Japchae, sweet potato starch noodles stir fried with vegetables and meat, is one of Korea’s best-loved dishes, and one of the most popular on my website as well.
If anyone asks me to recommend a good potluck dish, I don’t hesitate to answer japchae for the simple reason that pretty much everyone loves it. At any gathering it’s hard to pass up these chewy, sweet, and slightly slippery noodles with colorful stir-fried vegetables and mushrooms, its irresistible sesame flavor, healthy amount of garlic, and light, refreshing taste.
Stir frying each ingredient separately seems like a lot of labor, but each one requires a different cooking time and a bit of care, and keeping the color and freshness of each ingredient intact makes for a stunning final presentation. An easy way to make it even prettier and more nutritious is to use more vegetables and less noodles, although this is hard to recommend because the noodles are delicious by themselves.
Let me know if you make this at a party! Double, triple, quadruple the ingredients and let everyone taste your japchae!
Ingredients
(serves 4):
- 4 ounces beef, filet mignon (or pork shoulder), cut into ¼ inch wide and 2½ inch long strips
- 2 large dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 2 to 3 hours, cut into thin strips
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 large egg
- 4 ounces spinach, washed and drained
- 4 ounces of dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles)
- 2 to 3 green onions, cut crosswise into 2 inch long pieces
- 1 medium onion (1 cup), sliced thinly
- 4 to 5 white mushrooms, sliced thinly
- 1 medium carrot (¾ cup), cut into matchsticks
- ½ red bell pepper, cut into thin strips (optional)
- ground black pepper
- kosher salt
- vegetable oil
Directions
Marinate the beef and mushrooms:
- Put the beef and shiitake mushrooms into a bowl and mix with 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon sugar, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil with a wooden spoon or by hand. Cover and keep it in the fridge.
Make the egg garnish (jidan):
- Crack the egg and separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Remove the white stringy stuff (chalaza) from the yolk. Beat in a pinch of salt with a fork.
- Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to a heated nonstick pan. Swirl the oil around so it covers the pan, and then wipe off the excess heated oil with a kitchen towel so only a thin layer remains on the pan.
- To keep the jidan as yellow as possible, turn off the heat and pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan. Tilt it around so the mixture spreads thinly. Let it cook using the remaining heat in the pan for about 1 minute. Flip it over and let it sit on the pan for 1 more minute.
- Let it cool and slice it into thin strips.
Prepare the noodles and vegetables:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then take it out with a slotted spoon or strainer. Let the water keep boiling to cook the noodles.
- Rinse the spinach in cold water to stop it from cooking. Squeeze it with your hands to remove any excess water. Cut it a few times and put it into a bowl. Mix with 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil. Put it into a large mixing bowl.
- Put the noodles into the boiling water, cover and cook for 1 minute. Stir them with a wooden spoon so they don’t stick together. Cover and keep cooking for another 7 minutes until the noodles are soft and chewy.
- Strain and cut them a few times with kitchen scissors. Put the noodles into the large bowl next to the spinach. Add 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Mix well by hand or a wooden spoon. This process will season the noodles and also keep the noodles from sticking to each other.
- Heat up a skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil with the onion, the green onion, and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry about 2 minutes until the onion looks a little translucent. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
- Heat up the skillet again and add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add the white mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until softened and a little juicy. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
- Heat up the skillet and add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. Add the carrot and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Add the red bell pepper strips and stir-fry another 20 seconds. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
- Heat up the skillet and add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Add the beef and mushroom mixture and stir fry for a few minutes until the beef is no longer pink and the mushrooms are softened and shiny. Transfer to the noodle bowl.
Mix and serve:
- Add 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, and 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil to the mixing bowl full of ingredients. Mix all together by hand.
- Add the egg garnish and 1 tablespoon sesame seeds. Mix it and transfer it to a large plate and serve.
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 that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
I have a son-in-law who doesn’t eat ANY vegetables. I was wanting to make japchae for him without the vegetables. What difference of amount of ingredients when using only beef and noodles?
Check out my bulgogi recipe here, he may like it. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kimchi-bokkeumbap
Add starch noodles to the recipe.
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/starch-noodles
First pan fry bulgogi and add noodles and keep stirring to cook until the noodles look shiny and translucent.
Transfer it to your serving plate.
