Samgyetang삼계탕

Samgyetang (삼계탕) grew out of dak-baeksuk, a whole chicken stuffed with rice and medicinal herbs and simmered until tender. Old Korean cookbooks such as Gyuhap Chongseo and Siuijeonseo describe soups and braises of young chicken, but the name samgyetang never appears in them. As production of dried white ginseng rose from the 19th century on, cooks began stirring its powder into chicken soup, and Bang Sin-yeong's 1917 cookbook Joseon Yori Jebeop includes a chicken soup made with white ginseng powder.

During the Japanese colonial period the dish went by gyesamtang, "chicken-ginseng soup," with the chicken named first. In the 1960s, refrigerators came into use, fresh ginseng could be shipped nationwide and chicken production grew, so Seoul restaurants that had been selling baeksuk began serving "samgyetang" made with fresh ginseng. That is roughly when the name with ginseng in front caught on. In 1974 it was canned and began to be exported to Japan.

Koreans call sweating over a boiling-hot bowl on the steamiest days of summer, the boknal, iyeol chiyeol: "fighting heat with heat." One reading based on yin-yang and the five elements says the "fire" of ginseng chicken overcomes the "metal" of the boknal days. Because the boknal version is usually made with a young spring chicken, it is also called yeonggye-baeksuk. It became the signature boknal dish from the 1980s onward.