Let me introduce you to jjajangmyun. I realized recently why so many people have requested this dish. One of my youtube commenters from Hong Kong said she has seen Koreans eating jjajangmyun very often in a Korean drama. She said the noodles looked very delicious. I was not surprised at her comment because food has a very close connection with culture.
Korean dramas are popular in other Asian countries which are not only stories but also all kinds of things such as food, fashion, and style of make up.
Jjajangmyun is everybody’s favorite food. When I was young, one plate of jja jang myun from a Chinese restaurant always made me excited. We usually order Jja jang myun from a Chinese restaurant and a delivery man brings noodles contained in a specially made tin box in 30 minutes.
I usually ended up covered in jjajang sauce and my mom gave me a Kleenex!
Ingredients:
Noodles (special “myun” for jjajangmyun), black bean paste, half pound of pork belly, sugar, olive oil, potato starch powder, sesame oil, Asian radish, sweet potato, zucchini, onion, cucumber.
Makes 4 servings.
- Cut the of pork into ½ inch (1cm) cubes. Leave the skin on.
- Add ½ tbs of olive oil to a heated wok. When that’s hot, add the pork and stir fry it until it looks crispy.
- When the pork is well cooked and the color turns golden brown, drain all the hot fat and set the pork aside. Leave it in the wok for later use
- Heat a small skillet over medium heat with 2 tbs of vegetable oil. When that’s hot, add 7 tbs of black bean paste and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Remove the extra oil and set the black bean paste aside.
Cut all vegetables into 0.5 inch cubes and place them on a big plate or tray. You will end up with 1 cup of radish, 1 cup of potato, 1 cup of zucchini, and 2 cups of onion.
- Reheat the crispy pork in your wok over high heat, and add 1 tbs of olive oil.
- Add radish and sweet potato (or potato) and saute them for 2 minutes. Then add zucchini and onion and saute them for another 2 minutes.
- Add 3 cups of water until all the ingredients are submerged, and close the lid and boil it for 15-20 minutes.
- Open the lid of the wok and skim off the foam from the surface. Add the fried black bean paste from the small skillet and stir it up.
*tip: to check if ingredients are cooked or not, try a sample potato chunk. It should be cooked, not raw. - Mix 2-3 tbs potato starch powder (or corn starch) and 2 tbs water and add it into the boiling soup and stir it. then the soup ill turn into a sticky sauce.
- Add 1 tbs sugar to the sauce and stir it
Now, let’s cook the noodles (“myun”)
For 2 servings, you will need one bunch of noodles from the package.
- Boil water in a big pot, add the noodles and close the lid. Cook for a few minutes according to the direction on the package (around 3 minutes).
- Try one sample noodle to check if it’s cooked properly or not. It should be soft and not stiff at all. If it’s cooked, drain the noodles and place them on a large plate or bowl.
- Reheat the jjajang sauce and put it on the noodles
Serving:
Don’t eat it cold : )
Garnish with cucumber strips on the top of jjajang sauce and serve it with kimchi or yellow pickled radish.
love, love, love jjajangmyun. my mom, who is korean, used to make this all the time when i was a kid. we used to call it korean spaghetti, it was the only way to describe it to our friends who weren’t 1/2 korean.
i tried to make jjajangmyun once from memory, and told my mom, she laughed cause i forgot some of the ingredients, i forgot the potato, but i remembered the zucchini; it was still good though!
there is also a type of jjajangmyun with seafood, but i don’t remember what its call, its very tasty tasty!
james
p.s. now that i have your website to refer to, i can make all my favorite korean foods from my childhood. i still call my mom from time to time and say, “omma, how do i make …?” i can’t call my ommuni all the time, so your site comes in handy.
Greetings from Singapore!
I cooked this for dinner last night!
Our 6 & 5 yr old loved it and asked for 2nd helping!
Hubby didn’t realised tht radish & sweet potatoe is in the dish :P
yay! Congratulation on your successful jjajangmyun making! I’m happy to hear that your family loved it!
