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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Hi maangchi, good night.. I really like your recipes.. And I always watch you in your video really inspiration. .. I wanna make this toekbokki but in my house doesn’t have oven to make garaeddeok, and in my village is really hard to find gachugaru and gachujang, what is your tip to solve this problem. . Thanks maangchi.. Always success.. .사랑합니다
Hi Maangchi.
I really want to try out this recipe but i’m having trouble gathering ingredients.
Can I use something else to replace the kelp?
Yes, you can skip dried kelp but don’t skip dried anchovies. To make delicious tteokbokki, the broth should be delicious. Good luck!
I bought rice cakes from my local Asian Market. The instructions said to soak them in water for 12 hours. after 12 hours they were still hard as rocks. I kept them in for 2 days. still hard. Please help.
Wow it sounds like the rice cakes dried as hard as rocks!
Boil them until softer, then.
I’m going to make this for dinner tonight! I hope it will turns out yummy :) I have to improvise tho because I don’t have dried kelp and dried anchovies at the moment :(
I tried this recipe and it was delicious. Since anchovy that size is so hard to find, I replaced it with anchovy cube.
Thank you for sharing delicious Korean recipes to us. I have tried a few and I will try more of your recipes.
So I bought rice cakes from the store but unfortunately I put them in the refrigerator overnight and now they are hard. Can they be recovered??? TIA :)
Soak the rice cake in cold water until it get soft and cook. Good luck!
Hi Maangi,
I’ve FINALLY tried korean recipes!!! I just finished making Tteokbokki and i have to say i’m really disappointed :(. I think it’s really not my taste. I’m a really good cook that i know. So i know my recipe was exactly like it was supposed to be. I did and put everything exept the fish cake (i replaced it with ramyun) but other than that everything was there and my ingredient are from a really good korean grocery store. BUT i have a few rice cake left so i will try making one to my taste even do it will not be the authentic recipe. It was WAYYYY to spicy and fishy for me lol.
P.s. I made tonbaechu kimchi and Kkakdugi kimchi today. That i think i like lol :P. i’m waiting 1 day for the fermentation i hope i will still like it.
Keep up the good work :)
I also don’t like a fishy taste so i just used 3 dried anchovies instead of 7 and didn’t include the fishcakes and it was really tasty. It didn’t taste of fish in any way, so maybe you should try it that way ;)
thank u maangchi…ur recepies are so good and nice….thank u so much….
I made this today for my son and I. My son loves eating ramen so I added that in with the dduck and he loved it. I also used chicken broth instead which turned out great. Thanks Maangchi!
I made this for my non Korean friends. And they said the texture was a little weird for them and that something crunchy added to it would be good. Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Hey Maangchi! I wanted to make tteokbokki for me and my boyfriend, but I wanted it to be done by the time I go to his home! Is it ok to cook it, then reheat it? Or should I cook it right before and keep it in a thermos until we eat it?
I’m sorry to say that you need to make tteokbokki right before serving. Otherwise, the rice cake will turn soggy and not tasty.
Hi maangchi! I just wanted to ask if we can replace the dried kelp with dried seaweed? the one we use to make kimbap instead
also, if i liked it to be a bit spicy, can i add more gochugaru or gochujang?
You can skip dried kelp if it’s not available but be sure to use dried anchovies to make good stock. And add more gochujang (hot pepper paste) or gochugaru (hot pepper flakes) depending on your taste. Good luck!
Hey please help me I forgot to buy the hot pepper paste…will it be OK without it or can I put something else?
Hot pepper paste is an essential ingredient in this recipe. I would wait until I get the ingredient. Happy cooking!
Hi…I already made the rice cakes yesterday and froze it…is it ok to just take it out and fry it or do I have to keep it for a while outside? Thank you
Hi! I am still 13 years old and I love cooking so here I am learning Korean Dishes but the problem is I am the one who pays for my own ingredients where in I don’t save that much to buy some ingredients that are also hard to find in my place so I am asking some questions..
Can I not use Red pepper paste, Flakes and Kelp?
red pepper paste is imp for this dish and u can leave the kelp but not the anchovy
OMG! I’m also 13 years old. But my only problem is I have no time to sneak into our kitchen. My parents won’t allow me to cook.