Maangch unnie, I just cooked some! Oh gosh, it is so tasty! The cooking process was… interesting since me and my mom are unfamiliar with cooking the noodles. My mom looked at the just cooked noodles and thought they looked disguisting, haha. She was really unsure of the dish at that moment. Next time I cook this, I don’t need as many noodles, because the dish came out with A LOT of noodles, and not too much toppings, like mushroons (I used the same noodles and two bunches, but still came out with LOTS of noodles). Overall, the dish is delicious, and after my mom actually tasted the finished dish, she was surprised at how yummy it turned out! I’m really happy for all your recipes Maangchi, I finally introduced my family to Korean food!
i dnt like too sugary food,it makes my tooth aches huhuuh
you must have been mistakenly putting a cup of sugar into your japchae if you said this dish is too sugary !!! LOL
this dish is one of the best one pot meal , it’s very nutritious and healthy , and btw .. only used few tablespoon of sugar for the whole package of noodles , vegetables , mushrooms and meat .. how is it possible that you said this dish is too sugary ??
Hi Maangchi!!
I just made this dish and I can’t believe how easy, healthy and delicious it is!! Thank you so very much for having this blog, it is such an incredible source of knowledge to me, as a huge fan of Korean food. I have to eat out a lot, so this recipe or bibimbap are really good to take out. And my friends love them too!!
Just one question about this one: it tasted really good, like in a restaurant, the only thing is it was actually a bit dry. I tried putting more soy sauce, but it wasn’t the same as I had tasted before. Is there any way I can make them more juicy?
Cheers & thank you from Spain!!
Congratulations on your successful japchae making!
“the only thing is it was actually a bit dry…” Add some water to make it juicy.
Hi Maangchi!
I just want to thank you a lot for all these delicious recipes.
As a fan of Korean food, your website is just a treasure. Recipes are so clear and videos make things so easy. I can finally enjoy Korean food at home. I cannot stop cooking your recipes and dream about the dish I will prepare next day.
Thank again for all your great work on this website…
Nice meeting you Laury! Send me some photos if you want! I would like to see the photos of Korean dishes that you made.
Anyonghasaeyo Maangchissi,
I just saw a korean drama and everyone was raving about someone’s japchae and it looked great. I could almost smell it! your photos look great as well. I will try this recipe this weekend. Thank you for the photo of the noodles they will help my shopping trip.
How did it turn out? I hope you enjoyed your japchae a lot!
hi maangchi!
I’m going to be cooking this dish tomorrow… Is it okay for me to use beef brisket with this Japchae recipe? respond please thank you!
yes, beef brisket sounds good to me. delicious!
Thank you Maangchi! I tried this last night and my wife loved it. I didn’t add the beef since she is a vegetarian.
Good news! You got lots of credit from your wife! Gratz!
The first time I took Korean cooking classes at my local Asian Market this was one of the first recipes they taught. Not to be rude to my teacher but your recipe is better. You rock Maangchi!
Maangchi, greetings from Canada!!! Long-time reader, first-time poster :) Just made your recipe for Japchae. MMMmmmm! My wife said she could eat the whole thing! I used a 300g pkg of noodles as it wasn’t separated into 3 bunches, like my rice noodles are. The proportion of noodles to other ingredients wasn’t bad… at least I didn’t think so. I’ll try it with less next time (although I’ll have to cook the whole pkg. anyway… ever try to cut/break dried sweet potato noodles?!?!). This was a dry run for the dinner I’m going to have for my sister-in-law who’s from Gunsan. I’m planning to make your recipe for Mak kimchee tomorrow. The perfect side dish to compliment these noodles.
Thank-you SO much for your time and effort to put such awesome recipes out there for the rest of us :)
“My wife said she could eat the whole thing!” haha! awesome! Your sister-in-law is living in Gunsan, Korea?
“Your sister-in-law is living in Gunsan, Korea?” She’s from Gunsan, she now lives in Canada. She met my brother-in-law there while he was teaching English. Since I’ve never been to Korea (but would love to go) I have to be satisfied with making all your YUMMY recipes. That way I can at least have a little “taste” (literally and figuratively) of life there :) Luckily I have her here to let me know if I’m doing it right, ha, ha.
Hello, I really admire you (Maangchi). I’m a Filipino but my boyfriend is Korean. How I wish I can also cook some delicious Korean food. I always visit your website and I’m so amazed, I love your cooking style.
Your Korean boyfriend will not miss any Korean food anymore because you love to cook Korean food! very nice! I hope he likes Filipino food, too!
Hi Maangchi,
This recipe looks great! Do you think it would be good for a potluck party? Are there any other dishes that are good for potlucks? Thanks!
of course! Japchae and dakkanjung are always popular dishes for pot luck party.
Dakkangjung: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/dakkangjung
Hi Maangchi,
I was searching for Korean recipes last night and found yours in youtube. They all look delicious. I am planning to try your Yuk Gae Jang and Japchae soon..(wish me luck).. and i hope they’ll be as tasty and yummy as yours..