Hi Maangchi,
i would like to ask, in stead of the Jjajangmyun….what noodle can i use to replace the Jjajangmyun…as i will really wish to make this for my family….thanks for ur recipe….
p/s: my mom make the cabbage kimchi js after watching ur video….:P
or can i use spaggeti noodle to replace the Jjajangmyun??
pLUS….wat can i use to replace the black bean paste???
yes, you can replace the jjajangmyeon noodles with spaghetti noodles, but the black bean paste can’t be replaced. Check any Korean grocery store in your area. Most Korean grocery stores sell black bean paste. http://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/black-bean-paste
Hey Maangchi,
I actually tried this recipe of black bean noodle for dinner tonight. My husband LOVES this dish. I just change some ingredients I put in this dish, since I am trying to use what I have in the fridge. So instead of pork belly, I use chicken breast and instead of radish and potato I use just zucchini and carrot and onion. It turns out pretty good too. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
“I use chicken breast and instead of radish and potato I use just zucchini and carrot and onion. It turns out pretty good too”
You are a smart cook! : )
Hi there — was looking for recipes for the Korean food I know and love, but cook by the “this and that” method, and am so GLAD to find your blog!
Regarding my version of JjaJang, I never use potatoes. I use tofu (firm, organic). I cut it into small matchsticks, and cook in place of the potatoes. I also then do not need to boil my sauce so long, leaving the vegetables a little more substance. Just a thought!!
potato must be a common ingredient (at least in southern korea), because Aeri, from Aeri’s kitchen also uses potato:
http://aeriskitchen.com/2008/09/jja-jang-bap-noodle/
she made hers with beef, instead of pork, though.
Hi Maangchi!
I had a question about the vegetables.
Can they be cut smaller than your size?
I think they are a little to big.
Can i cut them about half the size?
Thank you much
Dong Thien Nguyen
yes, cutting all the vegetables smaller may be better! : )
Hi unnie, do you have any suggestions for the alternative of zucchini? It looks like that veggie doesn’t sold here in the Philippines.
you could probably use any kind of summer squash. i can also send you some seeds for zucchini, if you’d like to try to grow some. :) it’s a pretty common ingredient in the US & in Korea. all squash are in the gourd family. just google “summer squash” and see if anything looks familiar, if not, just email me or something. :)
awww, you are so kind!
Maangchi,
I am a 44-yr old Korean-American wife/mother (born here in the States) who has been struggling all my life with Korean cooking. Thanks to you, I struggle no more! I am SO grateful for you and your recipes. My Korean husband, who has very high standards for Korean food, loves everything I have made off your website. He is thankful for you, too! And thank you so much for taking the time to measure out all the ingredients – without those specific measurements, I would be a disaster!
Thank you so much, Maangchi! You are a life-saver!
I’m so happy to hear that! : )
Cheers!
Hello! Thank you so much for all your recipes I love Korean food. I did have a question about the myun noodles, are they made with any kind of wheat? Unfortunately I have a wheat allergy :( but I often replace recipes that have wheat in it with rice or potato starch noodles. If there is wheat in the noodles is it okay to use rice noodles instead? Thank you so much for every!
I think the noodles are made with wheat. Why don’t you make this sauce and put it on warm rice? It’s called “jjajang bap” instead of “jjajang myeon” Myeon is noodles. bap is rice.
okay thank you so much!!
hi how are you today maangchi? i just have one question is it okay it i use chicken instead of pork??.
and thank you for the recipe.
yes, you can use chicken! Thank you!
assa! now i don’t need 짜파게티! thank you :D
Can I make this with easily available Chinese-style Hoi Sin sauce? I cannot go to the faraway Korean store for now, but this sauce is easily available. It tastes quite salty and a bit sweet-like, it is thick like a paste and is very black in color. I think it has similar ingredients as chunjang.
In fact, wikipedia says the following: “Jajangmyeon is the Korean version of this [=Chinese Zha jiang mian] dish. In addition, the brown colour of the sauce is from the use of chunjang (a salty, black-colored paste made from roasted soybeans), rather than hoisin sauce. ”
Hmm it might become more chinese-like with hoi sin sauce… oh well!
