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, I tried this recipe for the first time today and some how managed to screw it up very badly with the taste, I added a bit of salt and lemon pepper and that fixed it super quickly,
This dish is so foolproof, and if you do manage to mess up like me it’s super easy to fix!
Thank you so much for your great recipes Maangchi!
I just got all the ingredients for this dish and I’m super excited to make it and taste it! :D
We just made this today and it was awesome! Didn’t have anchovies so I used Hondashi powder. I used half the amount of pepper flakes and paste since I’m not used to spice anymore and it was perfect! The rice cakes have such a nice chew and the sauce was sooooo yummy! You could cook anything in this sauce and it would be amazing.
I found you and this recipe about three years ago and I can’t even explain how much we LOVE Ttbeokbokki and your recipe! My daughter and I make this at least twice a month! We are very fortunate that there is a Lotte Market in Orlando to do all of our Korean shopping at!
Thank you Maangchi!
Tteokbokki with rice! I’ve never thought about the idea, but it looks great!
Do you add frozen rice cakes straight into the pot or do you have to thaw it out first?
I thaw it out first in the fridge and soak it in cold water for about 20 to 30 minutes before using.
It came out with such a perfect flavour! It’s almost too easy for how delicious it is, haha. Thank you maangchi!
Congratulations! It looks very tasty!
I’m going to try this today. I own your three recipes books (in one volume for my Kindle), but I couldn’t find this recipe in there. Did I miss it? I am subscribed and watch your YouTube videos all the time and totally enjoy watching you–so fun! My favorite is Korean pancakes; I’m an expert in them now. :-) Many thanks.
Maangchi, I am so happy about this recipe. I made my way across town to get the ingredients and did half the recipe. This is a thousand times better than the one I get at Bonchon. (Sorry Bonchon!) I put some cheese on top and I think I will have to half the half recipe I made because it was ALOT! But so delicious, thank you!
Is there substitute for gochujang? There’s no korean grocery store in my town and would need to wait for another months if I want to make it
Merci Maangchi, j’adooooore. I don’t eat Gluten and this recipe is so delicious and perfect!
Many kisses from France
Oh my, chewy rice cakes cooked in a spicy and savory broth! They look wonderful!
Hello, I’m also from France but I can’t seem to find dried anchovies. Can you tell where you found them?
I absolutely loved the sauce mix ratio for this one! I used it to make 라볶이 and it was so good!
It looks great!
Why going to restaurants again when you can cook tteokbokki at home??? So delicious, thank you!!
I love your tteokbokki, very brothy!
I made this after a long week at work and it put me in a great mood. Next time I want to try to make my own rice cakes. :D
Hi,maangchi I love your recipes especially tteokbokki and I plan on making it tomorrow but I just wanted to ask, is there any other substitute that I can use instead of anchovies? Also is it an essential element to the dish?
Don’t thaw your rice cakes! Cook them frozen and they won’t split! I like to add shredded cabbage and small diced shitake mushroom, (I don’t use meat or fish, like some recipes) and if you throw a few small cubes of sharp cheddar in the bottom of your bowl before serving, you won’t regret it.
I’ve made this recipe three times, twice with the home-made stock and once with chicken broth. Perfect! I’m making this again for Thanksgiving (We’re having international thanksgiving) and I’m sure the family will love it.
How did your Thanksgiving tteokbokki turn out?
Hi Mangchi! I love your videos, your recipes. Today again with my friend I made your spicy rice cakes! Like always it’s sooooo delicious. Thank you for your hard work, for your recipes, for your smile! Love from Poland
While thawing my rice cakes from Frozen they all split in half. What did I do wrong?
same problem here
Me too :(
Can we boil it directly when it’s frozen?
Yes you should cook from frozen…!
Hi!! Just wondering can I swap kelp & anchovies broth to chicken broth?
Yes, you can use chicken broth, too.
Maangchi, mine never seems to thicken. Do store bought rice cakes affect it?
