Spicy stir-fried octopus

Nakji-bokkeum 낙지볶음

Spicy stir-fried octopus, called nakji-bokkeum in Korean, is loved by many Koreans. It’s also one of my all-time favorite dishes.

If you love spicy seafood, this is what you’re looking for. The najki (octopus) we use to make it has long thin arms and a small oval head. It’s found in the shores of North East Asia, and also in the frozen section of Korean grocery stores (or fresh if you can find it). Peak season for nakji is winter, and that’s when the nakji restaurants in Korea fill their freezers with octopus, enough to use for the upcoming year.

I did a lot of experiments to come up a good sweet, salty, smoky, and spicy balance for the seasoning in this recipe, but the nakji was always tough. Finally I figured out the special ingredient: a 2 minute vigorous massage. it worked perfectly and the octopus was very tender.

Developing this recipe was important, not only do I get to share this with you, but I also get to use it for the rest of my life. Whenever I want to make delicious nakji-bokkeum, it’s right here waiting for me! I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I do!

Ingredients

1 package (1½ pounds) of frozen long arm octopus, thawed out in the refrigerator
2 tablespoons flour (or salt)
7 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 Korean spicy green chili pepper (or jalapeño), chopped
4 ounces onion, chopped
1 large Korean green onion (or 4 green onions), chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

For seasonings:

¼ cup hot pepper flakes
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon potato starch (or cornstarch)
¼ cup rice syrup
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

How to handle the nakji:

Cut open the heads and remove the intestines and beaks.
Put in a large bowl. Add flour and scrub vigorously for about 2 minutes until it foams. This process not only tenderizes the octopus but also cleans any dirt or mud stuck in the suckers.
Rinse in cold running water until it’s not slippery anymore. Drain.
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the octopus for 10 to 12 seconds, drain, and then transfer to a cutting board.
Cut the heads and arms into bite size pieces. Set aside.

Make seasoning sauce:

Combine all the seasoning ingredients (hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar, potato starch, rice syrup and ground black pepper) in a small bowl.
Mix well with a spoon.

Stir-fry:

Heat up a large pan over high heat. Add vegetable oil.
Stir in garlic, ginger, green chili pepper, onion, and green onion for about 3 minutes until the garlic turns a little brown and the onion translucent.
Add nakji and seasoning sauce. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in sesame oil. Transfer it to a serving plate and serve right away with rice.

Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 at 5:38 pm.
Tagged: 낙지, 낙지볶음, Korean spicy octopus, long arm octopus, Nakji-bokkeum, nakjibokkeum maangchi, spicy nakji bokkeum, spicy octopus, Spicy stir fried octopus

16 Comments:

gemplee Singapore joined 4/20 & has 3 comments
Posted September 19th, 2020 at 7:11 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi,

I finally tried this recipe and it is absolutely delicious.
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us.
Much love to you.

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Jung Ah Los Angeles, CA joined 6/20 & has 2 comments
Posted August 18th, 2020 at 10:02 pm | Log in to reply.

made this tonight with your Potato pancake and they paired well. I did add Zucchini / carrot slices and somen noodles to the octopus recipes and it tasted terrific. Thank you
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,077 comments
  Posted August 31st, 2020 at 4:45 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  It sounds great!
Kazmara Australia joined 5/18 & has 1 comment
Posted May 19th, 2018 at 6:40 am | Log in to reply.

I made this today and it was delicious! I used honey instead of rice syrup and it worked really well but I overcooked the octopus a little, but it was so tasty!

Thank you Maangchi for inspiring me to cook Korean food!
geckos Oregon joined 5/18 & has 5 comments
Posted May 1st, 2018 at 2:44 pm | Log in to reply.

Hello,
I wonder what the sauce is that is used with the cucumber?
- geckos Oregon joined 5/18 & has 5 comments
  Posted May 2nd, 2018 at 1:01 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  I watched the video again while trying the recipe and the dipping sauce name sounded like sumjum. I looked in your cookbook but no luck.
  - Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,077 comments
    Posted May 3rd, 2018 at 8:53 am | Log in to reply.
    
    It’s ssamjang! My recipe is here: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ssamjang
    - geckos Oregon joined 5/18 & has 5 comments
      Posted May 4th, 2018 at 1:19 pm | Log in to reply.
      
      Thank you. The nakji-bokkeum was delicious but the octopus was pretty chewy. I will try more massaging next time. We used some of the sauce on leftover squid and shrimp and it was great.
rrbwestu Houston joined 4/18 & has 2 comments
Posted April 9th, 2018 at 10:53 pm | Log in to reply.

I tried your recipe this evening and it turned out great! The massage and blanch resulted in very tender octopus. The flavors were very balanced. I got too excited about cooking najki for the first time and forgot the sesame seed oil. I will be cooking this again. With the sesame seed oil it will be even better. Thanks for such a straightforward and easy recipe.
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,077 comments
  Posted April 14th, 2018 at 10:27 am | Log in to reply.
  
  “The massage and blanch resulted in very tender octopus.” Awesome!
stonefly Olympia WA joined 11/11 & has 61 comments
Posted April 8th, 2018 at 12:07 am | Log in to reply.

Maangchi: I tried this last week, but could only find precut frozen octopus (about 1-3 inch pieces). I gave it the same treatment in your recipe, but it came out a little tough. But still delicious. Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Tom
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,077 comments
  Posted April 14th, 2018 at 9:41 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Maybe you treated that octopus too nicely, you probably needed to massage longer. It happened to me too, you really need to tenderize it by rubbing it. Next time do it longer.
LiljaS Iceland joined 3/18 & has 16 comments
Posted April 6th, 2018 at 7:15 pm | Log in to reply.

I saw this and thought I just HAVE to try this. Never tried octopus before. Unfortunately I could not find nakji here, but I found the large octopus. So I probably made muneo-bokkeum (문어볶음).Since it was so big I just used half for this recipe and made octopus slices with sesame dipping sauce, muneo-sukhoe (문어숙회) with the other half. My teenagers actually fled to their rooms when they saw the raw octopus ;D but I LOVE these dishes. Soooo good. And of course served with rice and kimchi and some vegetables ;) I just love your recipes Maangchi, thank you, thank you, thank you ❤️

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,077 comments
  Posted April 14th, 2018 at 9:53 am | Log in to reply.
  
  “My teenagers actually fled to their rooms when they saw the raw octopus” lol!
  
  This table setting looks perfect and I’m so impressed by your substitution of large octopus, because nakji was not available. You made kimchi, too? That’s a real Korean style meal! You must be good at cooking.
  - LiljaS Iceland joined 3/18 & has 16 comments
    Posted April 17th, 2018 at 1:53 pm | Log in to reply.
    
    Thank you <3 Your kimchi was the first Korean recipe I tried, never tasted it before but was very curious about it. Last weekend I was abroad and got my first chance to go to a Korean restaurant and taste (I hope) authentic Korean food, and I’m proud to say that I think my kimchi quite measures up to the restaurant one. I actually think mine was a little bit better ;)
stonefly Olympia WA joined 11/11 & has 61 comments
Posted March 27th, 2018 at 9:08 pm | Log in to reply.

Maangchi:

This looks yummy! I will have to try it this week, because i love spicy Korean!

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Spicy stir-fried octopus
Other English name(s): Spicy stir-fried long arm octopus
Korean name: 낙지볶음
Romanized: Nakji-bokkeum

Made with: garlic, ginger, green onion, ground black pepper, hot pepper flakes, large green onion, long arm octopus, nakji, onion, potato starch, rice syrup, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, vegetable oil,