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 tteokbokki and just kept stirring and stirring it, making it more and more delicious over time. We would stop by and they would give us a small paper cup of spicy rice cakes dripping the spicy, slightly sweet sauce for a very reasonable price that any student could afford. We just couldn’t resist it! The sauce is fiery hot and a little sweet, and the rice cakes don’t have much taste but they are a little soft and a little gooey.
For a lot of my readers who’ve never had it before, it looks like pasta in tomato sauce, but it doesn’t taste like that at all.
When I lived in Korea I learned the secret to making good tteokbokki from a famous place in the 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 prepared it right in front of us, so I saw she first made an anchovy stock from dried anchovies. I made tteokbokki at home and found it made a huge difference in flavor. 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 the Romanized English spellings of tteokbokki (떡볶이): ddeokbokki, dukbokki, tteok-bokki and on and on. A few years ago the Korean government tried to standardize the name as “topokki” and even asked me to change it everywhere on my website! It just sounded weird to me so I never did it. How do you pronounce it? The first two t’s are a hard t, and the eo sounds more like a u.
There are also many variations of the tteokbokki recipe too: some people add dumplings (mandu), some add cabbage, cheese (mozzarella cheese seems popular), or ramen noodles. Creamy, saucy rosé tteokbokki was popular for a while, and a few hundred years ago the Korean royal court enjoyed nonspicy, soy sauce based gungjung tteokbokki. This version below of the spicy Korean rice cakes is an authentic classic and my favorite. Everyone loves it, so let’s make tteokbokki!
Ingredients
- 1 pound of cylinder shaped rice cake (tteok), fresh or frozen, 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
Cook time: 15mins for the anchovy broth and 10-15mins for tteokbokki
- 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 spicy mixture in the bowl, the green onion, and the optional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs. The stock will be about 2½ cups.
- When it starts to boil, stir gently with a wooden spoon. Let it simmer and keep stirring it until the rice cake turns soft and the sauce thickens and looks shiny. It should take about 10 to 15 minutes. If the rice cake is not soft enough in that time, add more water and continue stirring until it softens. Freshly made rice cakes will soften faster so if you use frozen rice cakes, thaw them out and soak them in cold water first, to soften them up before cooking with them.
- Remove from the heat and serve hot. If you have any leftovers, keep them in the fridge and reheat them when you want to eat. They won’t be as good as when you first made them, but not bad. You should finished them in a few days, but it’s best to eat them all at once right after you make them.
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chelia,
yes, dried anchovies are very important for this simple dish. Thank you for your update.
i love love your ddukbokkieee recipe, i made it the other day with an additional fish cake. tasteee so yummm. i used to eat these when i was in college, my korean friend like to cooked it in the dormitory pantry and share it with me. heuhuheue but your recipe taste nicer, i guess maybe because of the anchovies :) thx maaangchii..
Miriam,
You should cook beef first and then add other ingredients. Check out the written recipe. Thanks,!
Hi Maangchi!
I love your site! I am from San Francisco and found your site from the iTunes podcasts. I also love Korean food. I’ve been just looking and bookmarked a couple pages to make for my boyfriend! He loves spicy food too! I have a question about the ddukbokkie. If I want to make the spicy version when do I add meat? Also how did you clean the anchovies? Did you just rip off the heads?
Thank you very much! Keep up the great work!
Miriam
Sophia,
Sure, why not? As long as you like the taste, it will be good!
Personally I like my simple dduk bok kie recipe though.
hi maangchi
i love this dish! i made it before and ate the whole thing myself. no one in my family understands why i am so obsessed with korean food (and dramas ^.^). i was wondering – if i wanted to add seafood or beef, when would i add it? thank you!
Hi,anonymous,
yes, uh muk is fish cake. Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
떡볶이 is so yummy.I was wondering is 어묵 fish cake? I usually make 떡볶이 without it, but I had it with at a friend’s house and it tasted good.
너의 요리법을 많이 좋아해요~ ^^ 화이팅!
Hi maangchi!!!
Thank u so much for ur recipe. I really love korean food.
ddukbokkie is my fav korean food. ^^i will make ddukbokkie with ur recipe on frd gathering party which is on next sunday!!! :))
Again, thx a lot.
Dear, Kim,
If you don’t like to add any sugar, skip it. It would not matter what it is supposed to taste.
Hi, I’ve just made ddukbokkie today using your recipe. I’ve never had it before so I’m not sure how it’s supposed to taste like. It is hot, and spicy, but it is also sweet? I’m not too fond of the sweetness, so I’m asking if it’s supposed to be sweet ( I think I even put less than 1 tablespoon of sugar) Thanks!!!
Hi,stephie,
I would thaw and soak it in water until you can split each piece easily. Thanks,
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks for the recipes~~~
i was just wondering the rice cakes i buy here are frozen so do i boil them first or soak them or just thaw them (will they stick) because it is really difficult to separate them.
THANKS!! :)
Anonymous,
Mandu! ok!
