Hello hello everybody! : )
I’m re-introducing jjajangmyeon recipe (noodles in black bean sauce) to you today with a new, updated video. I originally uploaded a video showing you how to make jjajangmyeon in 2007, not long after I started posting to YouTube. Yes, it was 5 years ago! Time flies too fast!
That video was so popular that I decided to make a new version that’s easier to follow, and also shows you how to make jjajangbap with rice instead of noodles.
Jjajangmyeon is everybody’s favorite food. It’s actually a very popular Korean Chinese dish, created by early Chinese immigrants in Korea, catering to Korean tastes. Tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) is another example. The almost caramel taste of the savory black bean sauce over the thick, chewy wheat flour noodles makes for a really unique taste and texture. When I was young, a plate of jjajangmyeon from a Chinese restaurant always made me excited. When you order it delivered they bring you the noodles in a special tin box in under 30 minutes! I usually ended up covered in jjajang sauce and my mom had to give me a Kleenex.
Koreans even have a nonofficial celebration for jjm on April 14th, when single people celebrate their shared loneliness on Black Day with a bowl of jjajangmyeon.
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients for 2-3 servings
- jjajangmyeon noodles
- ½ pound pork belly, cut into ½ inch cubes (about 1½ cups’ worth)
- 1 cup of Korean radish (or daikon), cut into ½ inch cubes (about 1 cup’s worth)
- 1 cup of zucchini, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup of potato, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1½ cups of onion chunks
- 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- ¼ cup and 1 tablespoon of chunjang (Korean black bean paste)
- 2 tablespoons of potato starch powder, combined with ¼ cup water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a small bowl, set aside
- 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
- ½ cup cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks for garnish
- water
Directions for making jjajang sauce
- Stir-fry the pork belly in a large, deep wok (or pan) with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
- Pour out the excess pork fat.
- Add radish and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Add potato, onion, and zucchini and keep stirring for about 3 minutes until the potato looks a little translucent.
- Clear a space in the center of the wok by pushing the ingredients to the edges.
- Add 2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil to the center of the wok, then add ¼ cup of black bean paste and stir it with a wooden spoon for 1 minute to fry it. Then mix everything in the wok and keep stirring.
- Add 2 cups of water to the wok and let it simmer and cook with the lid closed for about 10 minutes.
- Open the lid and taste a sample of the radish and potato. If they’re fully cooked, stir in the starch water little by little. Keep stirring until it’s well mixed and thick.
- Add the sesame oil and remove from the heat.
- Serve with noodles (jjajangmyeon) or steamed rice (jjajangbap).
Make jjajangmyeon
Noodles for jjajangmyeon can be found at Korean grocery stores. The noodles are thick and chewy.
- Boil the noodles in a large pot and drain. Rinse and strain in cold water.
- Put one serving of noodles onto a serving plate and add the jjajang sauce over top. Garnish with cucumber strips and serve immediately with kimchi or yellow pickled radish.
Make jjajangbap
I have a detailed recipe for jjajangbap but this is the basics:
- Make one serving of rice, and add the jjajang sauce over top.
- Garnish with cucumber strips on top of the jjajang sauce and serve it with kimchi or yellow pickled radish.
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Steve,
sorry, I found you guy’s comments now due to my website malfunction. I’m happy to read comments from my readers now. I hope your jjajangmyun turned out good. Let me know.
nyc lisa,
I don’t know much about your question. Please leave your question on the forum here. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Someone else may give you the answer
qonia,
haha, you are another Korean dramas lover! You can use beef or chicken. I don’t think it contains alcohol, but it’s fermented food.
