I’m introducing Korean style salty cucumber pickles (oijangajji). Unlike Western cucumber pickles, oijangajji is seasoned with a lot of other condiments and spices, which makes it good for side dishes. After we make the pickles I’ll show you how to make two side dishes that use oijangajji.
When you choose cucumbers, make sure they are firm and the skin of the cucumbers is dark green, so that it will be crunchy when they are made into pickles.
How to make Korean style salty cucumber pickles (oijangajji):
Ingredients
Kirby cucumbers (5 pound: 2.5 kilograms), water, kosher salt, vinegar, apples
Directions
- Wash and drain 5 pounds of cucumbers.
- In a large pot put 9 cups water, 1 cup kosher salt, and 1 cup vinegar.
- Remove the cores from two small apples. Slice the apples thinly and put them into the pot.
- Stir the pot of brine and apple slices with a wooden spoon until the salt on the bottom of the pot has dissolved.
- Bring to a boil over high heat for about 40 minutes.
- Strain the cooked apples.
- Put the cucumbers into the hot brine. Turn them over with a wooden spoon
- Let the pot sit until the brine cools down.
- Move the cucumbers into a glass jar and pour the brine over the cucumbers.
- Close the lid and let it sit for 12-24 hours at room temperature
- Drain the cucumbers by pouring out the brine into a pot.
- Boil the brine again for 10 minutes to sterilize it.
*tip: leave the cucumber in the jar - Turn off the heat and let the brine cool down.
- Pour the brine into the cucumbers and refrigerate it.
*tip: Wait at least 1 week to start eating
Yes, one week! : )
Ok, let’s make two kinds of authentic side dishes with oijangajji!
Oijangajji muchim (Korean style cucumber pickle side dish)
Ingredients
2 pickled cucumbers (about ¾ to 1 cup), Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru), garlic, green onion, green chili pepper, honey, toasted sesame oil, roasted toasted sesame seeds
Directions
- Slice 2 cucumber pickles thinly and put them into a mixing bowl.
- Add 1-2 ts of hot pepper flakes, 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 tbs chopped green onion, 2 ts chopped green chile pepper, ½ ts honey, and ½ ts toasted sesame oil. Mix well with your hand.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle ½ tbs roasted sesame seeds.
Serve with rice!
Oijangajji naengguk (cold cucumber pickle soup)
Ingredients
2 cucumber pickles, garlic, vinegar, Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru), kosher salt, green onion, green chile pepper, red chile pepper or red bell pepper, honey, and ice cubes
Directions
- Slice 2 pickled oijangajji thinly and put it into a glass bowl.
- Add 1 clove of minced garlic, 2 ts vinegar, 1 ts hot pepper flakes, 1 ts kosher salt, 1 tbs chopped green chile pepper, 1 tbs chopped green onion, 1 tbs chopped red bell pepper or red chile pepper, 1 ts honey, and combine it with a spoon.
- Add 1 cup purified water, 7-8 ice cubes , and mix it.
Serve with rice.
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.
![[OTTOGI] Premium Roasted Sesam...](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DixbNS9AL._SL160_.jpg)
I planned to make this and I like to know must I use kirby cucumber?Can I use just normal cucumber I can find ? Will it have any different ?
Hello dear Maangnchi,
Here in Iran we make cucumber pickles with water , salt , vinger, galice and some dried or fresh herbals like tarragon and dill.
Interesting! Every culture has a similar recipe! If you want to share the recipe with us, please leave it here:
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/reader-recipes
Oh,I made this and it came out so good! next time i need to make more, because my family loved it!
Thanks!
Thank you for the update! good news!
Hello Maangchi! I love your website and all the recipes! I made this pickles and loveeee them >_<! …and so did my family unfortunately, I did the cold cucumber soup and put it on the table while I was getting the rice and when I came back it was all gone!!! good thing that I did a lot of cucumbers! ^__^ Thank you for all your hard work!
Thank you for your update! good news!
Maangchi:
I am looking forward to trying out this recipe as I am a huge fan of pickles of all types. Do you think this might work with green tomatoes (like you find in a New York Deli) as well as cucumbers?