I know that’s horrible. TT_TT
can i add meat to this? if so what type would you see fit
can you substitute the kelp for anything else?
You can skip dried kelp and use only dried anchovies to make good stock.
i read i previous comment concerning the dried anchovy. will it taste similar it i just only use chicken broth?
i mean, you said the the dried kelp can be substituted with chicken broth. can i use anything else for the anchovies. sorry for the confusion
Hi Maangchi,
Are the measurements you use for your recipes, such as cup and tablespoon, American measurements? I am asking because such measurements differ around the world. For example, an Australian cup is 250mL and I believe the American cup is 240mL. If so, where do I find the conversions of these measurements into millilitres/grams?
Thank you!!!
Yes, my 1 cup is 240 ML. I bought it at IKEA in USA.
Hello Maangchi!
I really would like to thank you for all the recipes on your website! I am a Filipina and married to a korean guy. My husband thought that I bought a ddukbokkie last night~ but the truth is I just followed your recipe~~ it was so yummy!!!!
“My husband thought that I bought a ddukbokkie last night~ ” haha, I’m so happy to hear that. Now you can make yummy yummy tteokbokki very easily.
hi,maangchi mam i want to make Tteokbokki but i cant make rice balls as the rice flour is not available here so is there any other ingredeant that i can use insted of it. and i also cant get kelp so what shoud i do
Hi Maangchi, I couldn’t find hot pepper flakes in the supermarket and I’ll be making tteokbokki without the hot pepper flakes tomorrow, will it be alright? :) I hope you’ll reply to this because it’s urgent! Thanks~
Yes, you can make good tteokbokki without hot pepper flakes. Yum!
Hey maangchi, thanks for replying! I made these this morning and they turned out to be TOOOOO salty. I didn’t add any salt at all, what do you think may be the problem?
Hi Maangchi, Do you think it will be a good idea if I substitute Dried Anchovies with Dried Shrimps? Will it make any significant difference?
Yeah, I wouldn’t use dried shrimp. How about chicken or beef broth?
oh, I might try chicken broth then. Thanks Maangchi <3
Maangchi, what a great recipe once again!! I looked through the comment thread and didn’t see a mention of Sindang-dong Tteokbokki Town which is located in Seoul. This cool little street has some great little restaurants that serve Tteokbokki on steroids!! My wife and I have had Tteokbokki all over the city but this version is our favorite. If you ever go to Seoul, you must visit Sindang Tteokbokki Town! Here is a link to the Seoul City Tourist site that gives the reader a good overview of this area:
http://www.visitseoul.net/en/article/article.do?_method=view&art_id=48680&lang=en&m=0004025001002&p=01
We are going to make your version of tteokbokki with the addition of all the ingredients used in the Sindang-style tteokbokki: ramen, mandu, eomuk, jjolmyeon and of course, boiled egg and lots of tteok. We will let you know how it turns out!
Hi Maangchi! I made this for the first time and it’s awesome! I made too much so I refrigerated and heated them up the next day, and the rice cakes were still chewy and tasty – I think it’s because I used store-bought ones which are firmer. I did tweak your recipe a bit. It was a bit sweet so I added a touch of rice vinegar: http://danandesther.tumblr.com/post/98694681304/recipe-korean-rice-cakes-tteokbokki
Hi Estar, I make tteokbokki right before serving, but it sounds like it’s ok for you. As long as you like it, I’m happy to hear that.
I’ve made this once already and preparing to make it again! I substituted some fish sauce for the anchovies, though. Thank you so much, you’ve helped me to impress my Korean friends! :D
Hi maangchi i love love love all your recipes but can i replace the anchovie stock for chicken broth, beef broth, etc. if you can what are the measurments same thing or not. And also what do you do with it boil it for 20 minutes or just heat it up? Please answer me!
Yes, use about 2 1/2 cups to 3 cups chicken or beef broth and just heat it up and make tteokbokki. You don’t need to boil it. good luck!
hi i wanna ask what should i do if i haven’t got that dried anchovies the caned one in oil is available ??
and can i replace the paper paste with tomato sauce or hot ketchup ??
bebes, use chicken or beef broth. It will turn out good.
