Tteokbokki is chewy rice cakes cooked in a red, spicy broth. It’s a popular Korean street food. When I was a student coming home from school it was hard to resist the spicy rice cakes sold by vendors on the street! They would have big vats of tteokbokkie and just keep stirring and stirring. We would stop by and they would give us a small paper cup of spicy rice cakes and the spicy sauce for a very reasonable price that any student could afford.
When I lived in Korea I learned the secret to making good tteokbokki from a famous place in a local market. It was run by an old lady who could always be found stirring her pot of tteokbokki, and there were always people lined up to buy it.
She was cooking right in front of us to I saw she made an anchovy stock from dried anchovies. That ingredient made a huge difference in the flavor, so I started using it when I made my tteokbokki at home. I once ran out of dried anchovies and made tteokbokki without it, and it didn’t taste at all like what I was expecting. So don’t forget to always make a good stock with dried anchovies when you make this! It totally makes this dish!
There are many variations of tteokbokki: some people add dumplings (mandu), some add cabbage, cheese, or ramen noodles, but this version below of the spicy Korean rice cakes is a classic and my favorite. Everyone loves it!
Ingredients
- 1 pound of cylinder shaped rice cake (tteok), bought or homemade. (Use a little more if you’re not adding hard boiled eggs and fish cakes)
- 4 cups of water
- 7 large size dried anchovies, with heads and intestines removed
- 6 x 8 inch dried kelp
- ⅓ cup hot pepper paste (gochujang)
- 1 tablespoon Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru) aka “Korean chili flakes”
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 green onions (scallions), cut into 3 inch long pieces
- 2 hard boiled eggs, shelled (optional)
- ½ pound fish cakes (optional)
Directions
- Add the water, dried anchovies, and dried kelp to a shallow pot or pan.
- Boil for 15 minutes over medium high heat without the lid.
- Combine gochujang (hot pepper paste), gochugaru (hot pepper flakes), and sugar in a small bowl. Remove the anchovies and kelp from the pot and add the rice cake, the mixture in the bowl, the green onion, and the optional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs. The stock will be about 2½ cups.
- Stir gently with a wooden spoon when it starts to boil. Let it simmer and keep stirring until the rice cake turns soft and the tteokbokki sauce thickens and looks shiny, which should take about 10 to 15 minutes. If the rice cake is not soft enough, add more water and continue stirring until it softens. When you use freshly made rice cake, it takes shorter time. If you use frozen rice cake, thaw it out and soak in cold water to soften it before cooking.
- Remove from the heat and serve hot. If you have any leftovers, just keep them in the fridge and reheat them when you want to eat. You should finished it in a few days.
Hi! This looks amazing, I’m super excited to try it! I can only find small and medium dried anchovies in my area though, do you have a measurement in grams that I could use? I’m not sure how many medium anchovies equal one large, and I don’t want to use too few or too many. Thank you for sharing this recipe! <3
I really enjoy this recipe. Recently I’ve taken to adding zuchinni, green beans and pork belly to make a full meal out of it.
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Hi Maangchi!
I’m a big fan of instant topokki pots, so I picked up some frozen plain tteobokki in the hopes of replicating something as delicious, for half the store-bought price.
I really wanted to attempt your stock but getting my hands on dried anchovies around me is kinda hard. I subbed in some dashi broth instead and thought it tasted fantastic!
Got your site bookmarked ready to make some more of your delicious creations <3
“I subbed in some dashi broth instead and thought it tasted fantastic!” It sounds fantastic, my friend! : )
Hello…. is there a way to maje it without the gochujang and gochugaru? A replacement… for the color i could use paprika… i am not into spicy food… but i just love asian cuisine… all other spices and flavours are amazing and resemble my caribean cooking a bit.
Thank you fornyour help.
Today was a perfect day to make a large batch! I had fish cakes that needed to be used up. Love all of your recipes. The only change I make in this one is I sub maple syrup for the sugar! 감사합니다.
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Thank you for the awesome recipe Maangchi! Here’s my first homemade tteokbokki right before it was done and topped with cheese! Next time I’ll make the tteok myself.
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Congratulations! Your tteokbokki looks wonderful!
This was a super easy recipe to follow and tastes great. I couldn’t find any large dried anchovies at my local Korean grocery so I went with a packaged dashi stock base. I am pleased with the way it turned out, better than the restaurant versions I’ve had.
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I have just made my first batch of tteokbokki and it is absolutely delicious. I didn’t have any fishcakes to add so instead I threw in a couple of handfuls of prawns, squid and mussels. This is sooooo savoury and I am pleased I was able to make the anchovy and kelp stock because it gives it a real depth of flavour. Nice and spicy too mmmmmmmmmmmm. Thank you so much for the recipe. I am so disappointed that my laptop will not let me upload the picture of it though unfortunately.
Your homemade tteokbokki sounds very delicious! Yes, a few dried anchovies will give a real depth of flavor! : )
i loved it!!☺️☺️
it was great and was perfectly balanced.
will definitely make again!!^^
note: I also made kimbap but it’s a little bit ugly
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Mouthwatering! The gimbap looks so delicious! Don’t say it’s a little bit ugly. : )
Hi Maangchi,
My husband and I moved from NY to Louisiana due to his work.
I used to be able to get rice cakes from H Mart but I can’t find any in Louisiana, Baton Rouge specifically.
Do you know of any online shops that carry them?
HMart unfortunately doesn’t ship to Louisiana for some reason.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you
Check out a list of Korean grocery stores in Baton Rouge, Louisiana here. https://www.maangchi.com/shopping/us/louisiana
Whenever I move or travel to a new place, the first thing I want to know about is where to find my Korean cooking ingredients. Good luck with finding rice cake! You can make your own rice cake, too. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/garaetteok/
Hi Shelly! Fellow Louisianian here. There are lots of really great Asian markets in Baton Rouge. They’re just hidden. There’s one off of Florida Boulevard called Asian Supermarket. They have a great collection of goodies to check out!
Amazing recipe as usual! Easy to cook and very delicious
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Easy & good. No modifications!
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Mouthwatering! I love that there is lots of broth in your tteokbokki!