Korean Chicken Tacos with Caramelized Kimchi
Spice up taco night with these flavorful Korean chicken tacos. Featuring garlicky ginger ground chicken, caramelized kimchi, and lots of fresh toppings, this fusion dish brings together bold Korean-inspired flavors with the beloved taco format. Perfect for an easy weeknight dinner, these tacos are a delicious way to mix things up.
Erica’s Thoughts
So, as I was reflecting on the past year and looking at what recipes were the most popular with you all, I was reminded of these teriyaki chicken tacos. This was a truly random recipe borne from barely having any food in my fridge/pantry and wondering what the heck I could make with chicken thighs, tortillas and cucumbers. I was *thisclose* to not posting that recipe and yet, lo and behold, it was one of the most popular recipes of 2024. And I freaking love those tacos.
Now, if you’re a taco purist you might be slightly scandalized by the idea of teriyaki chicken in a taco or in this case, Korean chicken and caramelized kimchi in a taco. But I’m hoping by the end of this post I can convince you to try it.
Here is what I love about this recipe:
- It features lean protein, lots of veggies and energizing carbohydrates packaged into a delicious, unique fusion taco.
- The kimchi. I do like kimchi, but I don’t love kimchi- it’s a little too… ‘punchy in your face’ for me to have in large quantities, do you know what I mean? Caramelizing the kimchi with a little oil and brown sugar softens it up, creates some beautiful little charred bits and adds a touch of sweetness. It is so good.
- The sauce for the chicken is incredibly simple but has incredible flavor. And chances are you likely have all of the ingredients for it in your fridge/pantry. I thought about using gochujang paste as the spice in this recipe, but it is kinda difficult to find where I live. So I opted for sriracha sauce instead, you can use gochujang if you have it. It gives the recipe a bit more Korean vibes.
- There are a few elements to this recipe but it comes together surprisingly quickly and it packs a delicious and nutritious punch!
A little Korean food-inspired, a little Thai-inspired, put these unique tacos on the menu for your text Taco Tuesday, you won’t regret it!
Simple Ingredients You’ll Need to Make these Korean Tacos:
For the Chicken:
Ground Chicken: ground chicken is a quick and convenient lean protein that absorbs the flavorful sauce beautifully, making it the perfect base for the tacos. Look for ground chicken in the poultry section of your grocery store.
Soy sauce: soy sauce is a salty, umami-packed ingredient that forms the base of the chicken sauce. Look for low-sodium soy sauce in the international foods aisle. You could also use coconut aminos or tamari.
Brown sugar: I add sweetener to any Asian sauce I make, it helps balance the umami from the soy sauce. Just a touch of sugar is also helpful for aiding the caramelization process of the kimchi. You could also use cane sugar, honey or maple syrup.
Garlic and ginger: garlic and ginger are flavorful aromatics that bring depth to the dish. You could use fresh garlic cloves and fresh ginger or for a shortcut snag the garlic paste and ginger paste from the herb refrigerator in the produce section.
Peanut butter: peanut butter adds a creamy texture and subtle nuttiness to the sauce as well as helping it thicken. You can omit if you have a nut allergy.
Toasted sesame oil: a rich, nutty oil that enhances the Korean-inspired flavors. Look for it in the international foods aisle.
Sriracha: this is optional but great if you like a kick of spice! Alternatively you can use Korean red pepper paste or garlic chili paste.
For the Kimchi:
Kimchi: kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made from fermented napa cabbage, radishes, garlic, ginger and Korean red chili flakes. You can find kimchi in the produce section in the refrigerated section near the mushrooms, herbs and/or other Asian foods like wonton wrappers and tofu.
Avocado oil: used for cooking both the chicken and the kimchi, avocado oil’s high smoke point makes it ideal for sautéing. Find it in the oil aisle.
For Assembly:
Flour tortillas: soft 6-inch tortillas (aka fajita-size) provide the perfect base for these Korean chicken tacos. Tortillas are usually on the end cap of the international foods aisle at the store.
Toppings: Choose your journey here but I highly recommend julienned cucumbers, carrots, avocado, herbs (like cilantro, mint, and green onions), crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, sriracha mayo, and lime wedges.
How to Make Spicy Korean Chicken Tacos
Prepare the Chicken: Heat avocado oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook until fully cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks (about 5-6 minutes). In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, peanut butter, sesame oil, and warm water until smooth. Lower the heat and pour the sauce over the chicken, stirring to coat evenly.
Caramelize the Kimchi: Heat avocado oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add chopped kimchi and cook for 5 minutes until much of the moisture has evaporated. Stir in brown sugar and cook for another 5 minutes until the kimchi is softened and caramelized around the edges. If there are a lot of stuck on bits you can use a splash of white vinegar or rice wine vinegar to deglaze the pan.
Prep the Toppings: Julienne cucumbers and carrots, slice avocado, chop fresh herbs and peanuts, and prepare sriracha mayo. You can use storebought sriracha mayo or mix mayonnaise and sriracha to taste, thinning with water or lime juice if needed.