Well, I had hoisin sauce today at the pho restaurant but I think it tastes way too different than chunjang so I dont recommend it.. and I dont think it can be stirfried with oil like chunjang either.. try, but I’m not sure if it will be delicious.
Hmm that’s too bad… Oh well I’ll find different ways to use the hoi sin sauce then, and make Jajangmyun some other time.
Thanks for your reply!
I made your jajang myung today and it turned out great! I substituted the pork with shrimp and ground beef and it tasted good :) thank you for sharing your recipes and YouTube videos! I love your positive happy energy and your recipes :) I look forward to trying your other recipes.
wow, good news! yum yum!
한국에서 사는 사람보다 한국음식 잘만드시네요 ^^
Hi Maangchi,
I was so happy to find this recipe here! Jjajangmyun is my favorite dish :P
Is there anything that can substitute the potato starch powder? Someone told me rice gloutinous flour but I have my doubts >>
Starch powder is better! Glutinous rice flour will make this sauce too sticky like glue! : )
This was the most delicious Jja Jjang Myun I’ve hand in SF…and it came from my kitchen!! :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jc-dc/4169362181/
had not “hand” :D
agree!
sorry but i didnt like this dish. it didn’t taste the way i thought it will. it was plain and it tasted just like the smell of the black bean paste.. but i will still try other recipe.
oh mandy mandy! try out other recipes! : )
what is zucchini ?
It’s a summer squash. Check this out, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zucchini
Is the black bean souce doenjang?
If not, could you tell me please what colour the box has? I always associate the souces with the colour of the box :)
red – gochujang
green – ssamjang
but i never bought this light brown box because i don’t know any recipe to use 된장 for
dark brown color! Check the ingredient here:
http://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/black-bean-paste
Can you use beef instead of pork belly? I can’t eat pork.
Usually it is made with pork though? I never noticed.
yes, you can use beef, too!
Hi Maangchi! I really didn like this at first, but then I remembered I hadn’t put any salt in it. Now I LOVE this dish! I like to eat it with some kimchi dumplings on the side and alot of cucumber. Thank you for your website! Korean food is now my favorite of all!
-Michael-
Michael, I’m glad to hear that!
Hi Maangchi! Thank you for all your delicious recipes! I am lucky to live in a very Korean part of Australia that has lots of Korean grocery stores, so I have able to make lots of your recipes. They have all turned out really delicious.
I have always really wanted to try making jjajangmyun, because it is so delicious. I have had it before. The only thing is I really want to make it for my family, but they cannot eat pork. Since the sauce is quite flavoursome, I don’t think there is a very strong pork taste, but my family can’t eat it. Can you recommend another meat to use as a substitute, or should I just leave it out?
Dont’ worry, you could use beef, chicken, or shrimp.
Can I use Gochujang instead of black bean paste?
no, you should get the right ingredient: black bean paste (chunjang).
http://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/black-bean-paste
Hi! just wanted to thank you for this wonderful receipe…I made this for dinner last night and it turned out great! Thanks for sharing your recipes! You are a wonderful teacher and cook
adding some water to hotpepper paste for bibimbap is a good idea. Next time use sprite instead of water. That’s what I’m teaching at my cooking class.
Oh my god its looks so delicious and mouth watering, kamsakmeda for sharing this..
I was living in Korea for three years and i had my baby there. Throughout my pregnancy all i ate was jjanmeyang and the korean sweet and sour pork.
Thank you for sharing your video
Hi Maangchi!
What kind of noodles do you use to make this?
your cooking always makes me DROOL!! =)
thanks so much for teaching us how to
cook Traditional Korean Style!
