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.
Buy this recipe's ingredients online
I really like Weee! they deliver quality packaged and fresh Korean ingredients to the continental USA. Cheaper and better than Amazon! Check them out!
i wonder how to cook the tteok become more bouncy or chewy? i had try the tteokpokki in korea, but the texture is so different i find in malaysia. =( hope to hear from you soon. thank you
Hi Maangchi!
So I was wondering, what can I substitute for the anchovies? and how can I make my tteokbokki a little less spicy? Thanks!
How about using a can of chicken or beef broth? And add less hot pepper paste or skip hot pepper flakes to make it less spicy. Good luck!
Its so delicious made it just now without hot pepper flakes cause i dun have them. But its verry spicy i couldn’t eat more than a few pieces, and my stomach is also feeling the sipcyness @@. any ideas how to make it less spicy?
I had been wanting to eat some Korean food especially Kimchi and this recipe. So, when
I came accross frozen rice cakes ( Korean brand) from one of the Asian stores here in Finland, I wanted to buy some but the Thai owner could not explain how to cook it.
And now that I saw your post explaining how to make Tteokbokki out of it, I would definitely go back there and try to cook my own Tteokbokki . I am sure my Finnish friends who like spicy food would love it.
It sounds like there are some Korean customers in the store because they sell Korean rice cake for tteokbokki!
Is this the grocery store where you shop? https://www.maangchi.com/shopping/finland
If not, please submit the store information. https://www.maangchi.com/shopping
Good luck with your Korean cooking!
Maangchi ssi!
I always make this dish right after I made myeolchi bokkeum. I even make my stock ahead and freeze them.
I was wondering, if I want to make rabokki when do I put in my ramyeon? After the tokpokki, eggs and fish cake absorb the sauce or together with the eggs & fish cake?
Kamsahamida,
Ima
Hi Ima,
Add ramyeon when the rice cake starts getting soft. Good luck!
I realized that I’ve never tried this new recipe!
Tonight Tteokbokki ! =)
Thanks for this new video! I was used to the older one with the Tteokbokki song ^^
Good luck with making good tteokbokki! “I was used to the older one with the Tteokbokki song” : )
This was very good!
Thank you,
Maangchi
Hey Mancha! Thanks for the recipe! Just wondering, how much many portions does this recipe make? I’m trying to make this for around 22 people.
This will serve 2 to 4 people.
Hi, Can i use without dried kelp to boil the soup?
yes, make stock with dried anchovies. It will still turn out delicious.
Hi Maangchi!
I found all the ingredients to make tteokbokki except dried anchovies. I bought anchovy dashida instead.
I was wondering how to use dashida here. First, how many teaspoon of dashida do I need to add to replace 7 large size dried anchovies ; secondly, do I also add the dried kelp or do I skip this part?
I saw you already reply partially :
“foodcop2014 :
Hi Maangchi!
Can anchovy stock (Dashida) be used instead of dried anchovies? If so, what is the appropriate amount?
Maangchi :
I don’t use anchovy or beef stock (dashida), but if I were you, I would add 2 teaspoons first and add more if it needs it.”
Is it always 2 teaspoons, what about kelp?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Bye!
Ok, boil water with dried kelp first and add dashida powder to your taste. The powder is salty.
I wish I read comment section, 1 day earlier, before I put whole 1 tablespoon of anchovy dashida :D
As the water evaporated, it was even saltier. It was still great for my kind husband’s taste, but it’s just too much for my own.
Plus, I think I made too much sauce. So, I add some more water, dried shitake, garlic and onion, and voilaaa….soondubu jjigae for dinner :D
I really love korean food and I’m a newbie. Btw, can you make a video how to make rabbokki? they are rice cake and ramyun.
Easy, add some ramyeon noodles when you add rice cake. You may have to add more water.
Hi Maangchi,
I cooked the topokki and i eat is quite soft but i left it around 30min it start will to become hard. is this normal?
Hi Fufu,
Yes it is normal for it to do that. It is important to keep it warm for the rice cakes to stay warm. If you are cooking it in advance, leave the pot lid on so it stays warm longer.
Hi Koralex90,
Thanks for the advice. Noted :)
hi maangchi!
my friend LOVES ddukbokki! but she can’t eat seafood D: is it okay if we leave out the anchovies? ;~;
love from
mop
How about using chicken broth instead of anchovy stock? The broth should be delicious because it makes ddeokbokki delicious.