Assemble the Korean Chicken Tacos: Warm the tortillas using your preferred method. To each tortilla, add a scoop of chicken, a spoonful of caramelized kimchi, and your choice of fresh veggies, avocado, and herbs. Top with crushed peanuts, a drizzle of sriracha mayo, and a squeeze of lime juice.
I hope you love this version of chicken tacos as much as I do, I could eat seven!
Variation Ideas
- Make these vegetarian with crumbled tofu or plant-based ground ‘meat’ alternative.
- Instead of tortillas you could serve all of the components as a rice bowl or in lettuce cups!
- Add some big splashes of seasoned rice vinegar and a pinch of salt and sugar to the cucumbers and carrots to give them a pickled effect.
- Alternative protein ideas: ground turkey, ground beef, ground pork, skinless chicken thighs or chicken breast. If you don’t use a ground meat, simply cube chicken breast or thighs.
FAQs
Omit the sriracha and find a mild kimchi. Kimchi usually comes either mild or spicy and sometimes the spicy variety can be real spicy!
Store the individual components: kimchi, chicken and toppings, in separate airtight containers in the fridge for up to four days. Assemble each taco as you’re ready to eat it! If you aren’t fussy about a slightly soggy tortilla you can store fully assembled tacos in the fridge (this is what I did and I thought they were delish).
A couple options: 1) omit it. The tacos will still be delicious with the chicken, veggies, avocado, etc. 2) use thinly sliced fresh green cabbage or 3) trust me! Caramelizing kimchi mellows it out, who knows, you might like it this way.
I love to char them directly over my gas flame. You could also wrap them in a damp paper towel and warm for about 30 seconds in the microwave or wrap in foil and warm for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
This cucumber edamame salad, steamed jasmine rice or steamed broccoli.
Use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and either gluten-free tortillas or 100% corn tortillas.
A couple options: 1) use sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter or 2) omit the peanut butter from the sauce. The sauce will still be delicious without it but peanut butter does help to thicken so if you omit, consider adding a teaspoon or so cornstarch to the sauce. Omit the peanuts on top, try crispy onions instead!
If you try and like this recipe please don’t forget to leave a comment and star rating down below! If you love more lifestyle, behind the scenes and ‘eating in real life’ type of content come find me over on Instagram, @itsaflavorfullife, I love connecting with you all there!
Korean Chicken Tacos Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 tacos 1x
- Category: Tacos
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Korean
Description
Saucy chicken, caramelized kimchi, crunchy veggies, avocado, ground peanuts and a creamy sriracha drizzle, these Korean chicken tacos have it all! Flavorful taco dinner, here we come!
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1lb ground chicken
- pinches of salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tablespoon ginger paste or 1-inch fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sriracha, optional
- 3 tablespoons warm water
Caramelized kimchi
- 2 cups kimchi, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons toasted avocado oil
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 8 fajita-size (6-inch) flour tortillas
- For serving: cucumbers, carrots, avocado, fresh herbs (fresh cilantro, mint and green onions), crushed peanuts, sriracha mayo (see note), lime wedges
Instructions
- Chicken: heat 1 tablespoon avocado oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken and cook, breaking it up with a spatula, until fully cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Season with pinches of salt and pepper. While the chicken is cooking, whisk together the sauce: 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 cloves minced garlic, ½ tablespoon ginger paste, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, 1 teaspoon sriracha and 3 tablespoons warm water, until smooth and well-combined. Reduce the heat to low and add the sauce to the chicken, stirring to combine.
- Kimchi: in a small skillet over medium heat add 2 teaspoons avocado oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped kimchi. Cook for five minutes, until much of the moisture has evaporated from the kimchi. Add 2 teaspoons brown sugar and continue cooking, until the kimchi is softened and caramelizing around the edges, another five minutes. If there are a lot of stuck on bits, deglaze the pan with a splash of rice vinegar or water!
- Veggie prep: slice cucumbers and carrots into thin strips (aka julienne), slice an avocado, chop some fresh herbs and peanuts. Choose your journey with the toppings!
- Assembly: warm the tortillas in the oven or microwave, or if you have a gas stovetop I like to ‘grill’ my tortillas for a few seconds on each side directly on the gas flame. To each tortilla add a scoop of Korean chicken, spoonful of caramelized kimchi and then pile on fresh veggies, avocado and herbs. Finish up with a hefty sprinkle of peanuts, drizzle of sriracha mayo (see note) and squeeze of lime juice.
It’s time for tacos baybay. Lucky you!
Notes
Sriracha mayo: sometimes I buy sriracha mayo but it’s very easy to make. All you need is sriracha and mayo, go figure! I like a ratio of 5 tablespoons mayo to 2 teaspoons sriracha. You could start there and adjust with more mayo if you like less spicy or more sriracha if you like more spicy. You can thin it out with a little water or fresh lime juice to make it more drizzleable. Another very delicious option is this kimchi mayo!