I love korean food. But i never eat more. I love kimchi because i saw more korean movie and they eat all the time espectialy “kimchi fried rice”
ah.. I’m thai (thailand)
jajangmean it’s looks delicious
i ever seen from korean movie “coffee prince”
she eat jajangmyun for 5 bowl!!!!
wow, 5 bowls of jjajangmyeon! :)
This is good, but I question cooking already sauteed zucchini for another twenty minutes. Is this a substitution for a harder Korean squash? if so which?
im 15 yr old anyway. i’ll try my very best to cook jajangmyun! Thanks!
i LOVE jiajangmyun!! growing up it was my favorite food, and even now as an adult, i love it!! there’s a really great restaurant by my parent’s house (where i grew up) that makes amazing jiajangmyun (my dad says it reminds him of the jiajangmyun we used to eat in korea) and you can hear the chef making the noodles in the back (bam!! bam!! bam!!).
maangchi, i love your website, and your videos are great! you make making korean food fun and easy! :)
Thank you very much! Your description about the sound of noodle making at the jjajangmyun restaurant is funny! “bam bam bam!”
: ) You are right!
Im gonna make hand pulled noodles can i make jajangmyun with hand pulled noodles or it really has to be jajangmyun noodles?
yes, I think hand pulled noodles will be great. Would you give us the recipe?
http://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/reader-recipes
actually , ive already tried jajangmyeon with my older sis. we r not sure if we bought the right paste. what i saw is that it says black bean sauce/paste but with fish as the serving suggestion. but we bought it anyway. so when we cooked the sauce, im not really sure the exact recipe so i pour in ALL in the packet. so after i saw ur video, its answered my wonder of why the jajangmyeon turned out to be very salty and more salty when i mixed it with potatoes. but i still hope there’s the blackbean paste esp for jajangmyeon. Thanks a lot!
yeah, you can make good jjajangmyeon with right ingredients. The blackbean paste is sold at a Korean grocery store.
hey maangchi, i have trouble of cooking jajangmyeon bcause i dont have the paste. i dont know where to buy here in Brunei. im allergic to pork though, so are u sure the paste arent mixed with any pork ingredients? and if theyre is no blackbean paste here, how can i make them? imean, homemade paste. Thanks!
I’m sorry to hear that you can’t get blackbean paste. It’s sold at a Korean grocery store. Without the paste, you can’t make jjajangmyeon. I don’t know how to make it.
ahh~~ just watching this video made me so hungry. i just got back from korea, and i’m totally craving jjajangmyun that delivers straight to your door. :[ i really wish they had that in the states! i’ll have to settle for chapaghetti ramyun for now :[ thanks for the vid! i wanna try to make it myself sometime!
chapaghetti is not delicious! Homemade jjajangmyun is the best! : )
They sell jjajangmyeon (and/or ingredients if you want to make it yourself) at a vendor inside of H-Mart. They just opened an H-Mart recently here in Massachusetts and it is great! They are so crowded that they do not have enough parking!!
Maangchi,
how long can black bean paste last? how can you tell if it has gone bad?
thanks!
As long as you keep it in the refrigerator, it won’t go bad easily up to maybe 2-3 months?
Mmmm I just made my first jjajangmyun using your recipe and it was a success! Followed your steps exactly and worked out perfectly :D
Congratulation! From now, you can make your own delicious jjajangmyun anytime!
Maangchi,
I tried the Jjajangmyun with the vegetables and it was still very good! :) thanks a lot! let vegetarians know! :)
-Lauren
Lauren,
Thank you for your update! I’m happy to hear that it turned out tasty! yes, I will let vegetarians know about it.
hi,maangchi
thnks to you,bec when i saw your website i can learn to make korean dishes,for my husband bec,his korean to.u know ur voice is so cute
and u can speak english well,ur amazing really! manhi kamsamida!
Thank you very much! Good luck with your Korean cooking.
I just made this but i notice that the jjajangmyun sauce didn’t had enough taste…is this normal? should i add more salt actually?
If the sauce is too bland, I recommend using more blackbean paste instead of salt.
Hey Maangchi,
Sounds good! I’ll try it out and give you some feedback in a few days!
thanks for all the help! :)
-Lauren
oh, no, I can’t wait for a few days! lol, joke!