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Korean Chicken Rice Bowls with Kimchi Sunflower Microgreen Slaw

Korean chicken rice bowls with a crunchy kimchi and sunflower microgreen slaw are one of the meals we keep coming back to, and this is the full recipe. Charred gochujang chicken thighs, a spicy lime yogurt sauce, steamed rice, and a slaw built on fresh sunflower microgreens, cabbage, and kimchi come together in about 30 minutes, finished with a handful of kale microgreens on top. You can also swap the chicken for tofu to make it vegetarian. If you have been looking for a microgreens recipe that actually tastes like dinner, this is it.

We have been growing microgreens since 2018, and we love Asian style food. Where we live in Texas, we do not have much variety close to home, and eating out almost always leaves our stomachs unhappy. So Mandi has spent over a month cooking mostly Korean and Japanese food in our own kitchen, and this bowl is the one that stuck.

On The Grow Korean chicken rice bowl with sunflower microgreen slaw, charred chicken, rice, and yogurt sauce

Quick Answer: What Is a Korean Chicken Rice Bowl with Sunflower Microgreen Slaw?

It is a rice bowl topped with charred gochujang chicken thighs, a chopped slaw of kimchi, cabbage, sunflower microgreens, scallions, and cilantro, and a spicy lime Greek yogurt sauce. Extra sunflower microgreens and a handful of kale microgreens go on at the end. The recipe serves 4 and takes about 30 minutes, including a 15 minute marinade, though it can run longer depending on how fast you prep and cook. Chicken thighs are the way to go, and steamed rice is far better than rice cooked in water. You can serve it over rice as a bowl, swap the rice for tortillas and make Korean tacos, or use tofu in place of the chicken for a vegetarian version. The microgreens go in raw, right before serving.

Why This Korean Chicken Bowl Stays in Our Rotation

We love kimchi, and we love every flavor this meal gives you. There is heat from the gochujang, savory depth from soy sauce, garlic, and ginger, tang from the lime and the kimchi, and crisp, charred edges on the chicken. The cool yogurt sauce pulls it all together. It is spicy, buttery, and tastes amazing.

Sunflower microgreens pair extremely well with all of it. They add a crisp, juicy crunch and a mild nutty flavor that softens the spice instead of fighting it. This Asian style slaw is by far one of our favorite toppings for rice bowls, and it works just as well in tacos. We keep this meal in our rotation either way, as rice bowls or as tacos.

Korean Chicken Rice Bowls with Sunflower Microgreen Slaw Recipe

Serves 4. About 30 minutes, though it can take longer depending on your prep speed and your cooking speed. We make one batch and it covers four meals.

Angled view of a Korean chicken rice bowl with charred chicken, kimchi slaw, steamed rice, and sunflower microgreens

Ingredients

Rice

  • 1 cup uncooked rice, for steaming (enough for 2 people)

Chicken (or Tofu)

  • 4 boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces (or 1 block of firm tofu for a vegetarian version, see below)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp gochujang
  • 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp olive oil, for the pan

Kimchi Sunflower Microgreen Slaw

  • 1 cup kimchi, chopped and drained
  • 1 1/2 cups cabbage, shredded fine
  • 1 cup sunflower microgreens, chopped
  • 4 scallions, sliced
  • 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • Pinch of sea salt

Spicy Lime Yogurt Sauce

  • 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • Just under 2 tsp gochujang
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • Splash of water, to thin

To Top

  • Extra chopped sunflower microgreens
  • A handful of kale microgreens

Kimchi, shredded cabbage, sliced scallions, and cilantro layered in a measuring cup before mixing the slaw