I have never tasted green tomato pickles. : ) I don’t know if this recipe works for green tomatoes. Do some experiments and let us know the result.
Hi, I made the pickles 1 week ago and I found that there is some white residue sitting at the bottom of the jar. Is this normal and safe for consumption?
Yes, it sometimes happens. Don’ worry much about the white residue. Drain the pickles and boil the pickle juice again. When the juice cools down, pour it into your pickles in the jar and keep it in the fridge.
How long can you keep it pickled if in a cool place and not refrigerated?
Hi. I wanted to try this recipe! totally inlove with this dish. But I would like to ask, d vinegar used is white vinegar or apple cider vinegar? Thank you!
The type of vinegar doesn’t really matter, but I like the flavor of apple cider vinegar.
omg maangchi! itried it and i was really impressed with it. :D im looking forward to doing more hehe thank you!!
oh, you made it! cool!
Hello Maangchi,
First of all let me tell you that I really trully love your website! I am soooooo happy I found it. I love Korean food! This particular recipe makes my mouth water, but I haven’t tried it yet. I hope I will find the right pickles…
I wanted to ask you if you knew how to make a pickle side dish they serve in Korean restaurants (at least they do in France where I live), I don’t know how it’s called but it’s yellowish and a bit spicy. You can find it in some asian stores (so I must have known the name once but really cannot find it right now), but it does not taste the same at all.
I hope you will manage to guess what I am talking about.
In any case, thank you very much for sharing your recipes!
Lise
Did it look something like this? http://kitchen.naver.com/recipe/158680
If so, all you need to buy is yellow picked radish at the Korean market, get one strip of it, and cut it into bite size pieces (like in the pictures) and add the following ingredients: 1 ts sesame oil, 2 tbs hot pepper flakes(adjust to your liking), 1tbs of green onions, 1/3 tbs of minced garlic, and a tbs of roasted sesame seeds. Mix well and serve!
I have never heard of pickle soup! I love pickles and can’t wait to try these recipies. Is the soup eaten in Korea alot? Thanks for the recipe!
yes, it’s a side dish. Nobody eats as it is because it’s salty. Eat it with a bowl of rice.
Hey Maangchi,
I <3 your websites and every recipe. I was wondering where you would find kirby cucumbers. Also could I substitute kirby cucumbers for regular cucumber.
Thank you for sharing your recipe. Yesterday I try oijangajji recipe. When it is ready, I will tell you the result. Have a nice day, Maangchi.
I watched this video a week ago, and made oijangajji right away. After waiting a very anticipating week for the pickling process, they were ready just in time for my anniversary with my boyfriend. He’s Korean so i made a few of his favorite dishes. It was delicious! Thanks Maangchi!
You and your bf can celebrate the anniversary with this dish! awesome! : )
I love you maangchi!!!
Anyonghaseyo ^_^ I recently had some wonderful Korean crab cakes. Could you put up a recipe on this. Please.
Hi Maangchi!
I recently got back from Korea! I spent ten weeks in Seoul this summer. I brought back with me hard to find (in USA) ingredients to learn Korean cooking! I loooooove your website!! My cucumbers are pickling right now for me to make oijangajji muchim and naengguk. Yesterday I made your recipe for gaji namul and soon dubu!
맛있었어요!!
Wow, what kind of ingredients did you bring? : ) I would like to see them!
Could you make bibim guksu?
ok, your request bibim guksu is included in the list of my upcoming recipes. Thank you very much!
I am using Japanese Cucumbers as this is the only kind I can get as I am in Japan. Being that the cucumbers are thinner and longer, will the wait time be less?
I have never made jangajji with Japanese cucumbers, but I think it ill be ok to make it. Follow the same recipe and update me please because I’m curious about the result. I can tell my other readers that they could use Japanese cucumbers to make jangajji. Make a little amount just in case they turn out mushy.