Your site will be very helpful to all who are interested in doing Korean dishes.. Cheers to you.. More power and more recipes. Take care.
sorry about the late reply. I’m sure you made delicious Yukgaejang and japchae. I wish you tons of luck on your Korean cooking!
I’m going to make this dish on Monday. I’m so excited to try it. Hope it turns out okay. I’ll take a picture of it and post it on your flickr group. I hope I make you proud :)
I am excited about your japchae making,too! I guarantee yours will turn out super tasty!
Hi Maangchi,:) I’ve tried your japchae recipe and it turned out so good,even w/o the spinach and mushroom.
Thank you very for all the delicious recipes you had posted.I’m inspired in cooking again. keep on posting more recipes,ok.:)Take care and God bless you.
nice! Thank you!
yes, my aunt uses fish cake instead of meat but it is always delicious. She cut fish cake into thin strips.
This dish was really delicious. I made it with several other korean dishes (potatoe dish, bean sprout dish, bulgogi banchan)all from your website! =) My family loved it and my mom was really surprised and impressed I could make Korean food. (She is Korean but never taught me how to cook) Thank you for sharing your recipes! =)
I’m very impressed with your successful Korean cooking experrience!
Greetings from Chicago Maangchi! I made Japchae from your recipe and it turned out DELICIOUS! The only thing I didn’t do is add the sugar (I forgot because I was so hungry and ready to eat!) LOL
I brought some leftovers to work one day for my lunch and my co-workers smelled it! Now, they are interested in making Japchae so I shared your recipe with them as well!
This was one of the easiest dishes to make! Healthy and FILLING!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! :O)
“I brought some leftovers to work one day for my lunch and my co-workers smelled it! Now, they are interested in making Japchae so I shared your recipe with them as well! ”
lol,you are also spreading Korean cooking to the world!
Your recipe rocked, as usual. I made this for an online noodle party. Thank you so much for posting!
Here’s my (spicy) version:
http://www.noodlefever.com/2010/03/spicy-pork-japchae.html
oh, I saw this photo on the flickr page but did not know it was made by you. : ) I see you used dangmyun (glass noodles) to make this spicy noodles that looks like bibimnaengmyun. Nice! Thank you for using my recipe and I love your blog!
Last night I finally tried out your Japchae and much to my surprise, it was a great success! Japchae is one of my favourite Korean dish, yet I’ve been quite reluctant to make my own. Considering the number of ingredients used, I was somewhat afraid of failure and ending up wasting all the veggies. Though I made a couple of silly mistake by accident – rinsing noodles in cold water and burning the spring onion – it tasted great and my husband had two big bowls of it.
Just wonder what’s the exact amount of noodles you used for this recipe? I used 300g and found it too much compared to the amount of veggies. Plus, can I make dumplings with the leftover and keep them in a freezer?
With this recipe, I received heaps of good compliments from my husband – ‘Darling, you’re the best cook”
Thank you SO much Maangchi!
ooh whooo! I’m so happy for you because you got lots of compliments from your darling husband! : )
“Just wonder what’s the exact amount of noodles you used for this recipe? I used 300g and found it too much compared to the amount of veggies. Plus, can I make dumplings with the leftover and keep them in a freezer? ”
I did not measure the dried starch noodles when I filmed this video but used 2 bunches from the package of the starch noodles. You used 300 grams noodles which was too much. Then use 150 grams or 200 grams.
yes, you can use the leftover japchae for dumpling filling, but keep it in the refrigerator which means you will have to use the leftover in a few days. I never like the idea of freezing japchae. eww! : )
Thank you for the early response : ) I’ve already made Japchae dumplings and gonna try this evening.
I am a big fan of anything Korean. Came across your website while looking for Korean food recipes and yours was the easiest by far. Today I made my first Korean dish japchae and it was excellent. Thank you very much for sharing your food with us and keep up the good work. Next it will be (hot Spicy Rice Cake) yummy…I took some photos and will be emailing them to you.
yeah, the japchae looks awesome. Congratulation! I will post it on my website soon!
Hi Maangchi!
Love all of the recipes and they’re super easy! For the Job Chae, what kind of beef are you using? Is it flank?
for japchae, sirloin cut is good.
Anyong hase yo !Maangchi !
ive tried this recipe.. but i dont know if the taste is right or not.. how it suppose to be ??
Hi,
I love your web site! I tried a few recipes already. Could you please specify the kind of sesame oil you using in recipe: regular or tested?