Refer to above blog post for tips and tricks, process photos and answers to frequently asked questions!
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tacos (calculated with carrot, cucumber, avocado, fresh herbs + 2 teaspoons sriracha mayo as toppings)
- Calories: 535
- Sugar: 9.5 g
- Sodium: 1324.3 mg
- Fat: 24.3 g
- Carbohydrates: 53.6 g
- Fiber: 4.8 g
- Protein: 28.4 g
- Cholesterol: 96.3 mg
These are so amazing! The perfect compliment of bold and fresh flavours. It was super quick and easy to make too. I was tempted to skip the kimchi because it’s not my favourite, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I added mango to the toppings too. I made summer rolls with the leftovers – also delicious!
Summer rolls is GENIUS! I’m sooo doing that next time!
Delicious!!! We loved this recipe!!!
Okay, WOW! We had these for dinner last night and, 99 out of 10 is what I rate these! Astronomically delicious! And not too tricky on the cooking difficulty scale, though I can’t fully say, because my family made most of the dish, but still, not too hard to make and oh so fantastic to taste! Thanks for another yummy banger of a recipe, Erica!
This made my day! Thank you so much Amy!!😍
Made this for dinner last night and Wow wow wow! It was so delicious. I made Lettuce wraps ,my husband did tacos. Would also be delicious as a rice bowl! Can’t wait for the leftovers! So many possibilities with this recipe. Thank you Erica!
Just curious what the carb count would be using Almond Flour Tortillas?
We made these for dinner last night and they are amazing! Super quick to make with great flavours! Everyone went back for seconds!
Wooohoooo! Happy to hear Samantha! Thank you for trying and for your review, I really appreciate it.
Made these for dinner and they were fantastic!! I have never particularly liked Kimchi so I was nervous, but carmalizing it made it taste so much better! Definitely would make these again for my family. We are navigating life with a 1 year old and I frequently turn to Erica’s Instagram and blog for meal ideas that taste delicious and are not burdensome to make. This falls in that category for me and I can see this recipe staying in a monthly rotation for us.
Oof been there, I’m so happy to help ease the dinner burden just the teensiest bit. Thank you so much for trusting me and trying my recipes Natalie!
Amazing recipe, Erica!!
Simple enough to make and my father in law loved it with the spicy kimchi and Sriracha 😉
Keep the great recipes coming!!
A winner for Rick, yay lol!! I’m so happy you made this Kat, thank you for your review!
Amazing! The flavor combination is fresh and delicious. My husband and I loved this meal
Made this last week and my whole family loved it!
I just made this for dinner tonight and it was definitely a hit! I am not a fan of kimchi normally but I trusted the process and I really enjoyed it actually! I was surprised! We paired it with avocados, the homemade Sriracha mayo mentioned in recipe, and a mixture of carrots, cabbage and cucumbers, using the vinegar, salt and sugar recipe also mentioned.
I will say my husband, who normally goes through jars and jars of kimchi, mentioned he didn’t like the flavor of it cooked down and preferred the more fermented flavor straight out the jar. Maybe the true kimchi lovers can put some to the side prior to cooking 🙂
Regardless, it was delicious and we’ll be making it again! The meat was so flavorful and smelled so good cooking.
Hi Holly, thank you so much for making this recipe and for your thoughtful review! I can definitely see where true kimchi lovers might find that caramelizing it, defiles it lol. But I’m in your camp, I don’t love the super pungent flavor and texture, so the mild worked for me!
So good! We loved it and we made rice bowls instead of tacos. Thank you!
Soooo delicious! This recipe was so flavorful and you really can put any toppings on. My family loved them!
The flavor was amazing for this recipe. I just make the chicken, no kimchi for me, but used the meat to make lettuce wraps. The flavor is great. I will for sure double this recipe next time as hubby & I ate it all up. Thanks Erica, another one you knocked out of the park.
This has become a regular weeknight meal in our house. We serve as bowls over quinoa instead of as tacos. We’ve sent the recipe to family and friends—it’s a hit every time!!
I will be having leftovers of this for lunch today. I had never really eaten kimchi, but the brightness it provides these tacos is something so unique and, of course, delicious. This was a very quick meal to prepare as well, having most of the ingredients on hand.
These are so good! I’ve been on a big Asian flavors kick this year, and I have loved having a recipe to reach for when I only have ground meat (turkey or beef work just great, too).
What can I use in place of peanut butter due to allergies?
Hi John, you have a couple options: 1) you can sub with sunflower seed butter or 2) you can omit the peanut butter. The sauce will still be yummy without it but the peanut butter does help a bit with thickening the sauce so your sauce will be thinner. You could add a teaspoon or so of cornstarch or arrowroot starch to help with that!
This recipe is a complete hit and will be one of our go-to meals on rotation! Thanks so much.
Yay! Love it Mindy, thanks for trying the recipe and for your review, I appreciate it!
There are so good! And relatively easy to make. I used some left over ahi tuna instead of chicken. They were amazing. I’ll be making this again.