I’m curious too. Today my wife brought home a large bag of Japanese cucumber that a coworker gave her. I think they would work very well with this recipe, but given their size they would need to be sliced or cut much smaller. I would like to know how yours turned out and houw you prepared them. Thanks!
wow, your wife must be a cool person because her coworker gave her lots of cucumbers! I would not cut them in pieces. If you cut them, they may turn out mushy when they are pickled,.
Hi Maangchi..
Is it okey using Rice Vinegar for the Oijangajji ?? because I couldn’t find any Apple Vinegar today.. and if my cucumbers’s size can’t fits into my jar, is it okay to cut them in half when they are stored ?? thank’s~ XD
yes, you can use rice vinegar, too. I wouldn’t cut them in half for this recipe because as you see in the video, I blanch the whole cucumbers for a few minutes by putting them into hot brine! If you cut them in half, they will absorb too much heat and may get mushy.
Hey Maangchi!
I recently have received these Korean pickles as a gift from my mother’s friend, which is great but… they’re just too strong.
Is there any way I can reduce the flavor of the pickles?
too strong? Does it mean it’s too salty? If so, soak the cucumber slices in cold water for an hour before making these dishes. The pickles in this recipe will not be that salty. It’s time for you to make your own janahjji : )
It’s too sour and too salty. I’ll try that, thanks ^^
I will make this recipe once we finish all the pickles my mother’s friend has given us.
Hi Maangchi
I just attemted to make the brine and when I took the lid off of the pot all the water had be boiled out and all that was left was salt and apples. Why is that?
Thanks,
Nicole
Hi Maangchi, what kind of vinegar do you use for your oijangajji? is it Apple Vinegar ?? thx~
Yes, I did. I used apple cider vinegar (Heinz).
If I don’t have apples, can I substitute it for something else or leave it out?
You can use sugar.
How interesting. I’ve never seen Korean pickles made with apples before…or if I did, I didn’t know that’s what they were. ;)Mom made some before, but it was always just cucumbers and salt put into a crock with the scum taken off the top periodically. It’d take weeks to ferment before it was ready. She’d do the same thing with some radishes…we’d actually make those in a small (new) trashcan looking container. But I like the speed of this recipe. I don’t have the patience for constant attention. Might give this recipe a try this weekend.
yeah, more traditional way is not to use apples and use much more salt. I am trying to reduce the amount of salt in my diet.
Greetings from London, UK. Thank you for another fantastic recipe, perfect timing as I have 20kg of kirby cucumber from the greenhouse garden sat in the kitchen at the moment(we are already eating alot of your cucumber kimchi). My question is how long do you think the pickled cucumber can be kept for once placed in the jars? Keep up the great work.
As long as you keep it in the refrigerator, it will never go bad.
Hey Maangchi,
I love all your recipes, I have been trying to find authentic korean recipes for a long time now and finally on your site I saw a few that I have remember my mommy use to make me that she learn from her korean friends. I love your site, KEEP IT UP.
lol, my mom made this when i was like 6, and i ate all the apples while she was preparing the other ingredients!
can we use corn syrup instead of honey or sugar?
yay!!!!!
i love pickles (^_^)
감사합니다!
This is the perfect recipe for me! :D I always crave pickled food. I’ve never seen apple pieces boiled with the brine before- very interesting, I can’t wait to try it.
What a coincident! We ate this at a Korean restaurant as one of the side dishes and my husband really likes the cucumber. Now I can make this at home! I always look forward to your new videos. Thanks Maanchi!
i can’t wait to try this out! i don’t have glass jars though, is there a way to do this with plastic jars?
I just made the oijangajji naengguk for lunch.
At first the idea of a cold pickled cucumber soup was so different.
It was so easy to make and I loved the taste.
I will be making it again.
Going to try more of your recipes Maangchi!
Thanks and regards from London, UK
I am so excited to make this dish! I am going to go buy the cucumbers at the farmer’s market this weekend. Any sugguestions on where to get the large jars to store the cucumbers!
What a great recipy for this hot summer!
I just twisted my jaw though, trying to pronounce the name of the dish :)
haha, twisted your jaw? You are so fumny! I’m really laughing loudly now!