In this video, I’ll going to show you how to make “jeon,” a traditional Korean food breaded with flour and eggs. There are many kinds of jeon, but this one is made with cod.
Ingredients
Cod filets (400 grams), flour, olive oil, garlic, kosher salt, ground black pepper, eggs, a red chili pepper, soy sauce, vinegar
- You can use fresh or frozen cod. If it’s frozen, thaw it out in the refrigerator.
- Rinse the filets in cold water and gently dry them using a paper towel or cotton cloth
- Slice it thinly and put it in a bowl.
- Sprinkle 1 ts of kosher salt, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 pinch of black pepper into the bowl of cod slices and gently mix it up by hand.
- Pour 1 cup of flour into the bowl with the cod, and mix it quickly with your hand so that the cod is lightly breaded.
- Beat 2 eggs in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt.
- Add 1 chopped green onion and red chili pepper into the beaten eggs.
- Heat a pan on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add 1 tbs of olive oil or vegetable oil to the pan.
- Piece by piece, dip your breaded cod into the beaten eggs, and then place the pieces onto the heated pan.
- Lower the heat to medium and cook it.
- Turn it over using a spatula or spoon.
- Add more oil if needed.
- On a big plate, place green lettuce on the bottom and place the cooked fish on it. Now it’s “jeon”!
- Serve it with a dipping sauce of 2 tbs of soy sauce and 1 or 2 tbs of vinegar.
Buy this recipe's ingredients online
I really like Weee! they deliver quality packaged and fresh Korean ingredients to the continental USA. Cheaper and better than Amazon! Check them out!
Thank you for teaching me how to make a recipe I’ve wanted to learn for a long time!
Is it really 1 tsp of salt? I put 1/2 tsp only and its still SO salty. :(( What did I do wrong? Everyone is raving about your recipe so I must have misread something!
Teaspoon not Tablespoon, you fish nugget! Lol
Adding a hot pepper was amazing
Hi maangchi. I love ur resipies :)
I’m gonna try to make it :D
What type of pan is best for frying fish. Higher heat. Thanks
non-stick. i use a medium or large frying pan.
too high of heat and it won’t cook all the way through while the breading burns.
medium heat is best
I made this for my family a few days ago. They LOVED it!!!! I was so happy to see my little girls and husband enjoy the recipe on my first try the sauce was perfect and the recipe was so easy to follow. Thank you!!!!
yay, I’m so happy to hear that your family loved your daegujeon! Cheers! : )
Oohh, this looks similar to one of my favorite foods, herring steaks. Instead of fish fillets we use whole small Atlantic herrings, which are cleaned and then spread out flat like a steak. The bones are so small that they melt during cooking. Now I can try a Korean version of my favorite food, oh happy day! :)
I made this tonight with Talapia because I couldn’t find any cod, but my boys liked it! I also did the battered zucchini slices, the potato side dish and rice, of course. We also tasted spice kimchi for the first time. I think we will try the not-so-spicy and work our way up. ; >
Great great! Happy cooking! : )
Thanks for this recipe. I had cod fillets in my freezer with no idea what to do with them. I really enjoy salmon and tilapia, I am trying to eat more fish now-a-days than chicken and beef. Great recipe. I really enjoyed it and it was low calorie too!
http://golfism.org/2011/05/07/mothers-and-comfort-food/
Link to picture of batch of jeon I just made. Keep up the good work! I make a very simple version, using garlic salt, flour and eggs.
I’m very touched by your description of the cod jeon you made on your blog. “We lost my mom last year, but memories of her cooking remain.”
Made this tonight and it was so good! It’s colorful, tasty, and fresh (our friends gave us fresh-caught cod).
I tried this today qith a potato sidedish and it was delicious!Take it from a person who doesn’t really like cooked fish(I love sushi lol).
Hi Maangchi, I just made this at midnight for my Belgian husband’s doshirak tomorrow. I’ve been vegetarian since 1986 but this smells so good I could practically eat it myself :) Thanks for showing me how to cook fish with confidence for my husband, it will make him happy :)
“..this smells so good I could practically eat it myself” aww, funny!
Don’t give up your vegetarianism! I’m wondering what your husband’s coworkers think of the lunchbox you prepared!
He called to say ‘it’s delicious, you prepared it perfectly’ and I said I got it from your site :) My husband was trained as a chef and just like a French chef, he doesn’t compliment food unless it’s really good. Kamsa hamnida Maangchi!
Alas, we won’t know what his coworkers said because he ate it outside in the park. There was a radish salad which he finds too aromatic for the office, and kongnamul which everyone loves.
Cooked this tonight with cod….oh my goodness it was good! The spouse (who LOVES Korean food) and the twins (who don’t like spicy food in any way, shape, or form) devoured it in minutes!!! I made it with spicy tofu batons (dry tofu sticks rehydrated and sauteed with chiles) and green beans with garlic. Yum!! Everyone cleaned their plates and my husband made a lunch portion for work, so everyone was
VERY happy with our dinner.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, from a mom who has twins who don’t eat anything different (but who devoured their jeon)!
“I made it with spicy tofu batons (dry tofu sticks rehydrated and sauteed with chiles) and green beans with garlic…”
What a perfect combination of side dishes they are!
Thank you for the update!
I love your videos and the way you make Korean cooking look so easy. Korean food is my absolute favorite and I have been making it for my kids. They love this jeon. Do you have a video for pajeon seafood pancake? I would love to make it.