Instructions

  1. Start the rice. Rinse 1 cup of rice and add it to the steamer. Steamed rice is far better than rice cooked in water, and everything else happens while it cooks.
  2. Marinate the chicken. Mix the gochujang, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil until smooth. Add the chicken and work it in until every piece is coated. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Our favorite way to get small pieces is to cut the thighs with kitchen scissors.
    Raw chicken thigh pieces coated in red gochujang marinade in a steel bowl before resting for 15 minutes
  3. Make the slaw. Toss the kimchi, cabbage, sunflower microgreens, scallions, and cilantro together with the lime juice and a pinch of salt. Mix it all together well.
    Top-down view of finely chopped sunflower microgreens in a bowl, ready to mix into the kimchi slaw
    Mixed kimchi and sunflower microgreen slaw with shredded cabbage, scallions, and cilantro up close
  4. Make the sauce. Stir the yogurt, gochujang, lime juice, and a pinch of salt together. Thin with a splash of water until it is pourable.
    Creamy spicy lime gochujang yogurt sauce, speckled with red pepper, stirred smooth in a bowl
  5. Char the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high. Spread the chicken in a single layer and leave it alone until the edges char, then toss and cook through. This takes about 7 to 15 minutes, depending on your burner and the size of your pieces. Work in two batches if the pan is crowded. You want real color on it.
    Finished charred gochujang chicken thighs with crisp dark edges in a skillet, ready for Korean chicken rice bowls
  6. Build the bowls. Rice into bowls, chicken on one side, slaw on the other. Drizzle with the yogurt sauce, then top with extra chopped sunflower microgreens and a handful of kale microgreens.
    Close-up of a Korean chicken rice bowl with steamed rice, kimchi slaw, sunflower microgreens, and charred chicken

Tips for the Best Korean Chicken Rice Bowls

  • Drain the kimchi well so the rice does not turn soggy.
  • Use a hot pan and do not crowd it. The crisp, charred edges are the best part.
  • For more heat, add a little more gochujang to the sauce. For less, use 1 tsp.
  • Store the chicken, slaw, and sauce separately in the fridge so the slaw stays crisp, and build bowls as you go.
  • Use chicken thighs. We do not suggest chicken breast for this meal, since thighs stay juicy and char better. Thighs are the way to go.
  • Kitchen scissors are the easiest way to get small chicken pieces. Snip the thighs straight into the bowl with the marinade.
  • Steam the rice. Steamed rice is far better than rice cooked in water.
  • Expect the chicken to take anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes depending on your burner and how big the pieces are. Cook until no pink remains and it reaches an internal temperature of 165F.
  • The 30 minute total is a guide. It can take longer depending on how fast you prep and how fast you cook, especially the first time you make it.
  • Rinse the microgreens right before you chop them, not before storing them.

How to Make Korean Chicken Tacos with the Same Recipe

This is the swap we love almost as much as the bowls. Skip the rice, warm up your favorite tortillas, and build the tacos the same way: charred chicken first, a scoop of slaw, a drizzle of the spicy lime yogurt sauce, then a pinch of sunflower microgreens and kale microgreens on top. Drain the kimchi well here too, so the tortillas stay in one piece. For us these are some of the best Korean tacos we have made at home.

How to Make This Recipe Vegetarian or Vegan with Tofu

You can use tofu in place of the chicken. Use firm tofu, press out the extra water, cut it into small pieces, and coat it in the same gochujang marinade. Then char it in the hot skillet the same way, in a single layer and without crowding the pan, until the edges get real color. Tofu is softer than chicken, so be gentle when you toss it. We have not tested tofu timing ourselves, so go by color and texture rather than the clock.

Swapping the protein makes the bowl vegetarian. To make it fully vegan, check a few other ingredients too:

  • Honey is not vegan. Use maple syrup or another sweetener in the marinade instead.
  • The Greek yogurt in the sauce is dairy. Use a plain unsweetened plant-based yogurt.
  • Many kimchi recipes include fish sauce or shrimp. Look for a kimchi labeled vegan and check the label on your gochujang and soy sauce too.

The slaw, the sunflower microgreens, and the kale microgreens on top stay exactly the same, so the bowl still has everything we love about it.