Hi Maangchi,
I’m from Indonesia & love trying new recipes, esspecially korean food, as I’m a true K-Drama lover :)
I’ve been looking 4 this recipe for years, & finally I see your site :)
I want to try making jjajangmyun. it seems delicious. but I’m a moslem that I can’t consume pork or alcohol. what kind of meat I can use to replace the pork? is the ingredient of doe jang and gho chu jang contains alcohol / lard?
maangchi
thank you for your videos;) I’m so excited to make this tonight for my husband and three kids. It’s one of our favorites. I’m sure it will be good I had no idea it had moo in it. In any case I was at the grocery today to pick up some black bean paste and I noticed it has wheat in it. This is unfortunate because one of my son’s is allergic to wheat. I was able to find soy bean paste and red pepper paste without wheat some used rice flour instead.
I wanted to know if wheat was a necessary ingredient or a filler product in the black bean paste. Thank you for your videos – they are addictive. I hope you start a food show for food tv.
I’m Chinese and used to live in Los Angeles and most of my frieds are Koreans so we would go to all of the good Korean restaurants in Korea town and the prices are cheap so never had to learn to cook Korean food. But now I’ve moved to Seattle and it is hard to find good Korean restaurants. I’ve had a craving for good Jjajangmyun but could not find one. I’ve tried many, but they are really crapy. I finally stumbled onto your youtube video and this website and will try to cook some of these dishes tomorrow. I’ll try the Jjajangmyun first… boy, looking at your video is making me very very very hungry! Thanks for all your recipes.
To find Korean places you would be better off going down to Federal Way, Tacoma, or even Shoreline.
Preesi,
Yes, you can freeze the leftover sauce and eat it later.
Maangchi?
or Anyone who can answer,
is the Jjajang sauce freezable?
can’t wait to try this recipe! thanks.
This recipe looks great! I’ll have to go to the Korean grocery store and pick up some ingredients. ^_^
I’ve only had jjajangmyeon once…in Morioka, Japan! lol. When I finished my noodles, they told me to crack an egg in the same bowl, add some extra sauce and mix it. Then they took the bowl, added some broth and ginger and green onions, and served it to me as a soup. It was really good! I was wondering…is it traditional to do that?
Thanks. ^_^
Bob H,
haha, since 1994, you have been looking for the recipe for jjajangmyeon! I’m very happy that you got the recipe from me now. Let me know how your jjajangmyeon turns out when you cook it.
BTW, “bob (밥)”means “cooked rice” in Korean. I’m sure you already know it. ; )
Happy Days!!! I finally found the recipe with your fine demonstration of how to cook Jjajamyun. I have been searching since 1994 for this recipe with no success. I have asked my favorite Chinese restaurant to fix it and they just laugh at me.
Now I am set! I will visit the oriental markets this week to find the black bean paste. I have found black bean paste with garlic, but not just black bean paste.
I spent a year in Peyontech in 1983-1984 and 1993-94 and was introduced to many fine Korean dishes. Thank you for your contributions! I am truly a happy man now that I can reproduce one of my favorite meals! Keep up the great work!
Bob
Victoria,
haha, you would have jjajang sauce all over your face! Good memory, right?
Maangchi,
Thank you for posting this recipe. I remember as a child my mom would cook this for me and after I was done eating it I would have the sauce all over my face. It’s a great dish. I’m glad you have this site now I can make Korean dishes for my husband and his family.
~Victoria
Felix,
You are great, too! I mean you are a great cook! The music is “Police on My Back” by Clash. I posted it in the description of the recipe now. Thanks,
Maangchi! you are so great! I already tried 5 dishes from ur videos. Jap Chae/Hot & Spicy rice cakes/냉면/짬뽕/and cinnamon punch!!! U makes the best Korean food ever! :-)… when I watched ur Jjajangmyeon video, I really liked the background song..could u please tell me what the song title is? :-) thanks and keep up the good work!
