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.
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Great! Successfuly done! :) Just my marinated beef weren’t as delicious as I thought it would be. I will do it on my own next time. :) Other than that just a great dish! Thanks a lot.
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Looks great!
I have tried several japchae recipes but so far this is my favorite!
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Wow, mouthwatering!
Thank you for the recipe! It was soo delicious. Your instructions were easy to follow and we were so very excited to eat it.
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The noodles are so translucent and shiny, and everything is such a beautiful color! I’d love to taste your japchae!
Hello Maangchi! My girlfriend and I just made this dish along with some Sukjunamul-muchim. We made it for the rest of my family, and even my brother who is usually picky really liked it! We love watching your videos, and I even got my girlfriend your cookbook as a gift! You make cooking so much fun. We have already made some of your recipes, and we look forward to trying more of them. :)
Love from Sebastian & Alicja
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Your jidan (shredded egg paper) looks so well-made, it makes the japchae look gorgeous! Good luck with your Korean cooking!
My first try at making Japchae. I’ve been meaning to cook this for a year. My resident tester/roommate approves! Had to cook some of the other vegetable dishes a few days before the noodles and I had to substitute the spinach for snowpeas cut into strips. It still turned out great! Haha!
Thank you for the recipe Maangchi! It’s also very simple to follow!
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Wow those noodles look delicious!
Thanks maangchi! This is superb!
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thought it was going to be difficult to make but it was quite easy. Will be sharing this with my friends at work.Thanks!
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Wow this japchae looks so great: colorful vegetables and shiny translucent noodles, perfect!
Hi Maangchi!
I moved to Italy from Australia almost 2 years ago and I can’t believe how much I missed Korean food! My favourite is bibimbap but I always had a curiosity for Japchae… So today I made it! Delicious!! Thank you! This is a photo on my Instagram after I made Japchae a second time… 2 days after I made it the first time!
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I made it with chicken as I didn’t have beef but it was still amazing!
Does this dish keep well or taste good cold? I’d love to take leftovers to work the next day if there’s any left
You can serve japchae hot, warm, or room temperature but never cold. Keep the leftovers in the fridge and reheat them just before serving. You can use either a microwave oven or stove top. If you use a stove top, put the cold japchae in a pan and add just a little bit of water. Heat it up over medium high heat and stir it until the noodles are shiny and transparent again.
Thanks so much for replying. That really does help xx
Thank you for the delicious recipe Maangchi, your instructions are so easy to follow! I look forward to trying more of your recipes soon
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Hi Maangchi! I’m going to make this for my son’s bday party, how should I modify the ingredient amounts if I’m making this for a big crowd? Thanks!!
Fiona
Hello Maangchi, my daughter had all her wisdom teeth out and is so sick of mashed food so I made japchae for dinner with tofu instead of meat and bean starch noodles because I ran out of dangmyun. It was so yummy! I had to give up most Korean food recently because I cannot eat garlic or chiles anymore ;_; but this is something healthy I can still make and almost trick myself into thinking it’s just as good. Next time I want to use purple dangmyun if I can find them, so pretty! Thank you for your amazing recipes and videos!
I’m in love with all your recipes Maangchi, but I kept putting off trying japchae. Not any longer, it was delcious! I’ll definitely be making this again and again.
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You made awesome colorful, nutritious, and delicious japchae! Congratulations!
Hi Maangchi!
My husband and I made Japchae last night! It was our first time making Korean food. So yummy. <3
Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes :)
-Dené
P.s How does it look?
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I love it, Dené! The noodles look soft and chewy! Yummy!
Hi maangchi…can i use fresh shitake mushroom instead of dried one
Yes, you can use fresh shiitake mushrooms.
This was my 2nd Japchae attempt… and this one was a huge hit with my family! Way closer to the flavor I was trying to get (similar to a local Korean restaurant but slightly less kick)..
thanks so much! I served it with rice and bean sprouts :) hubby and one of the kids even went back for seconds!
saving is recipe for future dinners for sure!
hello maangchi,
i bought korean soy sauce last week n happily made my first japchae. i followed your recipe religiously. It turned out awesome, smell and look wise, just like restaurant made. But it was not salty at all, so I have to keep adding soy sauce. juz when i was wondering what could have gone wrong,I looked at the soy sauce bottle and realized i bought the 25% less salt version. silly me! . anyhow thanks for the wonderful recipe, it will be one of my regulars on the dning table from now on.
I use low-salt soy sauce because I have trouble finding one without high fructose corn syrup, and I am pre-diabetic. I find it’s better to add plain salt to adjust the taste rather than keep adding soy sauce because it will have too strong a taste and can overpower other flavors.
Japchae
Maangchi, I made this dish for our church potluck on New Year’s Eve.
I labeled it so people knew what it was.
It was gone in a flash.
Thanks so much for your recipes. It’s opened my mind to a whole new cuisine.
