Today I’m going to introduce you to ppyeo-haejangguk, or ox bone hangover soup. This soup is made from boiling ox bones for hours and hours until all the delicious, nutritious meat, marrow, and ligaments dissolve and create a hearty bone broth. The resulting soup is rich, savory, earthy, and best of all, after one spoonful I can feel my lips stick together from the collagen. I think: “Wow this is good for my body,” which makes me enjoy it even more. That means it’s well made!
This kind of soup is very nutritious and good for you, and Koreans of all ages eat it to improve their health. I usually start by making a huge big pot of ox bone broth. I don’t measure anything, I just add as many bones as I can, and keep boiling and adding water until all the bone marrow has come out and I’m satisfied with the milky color of the broth. Usually by that time the bones are white and look like airy sponges!
Then my family and I eat this for one week, usually as seolleongtang. But by the end of the week, for a bit of variety, I’ll make this haejangguk with the broth. Because of the doenjang (fermented soybean paste), it kind of tastes like doenjangguk, but with a richer flavor.
Haejangguk (hangover soup) is a type of Korean soup that is steamy and hearty. It doesn’t mean you need to have a hangover to eat it, but that kind of soup is a good thing to eat when you’re not feeling well. It’ll make you feel better and fill you up!
2 pounds of sliced ox bones are $5.00 in the US, and that feeds 4 people. It’s a cheap but nutritious and delicious soup that everyone will love.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of sliced ox bones
- 2 pounds of napa cabbage (or chard)
- 6 quarts (24 cups) of water
- ¼ cup Korean fermented soybean paste (doenjang)
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 green chili peppers, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 green onions, chopped
- Korean hot pepper flakes (Gochu-garu), optional
Make bone broth
Makes 6 to 8 cups
- Wash and rinse the bones in cold water to remove any bone fragments. Soak them in cold water to remove any blood.
- Boil 6 quarts of water in a heavy pot over high heat. When the water boils vigorously, drain the bones and add them to the boiling water.
- Cover and lower the heat to medium and let it boil for 4 hours. Check the amount of broth. If it gets below 6 cups, add more cold water. Boil longer until the broth is nice and milky and you still have at least 6 cups of broth.
- Remove from the heat. Strain the bones to separate from the broth.
- Let the bones cool down until you can handle them, and remove any ligaments or bits of meat left on them. Keep the bits in a bowl.
- Let the broth cool down. Keep it in the fridge for several hours or overnight until it solidifies. If you can’t wait that long, you can fill a large bowl with ice and cold water, and set your bowl of broth on top of it. Change the water and ice one time. Your broth will end up cool and wobbly.
- You’ll see a layer of brownish yellow fat has solidified on the surface, skim it off with a spoon.
Using a pressure cooker: easier and faster
- If you have a pressure cooker, you can use it instead of boiling bones in a pot for hours. Simply cook the bones in your pressure cooker with 10 cups of water for about 30 minutes.
- Let it cool down. Skim any solidified fat off the top, and then put it in a pot with some more water and boil over medium heat until the broth is milky. Add more water as needed, until you have 6 cups of milky broth.
Make haejangguk
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and blanch the cabbage for 5 minutes. Strain and rinse in cold water a couple of times to remove any dirt left. Strain the cabbage and chop up into small pieces.
- Combine the cabbage, doenjang, garlic, green chili pepper, and fish sauce in a bowl and mix it well by hand or a wooden spoon.
- Put the cabbage mix to a large pot with 6 cups of bone broth along with the leftover bits of ligament and meat. Cover and cook for 20 minutes over medium high heat.
- Turn down the heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve
- Ladle the soup into bowls. Sprinkle chopped onion over top.
- Serve with rice, kimchi, gochu-garu, and a few more side dishes if you want.
Spicy cucumber salad (oi-muchim: 오이무침)
I love your cooking!!! My husband and I are in the process of finalizing the adoption of two beautiful Korean twin babies. My husband is American and I am from Mexico, we are a multicultural family. I love cooking since it’s been part of my culture to gather with friends and family at the dinner table while enjoying delicious food, now that we have the blessing of those two beautiful babies I am trying really hard to learn about their culture to help them keep their roots alive and since cooking has been a big part of me, I’ve decided to learn Korean cuisine for them. I’ve already tried several of your recipes and have been a total success. Thank you so much for enjoying you cooking and culture with us. Here is picture of the ox bone hangover soup I made, It was delicious!!!