Hi Maangchi,
Have tried many of your recipes and they are really delicious.
By the way, my husband is crazy for Mandu. Can you teach us how to make Kimchi Mandu??
Thanks in advance.
Pei Qin,
Andong jjimdak (Andong style chicken dish), your request will be included in the list of my upcoming cooking videos. thank you for your interest in my recipe.
Hi! I’m not sure where to post my question but I’ll like to learn how to cook andong jimddak! I ate once near a eatery near Dong-A University and i really miss it!
Jennifer,
Ok,Heavenlypurple1, I will remember it. : )
I think it’s Yak gwa, made with sweet rice powder, honey, etc.
It’s deep fried food over low heat.
One of my Canadian friends who used to teach English in Korea loves it, too.
Hi Maangchi,
It’s me Jennifer again lol
I was wondering what is good recipe for something. I don’t know the korean name for it. It’s almost like a donut. I use to get it all the time at the korean store. I think it’s made from rice flour dough ? PS my name on youtube is Heavenlypurple1 so if you see any messages you know that it is me.
가루찹쌀 means sweet rice flour, so you can make “gyung dan” with it.
For Ddukbokkie, you have to find right rice cake. Please check out my “ingredients” and see what it looks like. Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
hi maangchi,
thanks for all the recipe and especially the video how to make.it helped me a lot bec i’m not a good cook and it is very difficult without someone showing it.
AND is it possible to make the rice cake(for ddukbokkie) by myself bec it is hard to find that.i have bought this flour called 가루찹쌀 but i can’t read it how to make.
thanks
Hi maangchi,i just finish made the kimchi,i m not sure how the taste yet. btw how should i keep the kimchi paste if i have made to much of the paste for the kimchi,the size of the cup i use is abt (height) 10 cm, so as a result extra paste for two cabbage.can i just keep it in fridge and continue tomorrow?besides,based on your video,1/2 cup of sweet rice flour require 1 cup of fish taste, i just follow the quantity but using my cup to measure it, is it ok with this ?
Welcome, G!
It’s wonderful! You can cook your own Korean food now. Let me know how it goes.
Hi Maangchi,
I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your site and videos! I’ve been wanting to learn how to make some Korean staples (such as soon dubu chigae and ddukbookie, for starters) for a very long time! And, since I can’t ask my mother to make everything I want to learn how to make, this is the best solution!
I just wish I could get Korean ingredients easily…I live in a part of France that’s not very racially diverse…but I still love it :)
Thanks again!
-G.
Jo Rose,
Please send me the picture of the dish that your friend took. I would like to see it. : )
Hi Maangchi!
I didn’t know it’s rice cake until now. :) I ate them once in a little eatery on the way back to Seoul from a pottery shopping with my Aunt. I can still remember it was raining a bit then so it was nice to hear you say that it’s good to eat it when it’s raining. :)
Oh, you know what, I tried cooking the bibimbap but I didn’t have the kosari available. It still tasted good though. We also had to cook a bit of the garlic since we know it will taste a bit spicy if we don’t. My housemate took pictures of it.
I’m going to try cooking another dish soon since my mouth gets watery every time I watch the podcasts.
Thanks for your show!
Best Regards,
Jo Rose
I made these and they were great! So simple and easy for a light snack or lunch. Are these ever served with fish or meat to make them more of a meal?
Thanks for the handy new recipe!
Thank you very much for your update!
hi maangchi! i tried your recipe, it was good! thanks a lot! :)
Hi,goblinlord,
It’s a good question! Yes, you can cook Ddeuk and fish cake together when you make dduk bokkie. I would suggest adding fish cake with dduk at the same time.
Wow, songpyun! I envy you now because you seem to taste the best songpyun in your friend’s house.
The sweet stuff in the songpyun could be made with sesame seeds powder and sugar, or beans with sugar. We usually use brown sugar for it.
Thank you!
Hi Maangchi ^-^,
My best friend in Korea who was a KATUSA in the Korean military made me ddukbokkie once. I seem to remember him making it with fish cakes in it. Do you know if you would put them in early with the ddok or latter after it is almost finished?
Also, I was wondering what exactly is the sweet stuff in Seongpyun? I went to spend Chu’sok with my friends family (the same one mentioned above) and they had Seongpyun there. It had to be the best rice cake treat I had ever had.
pilseung,
1 TBS of dried anchovy powder will be enough.
Hello maangchi,
is it okay to make it with powdered myeol chi? if so how much should i put?
Hi,Lillian,
good to hear from you again.
If you take ddukbokkie to your party, it will be very popular to koreans.
Thanks,
Oooh, I think I had these at a potluck! There were a number of Koreans there, and so much food I couldn’t keep track of who brought what. The dukbokkie were very popular–I think made with mussels in a slightly spicy sauce. I’ll have to try this one when I’m back near a Korean grocery store (I’ll be moving in December). Thanks again Maangchi, and thanks for the blog comments!