How to Use Sunflower Microgreens in Asian Style Dishes

If you are wondering how to use microgreens beyond a salad garnish, this recipe is a good place to start. A few things we have learned:

  • Add them raw and at the end. Microgreens are for fresh eating, so we never cook them. Heat takes away the crunch, and the slaw and the toppings are built for that.
  • Chop some and leave some whole. Chopped sunflower microgreens spread through the slaw so every bite gets some. Whole leaves on top bring the crunch and the look.
  • Rinse right before eating. We rinse right before using, not before storing, which is the same rule we follow with every tray. We have a full breakdown in Can You Eat Microgreens Raw?
  • Let spicy and mild balance each other. Sunflower and kale microgreens are both mild, which is why they sit so well against gochujang and kimchi. Spicier crops like radish and mustard work better as an accent.

Close-up of sunflower and kale microgreens over charred gochujang chicken drizzled with spicy lime yogurt sauce

Want more ideas? Our guide to 25+ easy ways to eat microgreens covers everyday meals, our microgreen recipes hub collects more of what we cook, and our 36 Easy and Unique Microgreen Recipes cookbook has plenty more where this came from.

Korean Food at Home: Pantry Staples Behind This Recipe

If you want to cook more Korean food and Asian food at home, most of this bowl comes down to a short list of ingredients worth keeping on hand:

  • Gochujang, the Korean chili paste that gives the chicken and the sauce their heat and color. Many grocery stores carry it in the international aisle, and Asian markets always do. This dish is built around it, so we would not skip it.
  • Kimchi, whichever style you like to eat. Chop it and drain it well before it goes in the slaw.
  • Toasted sesame oil, low sodium soy sauce, and honey for the marinade.
  • Fresh garlic and ginger. A small knob of ginger goes a long way.

The Health Side: What Research Says About the Ingredients

We are not nutritionists, so we are sticking to published research here and keeping our claims modest. We only included ingredients where we could point to real studies.

Sunflower Microgreens

Sunflower seeds are known for vitamin E, healthy fats, magnesium, copper, and selenium, and the microgreen stage has been studied too. A 2025 study in Scientific Reports compared the nutritional quality of six microgreens (broccoli, black radish, red beet, pea, sunflower, and bean), and sunflower had the highest calcium of the group. You can read the full paper, Nutritional quality profiles of six microgreens, for the mineral and antioxidant results across all six.

The landmark 2012 study from the University of Maryland and USDA found that many microgreen varieties contained 4 to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts. You can read the University of Maryland summary of the research here. Our own breakdown, Why Are Microgreens So Good for You?, goes deeper.

Kale Microgreens and Cabbage

Kale and cabbage are both brassicas, a family known for vitamins C, K, and A and for glucosinolates, plant compounds that researchers continue to study. Using kale microgreens as the finishing topping and cabbage in the slaw gives the bowl a good dose of that family without any extra work.

Kimchi

Kimchi was one of the fermented foods used in a 10 week Stanford trial published in Cell in 2021. In that study of 36 healthy adults, people who ate a diet rich in fermented foods showed increased gut microbial diversity, and levels of 19 inflammatory proteins in their blood decreased. The fermented group ate a mix of foods, including yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and other fermented vegetables, so the results do not isolate kimchi on its own, and the study was small. You can read the Stanford summary here. Kimchi can also be high in sodium, which is one reason we use low sodium soy sauce and drain the kimchi well.

Ginger

Fresh ginger is one of the most studied ingredients in the kitchen, including a 2020 systematic review in Nutrients that pulled together 109 randomized controlled trials on ginger and human health. Results vary by outcome and amount, and a teaspoon in a marinade is not the same as the doses used in research, so we enjoy it for flavor first.

A recipe is not a treatment, and no single meal changes anyone's health on its own. We make this bowl because it is a real meal with protein, vegetables, and plenty of flavor, and because it makes eating at home something we look forward to.

Grow Your Own Sunflower Microgreens and Kale Microgreens

Everything in the slaw tastes best when the microgreens are harvested the same day. Sunflower is one of the easiest ways to have a big handful ready, since it is a heavy-yielding crop that takes about 8 to 10 days from seed to harvest when you grow it our way. Our full How to Grow Sunflower Microgreens guide walks through the whole process, and we share the method on video here.