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Hi Maangchi. I love your recipes. I used to live in Korea. I love Haejangguk. Can you post pork hangover soup. And what is this flakes on top. Where can i buy it. it tastes good with this flakes. Thank you Maangchi
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Hey the black and white flakes on top are perilla seeds, powdered in this case. I guess you could buy them in a korean shop or maybe online like on amazon!
Hi Vale,
It looks like pork bone soup called gamjatang which is served as a hangover cure soup in Korea. Mila_eche is right. The black powder on top of the soup is deulkkage-garu (perilla seeds powder). Check out my gamjatang recipe here. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gamjatang
Dear Maangchi, I love all your recipes. I made this soup with 등뼈 & 고춧가루 additional in it, and because I don’t have fish sauce I just added normal soy sauce and it turned out so delicious! My husband keep saying my first cook is turned out so nice,he doesn’t believed that I can cook korean food and even kept ate more rice!!! Thank you so much maangchi~!!! Keep healthy and beautiful
Hello!
I lived in South Korea for 11 years and since moving back to Canada, I’ve really been craving 뼈다귀해장국 but I’m looking for a recipe for the spicy version, like this one where it has napa cabbage and maybe a couple of other veggies but is nice and spicy! Is there any chance you could post a recipe for this version?
P.S. – I bought your cookbook for myself for Christmas and my daughter and I are loving all the recipes we’ve tried so far! :D 수구합니다! *^^*
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I’m happy to hear that you are enjoying my cookbook recipes. Thanks!
It looks like pork bone soup called gamjatang in Korean. Check out my gamjatang recipe here, please. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gamjatang
Thank you! Yes, it does! I always think of 감자탕 like the giant bowls that serve 6 people so I wasn’t looking under that heading! 수고하고 좋은 하루 되세요! ^^
Is there a spicy way to make this soup?
I was wondering if anyone has tried making this in a slow cooker. I was curious to know how it turned out and, if it turned out well, how much water to use. I think I might start experimenting!
This looks delicious (as all your recipes do, of course!), can’t wait to try it! :) Thank you Maangchi!
Can I use pressure cooker to make the broth? Would that effect the taste? Thank you!
I’m so grateful for your recipes! I’m mixed French-Korean, now in the US, and my friends recommended your site to me. My Korean grandmother passed away almost a year ago, and the one-year anniversary of her passing is almost here. She was from Gwangju and a terrific cook (like all Korean moms are :) but never wrote down her recipes. I had really struggled with how to make 설렁탕 bone broth with that milky white color like she had done… until I found your recipe, and I’m so happy that you have a recipe for the hangover soup with napa too! I loved her so much, and when I make bone broth, and I see a bowl of that milky white broth in front of me like when I was a child – it brings back memories of her love & how it carries on, even now. Your step-by-step guides helped me lots.
You are so kind (and pretty!) and knowledgeable – watching your videos, I feel like I have an encouraging new friend, holding my hand through the process! I’ve just bought your book, too. I am wishing you all the best, you deserve it!
What a touching story it is! You were missing your grandmother’s bone soup and searched the recipe online and found my website! Now you can make this soup! The bone soup your grandmother made was very special to you because it was not only delicious but it contained her full love for you. By the way, I used to live in Gwangju, too!
The directions indicate fish sauce but there is none listed in the ingredients. How much to use?
in the video maangchi said to use 1 tbs fish sauce.
Thanks for pointing it out! I fixed it just now. And thank you Cutemom for answering quickly on behalf of me! You are so cute! : )
This turned out great! It has a miso-like flavour to it; very mild. I paired it with kimchi, soy chicken, spicy cucumber salad and tea.
You made a great meal! It sounds very delicious!
It looks so delicious and quite easy to make, I can’t wait to try this recipe! I’ll make it for my family this week, I hope they’ll like it.
Thank you Maangchi-ssi!
수고하세요!