Grandma-style kimchi pancake

Kimchijeon 김치전

Hi, everybody! I’m going to introduce 2 kinds of kimchi pancakes (kimchijeon) to you today: chopped kimchi pancake and my grandma’s style of whole kimchi leaf pancake.

The kimchijeon made with chopped kimchi is very easy and simple to make. You don’t need any special ingredients as long as you have some kimchi in your fridge. I make this kimchijeon at home all the time. (note: I made an updated version of this recipe here!)

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My grandma’s style of kimchijeon is made with whole kimchi leaves and is what I would call upgraded kimchijeon. ; )

Have you ever seen this kind of kimchijeon? I thought it looked very special the first time I saw my late grandmother making it for us. I remember what I thought: “Hmm, grandma treats the kimchi leaf like a slice of fish? Interesting!” But I never said anything, I just watched what she was doing.

I miss my grandmother now. She would be so proud of me if she knew I was posting her recipe here! Which recipe would you like better? : )

In the video, I show you how to cut the big, round kimchijeon (it’s 12 inches wide because my frying pan is 12 inches wide : )) into bite sized pieces, but as I mentioned in the video, you could also serve it right out of the pan without cutting it. It’s usually served as family snack that way. Then you use your chopsticks to tear off a piece of the kimchijeon and eat it. It may be difficult because the pancake might slide around on the plate, and it should stay there so everyone else can eat some too! So one of your family members should grab the pancake with her or his chopsticks so you can tear off your piece more easily. Helping each other is very important when you eat kimchijeon this way!

“Let me eat some, I need someone’s help! Grab the corner of this pancake for me, plz!”

If you cut it into bite sized pieces, it’s usually served as a side dish. It’s a popular side dish for lunch box, too.

Enjo~yee the recipe! : )

Kimchijeon made with chopped kimchi

Yield: 2-4 servings

Ingredients

Kimchi, onion, kosher salt, sugar, flour, vegetable oil.

Directions

  1. In a bowl, place 1 cup of chopped kimchi, 3 tbs of kimchi juice, 2 tbs chopped onion, ½ ts kosher salt, ½ ts sugar, ½ cup flour (all purpose flour), and ¼ cup of water and mix it well with a spoon.
    mixing kimchi pancake
  2. Heat up a 12 inch non-stick pan over medium high heat and drizzle about 2 tbs grape seed oil.
  3. Place the mixture of kimchi pancake batter on the pan and spread it thinly and evenly with a spoon.
  4. Cook it for 1 to 1½ minutes until the bottom gets golden brown and crispy.
  5. Turn it over with a spatula or flip it.
    frying kimchi pancake
  6. Lower the heat to medium and cook for another 1½ minutes.
  7. Turn it over one more time and cook for 30 seconds before transfering it to a serving plate.
    *tip: Serve it right out of the pan or cool it down and cut it into bite size to serve.

kimchijeon kimchi pancake

Grandma’s kimchijeon made with whole kimchi leaves

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

Kimchi, ground pork, tofu, onion chives (or green onions), onion, kosher salt, black ground pepper, toasted sesame oil, egg, flour, grape seed oil.

Directions

Prepare kimchi

  1. Prepare 6 or 7 kimchi leaves (6 to 7 inches long, or 16 cm) and ½ cup flour in a plate.
    kimchi
  2. Coat both sides of each kimchi leaf  in the flour by hand.

Make meat mixture

  1. In a small bowl, add 2 tbs ground pork (or beef),  2 tbs tofu (after gently squeezing out excess water with a paper towel), 1 ts chopped onion chives (or green onion), 1 tbs chopped onion, a pinch of salt and black ground pepper, 1 ts of toasted sesame oil, and mix the mixture well with a spoon.
  2. Set aside.

mixture-of-meat-and-tofu
Make the pancakes

  1. Place 1 egg in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt. Beat it with a fork.
  2. Add some of the meat-tofu mix on one side of a kimchi stem. Add some flour on top of the mixture.
  3. Put some of the meat-tofu mix on the rest of kimchi leaves.
  4. Heat up a non-stick pan and add some grape seed oil (or vegetable oil).
  5. Coat each kimchi leaf with beaten egg mix and place on the heated pan.
    *tip: the meat mixture should be bottom of the pan
    kimchi-leaf-on-the-pan
  6. When the bottom of the kimchi pancake turns golden brown (1 or 1½ minutes), turn it over and cook another minute.
  7. Turn it over one more time and cook another 30 seconds before transfering it to a serving plate.
    *tip: you can serve it as it is or cut it into bite size before serving

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Posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 11:14 am. Last updated on August 10, 2021.
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164 Comments:

  1. Doobu California joined 11/14 & has 2 comments
    Posted February 6th, 2015 at 7:37 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi. What firmness tofu do you use?

  2. Brigitte & has 1 comment
    Posted January 20th, 2015 at 6:27 pm | or create a profile.

    The pancakes were perfect for our taste! Absolutely yummy! Thank you! My kids are totally loving your videos, as am I. Blessings.

  3. Tamakatsura MIlan (Italy) and Gyeongsan (South Korea) joined 1/15 & has 1 comment
    Posted January 2nd, 2015 at 10:55 am | or create a profile.