[VIDEO EMBED: our YouTube tutorial on growing sunflower microgreens from seed to harvest] Top-down view of a full tray of sunflower microgreens with green cotyledons ready to harvest

A few notes that apply to this recipe:

If you grow your own, keeping sunflower and kale trays staggered means there is always a fresh handful ready when you want to cook. Microgreen Tracker, our grow-tracking web app, logs each tray and its harvest date and sends web push reminders for watering and harvest. You can try Microgreen Tracker free for 7 days. Once you have harvested, our guide on how to store microgreens will keep them fresh until bowl night.

Make It Ahead and Store the Leftovers

One batch covers four meals for us, so storage matters. Keep the chicken, slaw, and sauce in separate containers in the fridge so the slaw stays crisp, and build each bowl as you go. Cook a fresh pot of rice when you need it, or reheat it if you made extra. If you are growing your own, keep the microgreens unwashed until the day you use them, then rinse right before they go on the bowl.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you cook with sunflower microgreens?

We add sunflower microgreens raw, at the end. Heat softens them and takes away the crunch that makes them worth using, so in this recipe they go into the slaw and on top of the finished bowl.

What do sunflower microgreens taste like?

Sunflower microgreens are crisp and juicy with a mild, nutty flavor. They are one of the more approachable microgreens, which is why they work so well next to gochujang, kimchi, and lime.

Can I use store-bought microgreens or a different kind?

Yes. Fresh store-bought sunflower microgreens work fine, and mild varieties like pea shoots or broccoli microgreens work in almost any dish. We have not tested every swap in this exact recipe, so start with sunflower and kale and adjust from there. Keep spicy crops like radish and mustard as a small accent.

How spicy are these Korean chicken rice bowls?

They have a real kick, mostly from the gochujang in the marinade and in the sauce. For more heat, add a little more gochujang to the yogurt sauce. For less, use 1 tsp in the sauce.

Can I make Korean chicken rice bowls ahead for meal prep?

Yes. Store the chicken, slaw, and sauce separately in the fridge so the slaw stays crisp, and build each bowl as you go. We make one batch and it covers four meals.

Can I make Korean rice bowls with tofu instead of chicken?

Yes. Press firm tofu, cut it into small pieces, and use the same marinade and the same hot skillet. That makes it vegetarian. For a fully vegan bowl, also swap the honey, use a plant-based yogurt in the sauce, and choose a vegan kimchi.

How long does it take to make Korean chicken rice bowls?

About 30 minutes, including a 15 minute marinade, but it can take longer depending on your prep speed and cooking speed. The chicken alone takes about 7 to 15 minutes in the skillet depending on your burner and the size of your pieces.

Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?

We do not suggest it for this meal. Chicken thighs are the way to go because they stay juicy and char well, which is what gives the bowl its crisp edges.

What is the easiest way to cut chicken into small pieces?

Kitchen scissors. Snip the thighs into small pieces straight into the marinade. It is faster and less messy than using a knife and cutting board.

Should I steam the rice or cook it in water?

Steam it. Steamed rice is far better than rice cooked in water, and it cooks while you work on everything else.

Can I use tortillas instead of rice?

Yes, and we love it. Swap the rice for warm tortillas and build Korean tacos with the same chicken, slaw, sauce, and microgreens. Drain the kimchi well so they stay together.

What is gochujang?

Gochujang is a Korean chili paste that is savory, a little sweet, and spicy. It is what gives the chicken and the sauce their flavor and color, and it is the one ingredient we would not leave out.

Are Korean chicken rice bowls with microgreens healthy?

It is a balanced meal with protein, vegetables, and rice, and several of the ingredients have been studied, which we cover in the research section above. We cannot say what any meal will do for your health, so talk to a healthcare provider if you have specific dietary needs.

Final Thoughts

This Korean chicken rice bowl has everything we want at the end of a long day: heat, crunch, tang, and something cool and creamy to balance it out, with fresh sunflower microgreens carrying the slaw. Make it as bowls, make it as tacos, make it with chicken thighs or tofu, and keep it in your rotation like we do.

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The information in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or nutritional advice. Nutritional information shared throughout this blog is based on commonly available research, peer-reviewed studies, and public health sources. We are not nutritionists, dietitians, or medical professionals. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for personal health and dietary guidance.

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