Hi, Can i know how much ml of water you added in? I got alot of different size cup at home. haha. :)
My 1 cup is 240 ML, so you need 960 ML water. Good luck!
Thanks Maangchi! :)
Thanks! Sorry for the spelling mistakes on the last post! Doing this on my phone haha. Thanks again for all your amazing recipes!
Maangchi, I fell in love with your website when I was on a search for Korean recipes to try out, and I don’t know too much about the ingredients. I was wondering what brand of gochujang you recommend? I really like the sweetness in ddukbokki as well as the hotness of it. Please help!
I don’t have a particular brand that I prefer. It’s all good. Check this out, please: https://www.maangchi.com/guide/essential-ingredients
Hi Maangchi,
I recently tried using this recipe but I noticed a few things wrong with my rice cakes. The water wasn’t very consistent it was just pure liquid and the rice cakes didn’t soak up a lot of the gochujang how can i fix this??
Thanks in advance
“… the rice cakes didn’t soak up a lot of the gochujang how can i fix this” Cook longer then. Starch from the rice cake will make the broth thicker. You may have to add more water. Good luck!
Hi Maangchi,
I bought a pack of rice cake from the Asian Supermarket which consists of individually frozen rice cakes (which does not require separation but just defrosting). On my first attempt I defrosted the rice cakes in warm water but the rice cake broke into strands at the ends. The 2nd time I defrosted it in just cool tap water but the same happened. It makes it really difficult for me to cook the rice cakes in the red pepper paste as it goes soggy and loses it’s cylinder shape the moment I defrost it. Can you advise me on that? Thanks!
I had that happen. I defrost the rice cakes in the refrigerator overnight (without water) and that solved the problem. It seems that the rice cake requires slow defrosting.
hi maangchi…
try to check out for ‘laksam’ in the web since i find the rice cake is quite similar to ‘laksam’ in our country…the ingredients to make them is quite similar, wow…this is amazing…that is why i really love to cook…..just by the dish we can learn everything including culture!!!!
please cook more mangchi!!!!!!!! love your recipes
owh , maangchi,
can we fried the hard boiled egg first before putting in …and, can we grilled the rice cakes first to have a smoky taste?
hi maangchi,
can we use other dried fish since i am allergic to anchovies, ??? tuna maybe? or other dried things,…
then, can we use dried fruits such as apricots too? just to add the texture ^.^
Maangchi, this is the very first recipe I tried after I found your video on YouTube a few weeks ago. It was the best ddukbokkie I’ve ever tasted. I’ve made a lot of different ddukbokkie before, but never used anchovies or kelp (I’m a very bad Korean), and had no idea that made a world of difference. Also, I learned the proper cooking time in order to get that sticky and shiny consistency and the look by watching your video. You are inspirational. Thank you so much!!!
You got it! I don’t make ddeokbokki if my dried anchovies run out. Cheers!
Hey Maangchi!
I love to cook your recipes and my Korean Teacher is always happy when I bring something I made to the lesson in a Dosirak haha.
I also take care of the Korean exchange students and everytime they feel homesick, I cook for them. Last time I made Ddeokbokki and they were all so happy! They even said I need to marry a Korean man who can appreciate my cooking skills haha!
Thank you for your videos :)
“they even said I need to marry a Korean man who can appreciate my cooking skills..” That’s right! : )
I think the Korean exchange students are very lucky because you cook real hearty food for them.
I am going to try this soon! Just copied down the recipe. Thanks so much!
Yummy! I love eating this!
Hi, Maangchi.
I’m using kelp in fiber instead of sheet shape.
Than how much the dose I should add in for the fiber please?
I think 1/2 cup will be good enough. Good luck.
Hey Maangchi! I love your recipes! I was wondering if the ddukbokki would be could stored in the refrigerator and then reheated the next day. if so how should i rewheat it? in the microwave?-+
I wish I could say, yes! ; ) But I don’t think ddeokbokki from the fridge is very tasty. Best thing is to make it right before serving, otherwise the rice cake will swell and it will lose its chewy texture.
Hi Maangchi.. i was just wondering how do you store dried kelp? can i put it in the fridge?
Thanks.
I keep it in my pantry. You won’t need to refrigerate or freeze it.