Vickie,
Congratulation on your successful jjajangmyeon making!
silvia from netherlands,
Wow, you can make so many kinds of Korean dishes! I’m happy to hear that. You made it!~
anyonghaseyo, eum shik eul nomu djoha hamnida! ever since i moved out of my mom’s house to go to university, i’ve badly craved korean food. finally, i get to cook it myself! especially yug gae jang, sun dubu chigae, bibimbab and jia jiang myun are some of my all time favorites! i am going to surprise my mom with a korean dish made with the help of your videos! before, i never bothered to try those, because the recipes are usually too complicated. its so much easier with these videos!
thank you so much for saving me from starving here!
silvia from the netherlands :)
Hi Maangchi:
I had Jjajamyun in a Korean Restaurant here in Panama C.A., because I have heard of it so many times of it in the dramas and it was OK, but last night a cooked it following your recipe and it was totally delicious.
Thank you so much!!!
Maya,
Yes, if you use sweet rice powder too much, the sauce may look like porridge. I usually don’t use sweet rice powder for jjajang sauce, but as you said, it seems to be ok. Go for it. ; 0)
Hiya,
Quick question. I’ve been using Mochiko rice flour in sauces instead of corn starch ever since I bought it for kimchi a while back. It works surprisingly well! Do you think it could be used in jjajangmyun instead of potato starch? Or would it make the sauce too gluey . . .
Christina
If you don’t eat meat, how about seafood(shrimp, scallop)? I don’t think it is tasty if you skip meat or seafood.
oh my gosh, i’ve always wanted to try jjajangmyun because of korean dramas, lol. would taking out the pork affect the dish at all? cause i dont eat meat and the whole maple leaf thing going on. thanks for posting the recipe and video!
Julia Antasha,
Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
I know Muslims don’t eat pork, but did not know they don’t drink any kind of alcohol. I don’t know much about HALAL. I should do some research about it.
Hi Maangchi…
I’m Julia from Malaysia. Most Malaysian are Muslims…
We don’t eat pork and any kind of wine/alcohol as well. But I love some of Korean food n must make sure that it is HALAL (not forbidden by our region). There’s minority group in Korea which are Muslims right?I hope one day you can show me the HALAL food from Korea.
Sorry Joe I don’t know much about Panama. Leave your question in my forum, maybe someone else can answer? https://www.maangchi.com/talk/
I am visiting Panama City, Panama for business and would greatly appreciate it if you could tell the me location of a Korean restaurant and Korean grocery. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
i cant find the jjangjang brand noodles in seewoo x( can i use any wheat noodle?
Sure. Love to. E-mail me the detail.
chi,
oh, you are living in New York! Let’s meet on my next meet up event. By the way, potato is a very essential ingredient for jjajangmyun.
echa,
tenkiuuu for your comment!
hi maangchi,…
tenkiuuu for posting the video,..its really great,i’m from singapore,the first time i tried Jjangmyun when a lived at washington DC 2001,…n the taste it’s very good,n i loves watching korean dramas too..n today i alreaady cooking Jjangmyun from your videoo,yippiiii thank a lot maangchi…
I am from Taiwan and now live in New York state. I have always loved Korean food. Glad that I found Maangchi’s website. The video tapes are really helpful. Made jjajangmyun last week according to her recipe. The flavor is excellent(brought back many memories from childhood!) however the potato in it made the dish gritty. Next time I will use dried tofu instead.
That looks so incredibly good. I will definately go to Seewoo and buy the ingredients and try to make it.
Jenny,
Wo~nderful news! You made good jjajangmyun!
oh, you know about matang? Yes, it’s one of my upcoming video recipes. Thank you!
Hello Maangchi,
I tried your recipe the other day, and it turned out so great! Loved the dish since years ago, yet never imagined myself cooking the food. My husband-from Slovakia-even loved jjajangmyun!! First time, I used beef, but for the second attempt I added bacon which, I think,has better taste. Anyway, many thanks for your videos.
Just one more thing. I’d like to ask you a BIG favor.
Can you possibly show us how to make ‘gogumatang – sticky sweet potato snack’?
Thanks from new zealand.
yue,
I don’t think it contains alcohol, but it’s fermented.
Why don’t you ask this question on the Forum under “general discussion” category. You may get a good answer from someone else.
Yeah, you can use other brands, too. Thank you!