If you keep cooking and stirring the rice cake, the broth will thicken.
I made the best rice cakes ever I made the dough and I made the sauce
What do you think?!
Wow it’s amazing! Mouthwatering!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I had this dish at a Korean restaurant on my 20th birthday and LOVED it. Thankfully I live near a Korean supermarket so I can get all the right ingredients and cook it up. VERY spicy but worth all the flavor!!
I LOVE THIS RECIPE. I used my rich chicken broth with some fish sauce added, I also added thick bacon pieces and chunks of cabbage along with rice cakes and hard boiled eggs.I will be making this often. Oh man this is wonderful stuff! Thank you maangchi
How many servings is this recipe?
Thanks!
Hii!! I really love this recipe, but the sause is too spicy for others(im okay with spicy food) i try to add more sugar but the spiciness is still and the sauce become too sweet is there any other way to make it less spicy? Thank you
Hi Nadhi! I would leave out the red pepper flakes.
Hi, is there any way at all I can make this without the fish and kelp? I’d love to try this dish, but I can’t really get a hold of those here.
Looks delicious though!
You can use hondashi which is fish stock powdered Japanese fish stock. I fish a lot so I use fish bones to make my own dashi and freeze them. For the kelp again you can just buy kombu which is kelp. If you live near a beach and the water is clean you can harvest your own kelp (bull kelp, giant kelp, brown kelp) wash it clean then just dry it out and you get kombu. Don’t harvest kelp unless you know what you’re doing.
Hi dear maangchi
Can i change dried kelp (다시마) with seaweed( 미역) for broth?!
I ♡ seaweed and kelp but i can’t found kelp but i have 미역
How about other recipe? Can i change?
No, they are different, and we don’t use miyeok for stock making. If you can’t find dashima, just skip it and use dried anchovies. It will still turn out delicious. I sometimes skip dried kelp when I make tteokbokki but I never skip dried anchovies.
Thank you my dear♡♡♡
Oh my lord I love this recipe, I made it a couple times but without green onions only because Im allergic and it was still quite amazing. Thank you maangchi!!!!
Your recipe was amazingly perfect! I tried making this for the first time ever and it tasted exactly like the ones I used to buy at the food stalls in Seoul. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
It looks perfect!
Eating this now for lunch, thank you maangchi, spicy!
Oh, five eggs! So you share this with 5 people? It’s a spicy food party!
Maanchi, This is so very tasty. My rice cake did not turn out but this sauce — I can not get enough! on everything! So delicious! Thank you for your time and dedication!
Hi! Thank you for the recipe. I made this yesterday ^^ simple but delicious
It looks amazing and delicious!
Here it is!
Wow, mouthwatering!
Hi Maangchi!
I have followed your recipes going on 5 years now but just now decided to make an account! My husband is korean and I’m Laos. He is always requesting korean dishes and I’m always seeking to continuously impress my mother in law. Your dishes are so awesome and your videos have taught me so much! I made this tonight for the first time at my husband request and used your from scratch rice cake recipe as well. I hit it out the park! This is so yummy! And so easy to make! I usually don’t nail it on my first try and I was impressed with myself. I saved some to bring to my mother in laws house tomorrow along with your seasoned cuttlefish, gimbap, and seasoned dried anchovies. Thank you so much for all you have taught me and continue to teach me. If you are ever in the Columbus, Georgia or Atlanta area I would love to meet you!
Happy cooking,
Catie
:)
Hi Catie!
I’m so happy to hear that your Korean cooking seems to go well!
Your in-laws and your Korean husband will love you because you’re learning Korean cooking and culture!
Hi Maangchi. You are my inspiration when it comes to cooking Korean dishes. i just want to ask you can i just use any dried anchovies or there is any particular brand that you can suggest? More power :)
The anchovies should be large sized (at least 3 inches long). Tiny anchovies don’t have enough flavor. There is no particular brand to get, just make sure they are the right size!