Hello Maangchi! I’m going on a short trip soon and would like to know if this is still good when cold. Thanks!
no, I never like cold ddeokbokki. When you are ready to eat it, start making ddeokbokki.
haaaaay may i ask about something
can i replace dried anchovies and dried kelp with fish suce?
and about the rice cake what kind of rice flower is this is it egyption rice flower or another kind ?
Fish sauce will make your ddeokbokki too salty. Use chicken or beef broth if anchovy stock is not available.
This recipe was the best I found so far for ddeokbokkie, but the first time I made this, it was so spicy!! So I made a few adjustments:
-no kelp in the anchovie mixture
-two tablespoon of honey instead of sugar
-one tablespoon only of red pepper paste
after that it came out sweet and spicy and was delicious! my whole family loved it, thank you Maangchi! ^^
Your adjustment sounds awesome!
Thank you sooo much for showing how to make 떡볶이!! (^_^)
It’s very delicious!! Thank you! 😃
yummy! : )
Today I fixed Ddeokbokki for the first time 4 servings easily I froze 2 servings.
Finally, made it downtown this morning to the biggest Korean market ever ASSI, it was a one stop shop.
I reviewed this dish so many times when saw fish cakes I decided to make it today.
As I looked through the fish cakes OH MY so many types, I saw this case I could sm..e..ll the fried-ness of the fish cake ;-D I bought the long type fried fish cakes like you stated the rice cakes and the fish caked absorbed the sauce, only thing I was concerned about how fishy will the fish cakes be? I gotta try it, it smelled too good through the packaging!
I watched your Ddeokbokki video as I mixed the ingredients. I didn’t want to screw this dish up ;-D Only thing I sub out was the anchovies I used some fish sauce from Thailand I used a little extra fish sauce. It worked and the dish was very, very tasty so good!!
So for dinner today was all Korean ;-D
Roasted pork belly w/crispy skin (my goodness)
Ddeokbokki (mild spicy…hubby can’t handle the heat like me)
Stuffed Persian Kim chi cucumbers (I made couple weeks ago
lettuces and homemade Ssamjang
What a wonderful tasting Korean Dinner….On a Sunday at home!
Thanks for sharing
Maangchi ♥
Thank you for your nice message! Cheers! : )
a…h thank you I love watching you on video you make cooking Korean fun. I enjoy shopping for the items. I found a Korean grill like yours I so jazzed going to use it
on our first summer picnic ;-D Thank you so much for sharing your recipes.
I will purchase your cook book for sure!!
Thank you Maangchi!!
” I enjoy shopping for the items.” haha so do I! I love to shop groceries wherever I go.
Thank you so much !
First time I cook it but what a surprise : it is wonderderfull
With adding some ingredients it makes it become as good as when I test in some restaurants
You are my heros <3
I cooked it for French guys, Corean and Chinese … they all loved it
I’m glad to hear that your ddeokbokki turned out great! Happy cooking!
Yes, but the hardest part is to make is to make the garaeddeok.
My friend tryed with your recipe but the garaeddeok turned farinaceous when cooking and we don’t know why ^^
I would pound the rice cake dough more.
Hi Maangchi!
I’ve been watching your videos for a bit but this is the first one I’ve made, and BOY was it amazing!!! I did make the broth with the kelp and anchovies and it really added a complementary fishy/salty undertones to the sweet/spicy from the gochujang. I also added a small splash of soy sauce, but I’m not sure if it really added anything to the dish.
Extremely satisfying, 5/5, can’t wait to make again!
Thanks from Texas
oh, you were one of my tons of silent readers! : )
I’m so happy to hear that you like the broth. 5/5 ow ow!
Hi maanghi!!
Can i use Hot pepper powder instead of hot pepper flakes??
And instead of Tube-shaped rice cake can i use Sliced rice cake??
Yes, you can use hot pepper powder for this recipe. And also you can make ddeokbokki with sliced rice cake, too. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/sliced-rice-cake
hi maangchi! maybe i can substitute the anchovy with anchovy stock powder? :) btw, do you know a dish called tteokkochi ? somehow i cannot find any of this in korean restaurant here and only can find it in indonesia, and i very curios is this dish really exist or indonesian just made up the dish. so i want to ask you about that, master! ;3 thankyouu ^^
yes, you can use anchovy stock powder. Tteokkkochi, sure it’s included in the list of my upcoming recipes. Meanwhile search the recipe on the internet.