Whenever I go to a Korean grocery store, if I find a bunch of good quality chives, I always pick them up. What makes good quality chives? They should be dark green, fresh and not dried out, and without bruises! I have many recipes on my website that use chives: in mandu (dumplings), kimchi, and even hotteok!
But the simplest way to enjoy chives is to make a Korean-style savory pancake like I’m showing you in this recipe. You can serve a hot, crunchy, and gorgeous-looking pancake so quickly. It tastes a little salty with chive aroma, so it goes well with rice. This was one of my most frequent side dishes that I used to prepare for my children’s lunchbox, and they still talk about how good it was! If you want to pack it in a lunchbox, cut it into bite size pieces, usually rectangular, before putting it in.
If you want to make both sides of this pancake crunchy, cook it over high or medium high heat and use a generous amount of cooking oil. And be sure to cook it in a non-stick skillet so that the pancake won’t stick to the pan.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce or 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 ounces Asian chives (buchu in Korean), chopped (about 1½ cups)
- ¼ cup onion, chopped
- 2 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
- Combine the flour, ¾ cup water, and fish sauce in a medium sized bowl and mix well. Stir in the chives and onion.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the oil to the hot skillet and swirl it around to coat.
- Scrape all the chive batter into a mound in the center of the skillet and spread it evenly so that it forms a thin, round pancake, about 11 to 12 inches in diameter. Cook until lightly browned and crisp on the bottom, 3 to 5 minutes. If your skillet is small, divide the batter in half and cook 2 pancakes one at a time.
- Shake the skillet to check its crispness. You should be able to hear the crispy pancake swish around in the nonstick pan.
- Turn the pancake over with a spatula and drizzle the remaining 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil around the edge of the skillet so that it runs under the pancake.
- Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, pressing the pancake down occasionally with the spatula until the other side is crisp. Turn the pancake again and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it’s crisp on both sides.
- Turn it over one more time and then slide it onto a plate. Serve right away. Or, to serve in a lunchbox, cool for 5 minutes and cut into bite-size pieces.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon for that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Hi Maangchi, I’m new to cooking so I’m not sure if I’m doing anything wrong but when I flip my pancake over thes shrimp and scallops would get charred before the pancake gets fully cooked. I was afraid it’ll get burnt before the pancake gets cooked what should I do?
Just lower the heat a little while cooking the pancake.
I could never figure out what to do with all the wild chives that grew around our yard but this was delicious!!! I’ll try it with seafood next time!
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Hi Maangchi,
have you ever tried kkaennip (cut into very fine strips) in your pajeon? That’s delicious, too! Just roll the leaves up tightly to cut them.
This way, I used up some left-over kkaennip once – I hadn’t the time to prepare jangajji then and just tossed the leaves in the freezer for soup (maeuntang).
Some time later, we had Korean guests (friends from Busan), and no buchu or chives for haemul-pajeon – but we needed some anju … ;o)
Bye, Sanne.
“have you ever tried kkaennip (cut into very fine strips) in your pajeon?” of course! : )
thank you verey much i love it ,
your way to describe the recieps is so easy and understanable thank you
Thank you! Happy cooking!
Are these sometimes made with rice flour? The Korean grocery near my work makes these with a flour that has a consistency very much like tteokbukki: kinda chewy, a little translucent, definitely not wheat flour. I like them, except they use too much oil and I was going to try to make some at home. Thanks!
Also, I love to add dandelion greens chopped up to your recipe. They are very good in combo with the buchu. And I usually use half white flour, half wheat flour. I don’t eat meat, so I eat more whole grain stuff, and the bonus is that I think wheat flour makes them brown better. Both changes work very well with your wonderful versatile recipe!
I’ve seen recipes to use some rice flour with regular white flour. The rice flour gives a nice crispy chewy texture.