    Hi! ^ ^~
    I’ve been reading you for some times and now that I’m in Korea finally I’m trying to cook with your recipes. ~☆
    Tonight I tried kimchijeon using the kimchi my friend made last week and the taste was lovely! I’ll have to train my flipping skills though. ㅋㅋㅋ
    I just can’t wait to try more recipes.

    Is it supposed to be crispy outside and softer inside?

  4. 13thTale & has 1 comment
    Posted October 4th, 2014 at 6:22 am | or create a profile.

    I just made it and it’s fantastic!! I love it!! I ate it with cooked rice wraped in seasoned kim. I would eat this often if kimchi was easy to come by here where I live.

    • sanne Munich joined 8/14 & has 250 comments
      Posted October 4th, 2014 at 10:16 am | or create a profile.

      Hi 13thTale,

      you don’t have to use kimchi made from napa cabbage. Use radishes, turnips, cabbage, … to make kimchi.
      Or just spice up the sauerkraut used for sarma e. g.
      Often sauerkraut is referred to as “German kimchi” by Koreans. ;-)

      Bye, Sanne.

  5. Charmaine Singapore joined 6/11 & has 18 comments
    Posted July 19th, 2014 at 9:21 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi maangchi! I finally made this with kimchi made with your emergency kimchi recipe ! However despite being sour , I do not have a lot of kimchi juice. Hence I made a mixture using gochujang and water and replace the kimchi juice ! It turns out delicious (:

  6. jasaniaithy San Francisco, CA joined 7/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 10th, 2014 at 11:38 pm | or create a profile.

    I made these for my husband and I yesterday and they were delicious! Actually, they were so delicious that I made another batch today as well. Thank you! You have a new subscriber for sure. I miss my Korean grandmother’s cooking, but now I can try to recreate her essence through your recipes.

  7. tat4fun Bandung, Indonesia joined 1/14 & has 4 comments
    Posted February 28th, 2014 at 8:23 am | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi :)
    Korean drama has influenced me a lot to my appetite. Every time I saw Korean dishes on the show, I ended up searching through your recipe to give it a try.

    I always thinking that making pancake is a lot of work. Until I saw a famous Judoka Choo Sung Hoon made kimchi pancake. And I think, if he can make it, why can’t I? :D

    I’ll try it next week end, after kimchi project this week end :)

  8. LLoya Edinburg, TX joined 1/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted January 25th, 2014 at 8:04 pm | or create a profile.

    Annyeonghaseyo Maangchi! Just wanted to thank you for this wonderful site and all the great recipes. I am positively addicted to your videos. I have a little 5 month old baby boy who also LOVES to watch your videos. Whenever he’s fussy I can just put on some Maangchi and he settles down and smiles as soon as he hears the “Hello Everybody!” at the beginning. We have watched so many videos together! So far i have made my own kimchi and i just made this kimchijeon and both turned out delicious and perfect! Thanks again Maangchi!

  9. jnieferstutz Arizona, USA joined 1/13 & has 2 comments
    Posted January 17th, 2014 at 12:56 am | or create a profile.

    I made the chopped kimchi pancakes for dinner tonight and they were amazing! Easy and unbelievably delicious. Since wheat is not my friend, I used Pamela’s GF Baking & Pancake mix instead of flour. It came out perfect, YUM! I make my own kimchi too – hubby is allergic to fish and I can’t have wheat, so instead of fish sauce I substitute Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and that works great. It is my goal to eat more veggies – which I usually do not like, so I really appreciate all your wonderful recipes. Any recipe of yours has always been very good, and now I have a list of things to make, thank you!

  10. yoon26 Philippines joined 12/13 & has 1 comment
    Posted December 21st, 2013 at 7:57 pm | or create a profile.

    helloo
    i just made a Kimchijeon this morning and it really turns out well, i add tuna on it and use rice flour cause its the only available in my kitchen. The kimchi and tuna really goes well, i really love the taste!! <3 <3 <3 (and ohh my kimchi is just 11 days old but still taste so good) :D

  11. entropicage United States joined 12/13 & has 2 comments
    Posted December 5th, 2013 at 1:04 pm | or create a profile.

    I made the chopped kimchi version using your recipe for emergency kimchi. It didn’t have quite enough juice, but still came out super tasty!

  12. mflor13 USA joined 11/13 & has 1 comment
    Posted November 12th, 2013 at 6:17 pm | or create a profile.

    I dont know why but mine came out salty. I wonder if it because of the kimchi I used? (Bought from the store)

  13. ddnorman Southern NH, USA joined 9/13 & has 75 comments
    Posted October 12th, 2013 at 8:38 pm | or create a profile.

    Maangchi…that is 맛있어요!!! And easy even for a kitchen novice like me. I could eat this every night! Oh my…I’m going to have to make some more kimchi! This was one of my favorites at the restaurant! Now I can make it at home! 감사합니다!
    Dave

  14. Launa4 Visalia, cA joined 9/13 & has 1 comment
    Posted September 23rd, 2013 at 2:31 pm | or create a profile.

    Yum! This melted in my mouth. I seriously don’t know how I lived without kimchi pancakes all my life… let alone kimchi. Thank you for all your recipes! Cooking Korean food at home more often has become my new goal. ^_^

  15. pastrygirlvi Philippines joined 9/13 & has 4 comments
    Posted September 6th, 2013 at 2:55 am | or create a profile.

    oh wow looks good! i wish i can flip the pancake like you. il try making this soon.

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