In the States, healthy lifestyles usually don't include a lot of ethnic recipes. I've found that if you want to sustainably eat healthily, you have to be able to eat what you like. So I looked closer at traditional Korean recipes, most of them were easy to convert! This recipe is a Whole30 version of my spicy dak bulgogi.

The gochujang is omitted because it's fermented with rice (this can seem a bit extreme, because it's a lot healthier than a twinkie. But if you're doing the program for 30 days, might as well go for the full experience). The balance of sweetness is brought in the grilled apples. You absolutely can blend the marinade with the apples for the sweetness instead. I avoided that here just because the Whole30 program is made to help us assess what strong pulls we have with food. For me, that meant if any fruit was eaten that it would be the whole fruit to get the fiber too.

The beauty of Whole30 is that it shows you how your body reacts to certain foods because it's different for everyone. I now know rice is not a problem for me at all, and if I don't want to feel gross I avoid beans and soft dairy. Also, a lot of sugar because it gives me extreme headaches.

Hey, sometimes it's absolutely worth it! It's just nice knowing what your body will do.

Whole30 Korean Spicy Chicken

Ingredients
8 chicken thighs
1 large Fuji apple
4 garlic cloves
1 inch piece ginger
4 TBSP gochugaru
2 TBSP sesame oil
2 tsp salt

Steps

1. Cut the Fuji apple into large chunks. Peel and grate the ginger. Peel and mince the garlic cloves.

2. Put the chicken thighs into a large ziplock bag and combine the apple pieces, ginger, garlic, gochugaru, sesame oil, and salt. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal. Massage the marinade all over the chicken, without breaking the apple pieces. Leave in the fridge at least for 4 hours up to overnight.

3. Get the grill to medium-high heat. Cook the chicken and apple pieces for about 5 minutes on each side, placing the apples next to the chicken in a cooler zone on the grill rack to avoid burning.

Notes
This is still a great recipe on the stovetop. Start with a really hot pan to get nice browning for a couple minutes, then turn the heat to medium until the chicken is completely cooked.