Hi Maangchi! I was wondering if I were to use chicken broth, how would I use it? Would I boil the broth with kelp then the rick stick, then the rest of the ingredients? Please answer me.
If you want to use chicken or beef stock, bring 2 ½ cups of unsalted broth to a boil (skip the kelp and anchovies and skip steps 1 and 2) and then add it to step 3. The rest of the recipe is the same.
Thank You Maangchi!
Hi Maangchi… I want to try to make your Tteokbokki… But before that, i wish to know that is kelp and kombu the same thing? If both of them are different things, can I replace kelp by using kombu? Thank you.
Yes it is the same thing. You can just search it up first on google like i did. Kombu is kelp
Hi maangchi! I’m your huge fan :) always look up to your recipes whenever I wanna cook Korean food :) Thanks for sharing all those awesome recipes! Anyway, I wanna ask u regarding gochujang. The one i just bought says it contains 6% orion, which is the DS Sunchang Gochujang. Do you have any idea what that is? Coz i’m afraid that it is not halal. Look forward for your reply and Thanks in advance!
So i’ve made ddukbokkie with a pre made packaged sauce, and it was really sweet, i don’t remember what brand it was, but now i’m ready to make my own sauce, and was just wondering is the tablespoon of sugar was really needed, or could i do less? And, whats a good replacement for the anchovies, dried kelp and fish cakes? i have someone who has allergies to sea food, but i want to share this great dish with them.
Please help~
“wondering is the tablespoon of sugar was really needed, or could i do less?”
of course, you can use less sugar or even no sugar. It’s up to your taste.
” whats a good replacement for the anchovies, dried kelp and fish cakes?”
How about using chicken broth?
Many many thanks! I’ll try it with chicken broth~ Very much appreciated for the suggestions~ xD
Dear Maanghi,I hope you’re doing good.I did my own “garatteok” the other day and they turned out fine.Chewy and elastic.I put them in the freezer.But when I tried making tteokbokki yesterday,the rice cakes became really soggy and mushy.Where did I go wrong?I used sushi rice and soaked it for 12 hours and grind them the next day.Please help me :(
“the rice cakes became really soggy and mushy”
I think the rice cake was not made chewy enough. You used short grain rice, so I think you needed to pound the rice cake longer. It’s difficult to pound it, right? But that’s the way of making chewy rice cake. Pound the rice cake dough when it’s still hot. Sprinkle some cold water and sesame oil to stop the dough from sticking to mortar and pestle.
Can i use Chinese red pepper flakes
MAANGCHI! I just made the dukbokkie and it turned out awesome! Everything I’ve made from you has turned out great! I made Hottoek and everyone liked it so now I make it as much as possible since it’s so easy!
I look forward to more great recipes!!!
Cheers from Montreal, Canada!
Great! Keep cooking and good luck to you!
hi, maangchi…
thanks for these amazing posts.
i have a question… there is no Korean stores around here. i can provide the other ingredients somehow. but is there any substitute for “kelp”??? please tell me there is!!
thanks in advance
You can skip dried kelp. There is no substitution for it. When you make spicy rice cake, you can use only dried anchovies to make good broth or use chicken broth. Happy cooking!
You can use a bit of MSG in place of the kelp.
Hello Miss Maangchi! I made the spicy ddukbokki just now and it was sooooo good and spicy.My husband said it was good too.I am so really grateful for all your recipes.I been a fan of Korean dramas since 7 yrs ago.My dreamed is to go to Korea and meeting wonderful Korean people.I.’m from Philippines and live in florida right now.Thank you again! By the way I’m a fan of JYJ boy band singers.My dreamed is to meet them.
Hi I’m happy to hear that you and your husband like my spicy rice cake recipe! It sounds like you are falling in love with Korean food and Korean culture! I hope your dream comes true soon!
Hello! I was wondering if the tteokbokki sauce is supposed to be a little sour? I cooked it for the first time today and it was good. Also, can I put the tteokbokki in the fridge and eat it tomorrow? Or does it have to be finished in one day? I made too large of a portion by accident…
Best thing is to make it right before serving, otherwise the rice cake will turn soggy and it will lose its chewy texture.
True my mom told me that