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It looks a piece of artwork!
I hope to try this recipe this week. It looks really good. Are there any other recipes that use sweet potato noodles or they used exclusively for japchae?
Thank you very much for the recipe, Maangchi! Been craving it for days & finally had the guts to try making this and I love it! :)
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Thank you Maangchi!!! I was visiting my family this weekend, and I never get to see them, so I wanted to make something delicious to impress them. My mom is a very good cook, so it’s not an easy task.
Your japchae was the first thing that came to mind. I’ve made this a few times and my boyfriend and I love them. I knew my family would like them too, so I made a huge batch for everyone. The japchae was awesome.
Everyone loved it! My mom loved all the fresh vegitables, and my dad and brother loved how flavorful and tender the beef was. Plus I finally got the egg garnish right! I wish I got a picture but my family was very hungry :)
I have a holiday hall party coming up for work, and I will make this again to serve cold. I have a co worker who is very allergic to gluten, and can’t have regular noodles. But I found out that you can find sweet potato starch noodles that are totally gluten free! She will be so excited to have delicious noodles that are safe for her to eat!
Hi Maangchi!
I just made my first japchae and it was a success!
Thank you for sharing your recipes and techniques.
It really made cooking easy for us non-koreans. I can’t wait to try your other recipes.
Aja aja, fighting!
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Your japchae looks perfect! Congratulations!
Great , Manchi.. Even though you are not in Korea, your recipe is real, authentic..Thanks for your great efforts to share these amazing Korean culture.. I love Japchae.. I will try it again with your recipe..!!
Another great recipe from Maangchi. The take-away here is the various cuts and the various cooking times for the various veggies. All of it is spot on. I cheated – I went to the bulk salad section and grabbed a handful of pre-washed baby spinach leaves … it is just a convenience thing. I normally do not eat sugar so the recipe seemed a little bit sweet to me. Next time I will dial-back the final add of 1-tbls of sugar. The sweet potato starch noodles are wonderful!!! I like them better than rice noodles. Oh, Maangchi, instead of $10 worth of filet mignon do you think I can substitute a handful of live, small frogs from the garden?
Hello maangchi,
Can I use rice noodles instead of the sweet potato starch noodles???
Yes, you can try it out.
Hi Maangchi!!!
I finally made your japchae, and it tastes wonderful! My folks love it and so does my picky little one. Telling them that everything pretty much was cooked separately. My mom said she loves this because its not too strong and the vegetables taste so light and fresh.
I wish i could send you the picture of my japchae. Somehow, it won’t upload…oh well.
Just wanted to send you an extra thank you because you’ve helped me get closer to my “roots” by means of cooking!
Love you and THANK YOU!
Thank you, Maangchi!!^^
It taste good, but not so good as your i think =)
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Yum!
Thank you, Maangchi!!^^
Annyeong!
Im so thankful to have a site like this ~♡♡♡
Really help me a lot and give me idea, what to prepare everyday for my family. ^^
By the way thank you so much for this recipe , i tried it and my husband love it so much.^^♡♡♡
So im planning to cook this one for my son’s baek il. My husband and I planning to have small party at home with my friends and family. Hmmn can i ask more food suggestion in additional in my menu for baek il? We already order tteok im still thinking what to add with japchae. TIA!
Maangchi i just made my very very first japchae! It actually tastes pretty good. Tastier than the one I had at the restaurant lol. Awesome recipe!!
I’ve never cooked korean food before so this is actually a good start for me :D
Love you and your recipes!
Take care~
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You made fantastic japchae! Your first Korean cooking turned out very successful, so I’m sure you can make any Korean dishes from now on. Good luck!
Thank you for your sweet response!
It really made my day :)
Maangchi, I am going to make this without meat for a big party of 20 people. There will be other dishes on the table, as this will be a potluck. Should I quadruple the recipe? And, how long can I keep this at room temperature? Again, I will not add meat.
Hi Maangchi!
Is it okay to replace the glass noodles with rice noodles? Thank you.
Hi maangchi! Thankyou for sharing many delicious recipes.. today i made japchae and it tasted very very very delicious.. but i forget the sesame seed.. thankyou for sharing maangchi.. i’ll always keep watching your video ^^
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It’s good to be back making Korean food! After making this, I remembered the street food I had in Korea last winter. One of them was japchae hoddeok and it was sooooo delicious! It was so warm and it hit the spot. Guess I know what my next dish will be haha. I know I’ll have to do some experimenting to get it right but I’m determined! :)
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Your japchae looks very delicious!
I was introduced to Korean culture last year through my oldest daugher’s Korean friend. I now shop at the Korean market in order to purchase the best ingredients to make some of your recipes. Japjae is my all time favorite. My children have adjusted to my new style of cooking –lots of Korean dishes!– thanks to you. We will be visiting NYC over Mother’s Day, and I can’t wait to visit K-Town. Hopefully, one day we will visit Korea.