Thank you
I don’t have any particular brand of sesame oil that I use, but it should be made with roasted sesame seeds.
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/sesame-oil
Hi! Tried out this recipe today but I used bacon instead of beef and my husband ate 2 huge bowls!!!! He’s a big fan of the hot pepper paste so he had dollops of it along with the noodles…
I’m so glad you’re sharing your recipes with us… hope you’ll put up more recipes on cold noodles… they’re fantastic in hot weather!
Thank you for your update!
Hello, Maangchi! I love Jobchae and I bought the noodles already, but I have a serious problem: my stepmother is allergic to onions so I can’t use them in the house! Is there an ingredient that I could successfully substitute for the onion in this dish to give it the same flavor? I can’t use scallions either… Nor onion powder. Can’t even bring lilies in the house (same plant family) Help! I really want it to taste good! :(
: ) Make it in your friend’s house and eat it secretly!
I think japchae made without onion and green onions will still be delicious. Use lots of vegetables: spinach, mushrooms, and carrot.
Thank you! I want to make this at my friend’s house anyway, I think her family will eat it, mine won’t hahaha
Just found your site yesterday, thank you so much!
This was my wife’s favorite dish while I was studying Korean. Thanks for posting this recipe, I’m trying it out tonight!
The whole family loved it, all the way down to our 20-month old. Thank You Maangchi!
cool! Thank you for your update!
I just made this for dinner!! The first Korean recipe I made! :D
Congratulation! ooh hee! : )
Tomorrow I’m going to make sujebi. I’ll try to remember to send you a picture!!
Hello Maangchi :D
Can I use Cellophane noodles instead of these starch noodles, because these starch noodles are made of starch from sweet potatoes but the cellophane noodles are made of starch from mung beans.
thank you very much!
hi!
i love the way you julienne the carrots really quick!i never thought of that until i saw your video.i just bought black bean paste after eating jjajangmyun from a korean market here in torrance, ca. you make korean cooking very easy for non-koreans! :)
Hello!
I am an English teacher in Korea on my second year here, and I’ve decided to try my hand at cooking Korean food that I enjoy eating. I love japchae, and when I found your website and your instructional videos, it gave me the courage to finally try cooking it. It turned out wonderfully! I’m eating a plate right now. Thanks so much for this terrific website. My next cooking project is to try and make doenjang jjigae. Thanks again!
I’m happy to hear that my website encouraged you to cook Korean dishes. It’s perfect for you to learn Korean recipes while you are staying in Korea. You can get ingredients easily at cheaper price there.
Update me how your doenjang jjigae turns out.
If you can, email me some photos of Korean dishes that you made at maangchi@gmail.com to share with my other readers.
Thank you!
Thank you very much, Maangchi!
I just made and ate some Japchae which was very tasty, despite having had to resort to peanut oil (the stores here do not sell sesame oil).
I’d have a question regarding the soy sauce, because here I can only get a hold of Kikkoman soy sauce; can it be used or would it spoil the intended taste of the dish?
I used it and it was delicious none the less ;)
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe on YouTube ;)
Yours,
Quael
kikkoman soy sauce is good, too. No problem! Thank you for your update!
Great cooking shows! I like to cook vietnamese food because I have a few friends from there, but I spent a year in Korea and fell in love with the food! It is awesome! Thanks for the great recipes, I am going to try all of them! Now if only I could find a wife like you to teach me to cook :) Have a great day! Keep the videos coming!
haha, are you going to try out all of my recipes? Good luck with your Korean cooking! Awesome!
Hi fellow cook! I have recently started making Asian recipes. I teach English and the student I tutor referred me to your website. Can you tell me if this is sweet? I notice there is a lot of sugar here and I am not a huge fan of sugar. Can you let me know if all of this sugar is necessary or if I can reduce it down by half? Thank you!
You can always modify the recipe to your taste. I’m not a big fan of sweet food, either, but bulgogi and japchae are tasty when it’s sweet. Adjust the amount of sugar or soy sauce according to your taste. Thank you for your question! Welcome!
Thank you Maangchi! I`m 15 and I just made this for my 6 siblings and my mom. My little sister and mom loved it! I can`t wait for my other siblings to try it too.It`s soo healthy and tasty with Kimchi which I also made today. I feel like a Korean Chef! =) Thanks for your easy and awesome recipes!
We tried your Jabchae today. My boyfrind loved it, it is so much better than in any restaurant, because you can put as much stuff as you want. Thank you very much!!!! Can’t wait to try your stews:)
I agree with you: “it is so much better than in any restaurant, because you can put as much stuff as you want.”