito pepper on top, cheese on top, yum~~ Ahh~~~ It's the kind of flavor that calls for a beer.

It's tasty even eaten plain, but since it's boneless, I'd especially recommend it if you're the type who finds picking bones a hassle. I kept eating and eating...

The cheese just kept stretching endlessly haha. There was also a good amount of sauce left, so mixing it into the rice was pure honey.

They also give you a retro-style small plate as standard, so we portioned some out onto that to eat.

Is it very spicy? A heat that keeps your chopsticks coming back

With the first bite, it wasn't 'whoa, this is really spicy' so much as 'oh? this is good' — and you just keep going for more. Honestly, that's the scariest kind of food haha. It's not the kind of spicy where you reach for water after one bite — it's the kind where your chopsticks just keep going back.

I usually like shishito peppers anyway, but the ones here soaked in dakbokkeum sauce were a whole different level of good. The sauce had really soaked into the peppers, so they were delicious even eaten on their own! And when you bite into a shishito pepper, that distinct aroma bursts out, which paired really well with the dakbokkeum sauce. The combination of chicken and shishito pepper was genuinely great.

I ordered the bunmoja for its distinctive chewy texture, and wrapping it up with the chicken gave a nice chewy bite too. If you like tteok (rice cake), I'd recommend adding bunmoja.

Eating it together with the cheese mellowed out the heat of the rich sauce a bit, making it smoother and more delicious, plus it added a nice savory richness. I'd highly recommend it as a must-try restaurant in Yesan. It was a delicious meal!