Please check this recipe. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ya-chae-jeon
You can modify the recipe to your taste. Thank you!
yummy! my mom makes that often. :)
I follow your recipes to make dinner for my boyfriend and he loves it! The first time I made this, the cod fillets came out really good. However, the second time did not come out so good. I think the reason was the fillets were too thick so it was hard to cook them completely. So my question is how do you get such thin slices? I’ve tried slicing them into thinner pieces without success. Thanks for reading!
Freeze the fish fillet slightly before slicing. That’s what I’m doing.
I consult your blog all the time to help me improve my Korean cooking skills. I tried daegu jeon on Saturday and it was so delicious!! Thanks so much for the info and videos. You’re the best.
yeah, you could use other ingredients for this recipe such as sliced chicken, beef, shrimp, etc…
This is so far my favorite dish that I have made by following your videos!
I think cod itself isnt a very tasty fish at all but the cod jeon turned out to be so flavorful and I especially like how you totally taste the garlic in it. This simple recipe turned out surprisingly awesome and you were right, everyone loved it!
Thank you!!!
yeah, this is a very typical korean everyday side dish. I’m happy to hear that you like this recipe.
Hello Maangchi,
I make jeon using halibut at midnight last night. I never thought before to fry the fish after flouring and dipping in egg only because I usually dip in breadcrumbs after the egg and then fry. However, egg and flour only was much lighter and used way less oil for frying than if I had also dipped in breadcrumbs. I didn’t add the green onion to the egg but put it in my dipping sauce along with cilantro and more chili. It was very delicious. This was my first Korean recipe and you can be sure I will be making more Korean dishes with your great recipes. Thank you!
JB
haha, cooking at midnight! : )
I’m glad to hear that you like this recipe. yes, I agree with you. “…much lighter and used way less oil for frying than if I had also dipped in breadcrumbs..” I would like to try your dipping sauce with cilantro and chili! I love the flavor of cilantro!!!
Linda,
Thank you for letting me know about your successful daegujeon(cod dish) making!
Maanchi,
thank you so much for your website! i’m a korean american and i’m learning so much about korean cooking!
the daegu jeon came out great!
Linda
I made this tonight and it turned out great! I didn’t have red chili pepper on hand so I used carrots to give some color. My husband is Caucasian and he loves jeon and so does 18 month-old our daughter. I’m going to take pictures of all the Korean food I’ve made and post them on our blog. I’ll let you know when I’ve done that and hope you visit! Thanks!
Hi
Thank you for your videos and recipe. I always wanted to learn how to cook korean food.
I was wondering can you post up a recipe for bo ssam, tang seu yok (the crispy chicken with sweet/sour sauce?) and bi ji gah (?) the (moh jong bean stew…i tried making what my stepmother found on naver and tasted really weird hahaha)
Thank you!
Jenny
Keith,
I can feel your sense of humour by reading your comment!
It’s surprising you have already tried to make a few korean dishes from my recipes even though you found my website only last week.
If you want to show your korean dish that you make to others, send me pictures or give me a link, then I will post it in my blog here.
Don’t eat too much so that you won’t blame me for gaining weight.
That’s all my advice for you. : )
Hi Maangchi,
I made jeon last night with cod and it came out great. I also tried a variation of spicy rice cakes, which were also good. I found your website for the first time on Wednesday and have already tried several items. I spent twice my normal amount in my Korean market and will try a few other dishes this week. If I gain extra weight I am going to hold you responsible:)
Thank you again for sharing, your warm personailty and love of cooking come out in your videos.
Thanks,
Keith
Hi,Mika and Bailey Young Mee
Happy New Year!
You are an amaxing mom! I can see that you don’t want your child to lose korean culture.
More recipes coming!
Hi Maangchi! I love your videos!! This recipe looks so good. I am going to try all of them soon.
My daughter was adopted from S. Korea and because of that cooking Korean food has become a passion of mine. We also went to Korea this summer for 2 weeks and LOVED it!
Thank you so much for doing these videos. They are amazing!
Mika and Bailey Young Mee
agasuka,
Your jeon looks wonderful!
Actually you can use any materials for this recipe. I am glad you always update me with the pictures of the dishes you make. I hope many people stop by your blog and learn about korean dishes from you. Thanks!
Maangchi
Today, I made Kimbap for lunch, and I made Jeon at night for supper.
I used filet of Mahi Mahi.
It came out very nice.
Here are the pictures:
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/QGsJ605Q
In response to your reply from the ‘Bulgogi Stew’ post, to be honest, I will never cook Korean food that well without your wonderful videos. I am your super fan.
Again, thank you very much for doing such favor to all of your fans around the world.
Hello!
I would cook the whole fish using your oven broiler or a pan.
If you use a pan, just fry it and put some Korean sauce (the soysauce mixture) on top when you serve it.
If you use your oven, broil it for about 20 minutes. When the fish is browned, place it on a plate. Then the Korean style sauce is spread on the top of the cooked fish.
Here is the recipe of the Korean style sauce:
Mix all the following:
Soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped green onions, hot pepper powder, sugar, and sesame oil and seeds
I will definitely try this recipe. Do you have any recipes for a whole fish? I have a whole tilapia in the freezer and I want to cook it with korean ingredients, but I don’t have a good recipe. I want to keep the head on it!
Thanks.