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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samita,
You can keep the leftover rice cake in the freezer and use it later. Or bake it in the oven and dip it in honey which will be delicious snack.
Or when you make any stew, add the rice cake.
I bought the tube rice cakes for ddukbokkie. I have a bunch left that I am not sure what to do with. Can I use them to make the rice cake soup ? Is there any difference between the tubular rice cakes and the sliced rice cakes ?
Hi Maangchi’
gooeyj,
You can get the tube shape rice cake at any Korean grocery stores. When I made this video, I lived in Canada, so I bought it in a grocery store in Toronto.
I love your site… Can you please tell me where you bought the rice cake. I have been trying to find that shape. I live in NYC too ^___^ Thank you
hilzz,
Check the ingredient section on my website here,
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/hot-pepper-paste-gochujang
can i use red chilli paste?
what kind of hot pepper paste u use?
Mostly supermarkets sell chilli paste(with or without vinegar) can i use that?
Takuma,
You can make it but dried anchovies are very important ingredient for me though. I hope your ddukbokkie is delicious!
Hi Maangchi!
Thank you for taking the time to make these awesome videos!
I have a question about the rice cake recipe, is it possible to make the spicy version even without anchovies? I have all the ingredients except the anchovies :(
Ex-Expat,
nice meeting you! I have so many ex-expat friends!
Yes, I love sujebi and hot spicy sujebi. It’s already included in the list of my upcoming video recipes.
Ok, when I post my sujebi recipe, I will post hot spicy sujebi at the same time. Thanks!
Hi Maangchi – your website is amazing! can’t wait to start doing some korean cooking. I read in the comments that you’re going to post a sujebi recipe soon and was wondering if you’re familiar with maeun sujebi? there are a few restaurants in Seoul that make this dish (one of them is located at Gangnam bus station) – it’s basically just a red, spicy broth with sujebi noodles and a few pieces of thinly sliced zucchini, but it’s delicious. anyways, if you know how to make it, it would be great if you could pass it on!
Maangchi,
This recipe was great! I’m Korean and Mom has always made the 떡볶이 but I made it on Wednesday with your recipe… and she loved it. The only problem is, it’s MY job to make 떡볶이 from now on! Will try the 자장면 soon as well. Thanks for the hard work + videos.
-Hayne.
Hi Maangchi!
I LOVE YOU!!! My friend asked me for this recipe for ddukbokkie, but I can’t seem to find the cooking instructions in korean! Is there any way you can post the recipe in Korean so I can print it out for her? Thank you so much for ALL of your wonderful cooking videos! I’m 1/2 Korean and have cooked some of your dishes and feel SO proud now! Thank you!!!
–Nash
This looks perfect! Going to try this out tonight!
Thanks!
I just wanted to say thank you for all of these recipes! I found this site yesterday, and I tried making 떡볶이 today. It turned out WONDERFUL!!! My mom said it tasted just like the one at a Korean restaurant we go to. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes! :D
Kimberly,
no fish sauce in ddukbokkie. How about using chicken broth?
Hi!
I was wondering if there was something that I can substitute the anchovy stock, possibly some other type of stock and add fish sauce to it??
Hanseon,
sure, sujebi recipe will be included in the list of my upcoming video recipes. Thanks!
Hi Maangchi,
Can you please do a recipe for 수제비? I would like to make some on a cold day^^
yes yes can u please make a video for 수제비~~~ thanks
sure, sujebi! I will post the recipe someday. My sujebi is very delicious! thank you!
Julie,
oh, the stainless steel pan. I bought it at “kitchen stuff” in Canada. Actually it’s too heavy for me. I like light and cheap pans or pots.
Hi,
Where do you get your frying pan?
It seems like its the only one you use all the time. I am trying to find a stainless one too.
Anonymous,
yes, I know what rabokkie. Add cooked ramen noodles to ddukbokkie. That’s it!
Happy New Year!
Hi Maanchi!
Do you happen to have a recipe for Ra-Bok-Ee (the ramen version of ddukbokee)? thanks!
Nelson,
I have no idea about Hatpa! : )
You should describe what the street food looks like, or the taste’s like.
Please leave your question on the forum on my website here: https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Someone else may know what it is.
Hi Maangchi,
I’ve been surfing the net for korean street food recipe particularly “HATPA” but I found nothing.maybe I got a mistake about the name.it’s like a hodog on stick. maybe you know about it. thanks!
sheila,
Yes, you can put the hard boiled egg in the end if you want. You can also put some noodles and fish cake.
I like simple ddukbokkie though.
Omg…this looks so easy to prepare. This is my sister’s favorite korean dish. I will try to make this for her. Just one question though, can u put a hard boiled egg with this? I think I may have seen this before prepared with egg but I’m not too sure (may have seen it in some korean drama). If so, would u put it in the end?
stacy,
More traditional way is to use crushed pear in marinade for bulgogi recipe, but these days some people use apple, kiwi, pineapple, and pear.
hi Maangchi
I am half korean and always loved when my mom made me ddukbokkie now from your website I can try to make it for her. I already know how to make bulgogi, but I wanted to know is there a traditional way of making bulgogi with apples? Again I love your website and I will continue to come to try to get more korean recipes!! Thank you.
Felix,
I can’t imagine ddukbokkie made with blackbean paste instead of hot pepper paste. I would not like it, but if you want, why don’t you do experiment?
Maangchi~! you know.. I have actually eaten dukbokki that is made with 짜장 instead of 고추장 once~ do u have any idea what that is and how to make that???^^ Thanks~
anonymous,
I don’t know what rice cake you are talking about.
Please leave your question here on the forum. I hope someone else gives you good answer.
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Hi Maangchi,
I accidently bought brown rice rice cakes.. but the round ones not lon gone..:-( i did not know better then.. it was from teh freezer section…it has been sitting in my freezer ever since and i really want to use it up..i like spicy dishes like this and if u can suggest something nice that would be great.. I have researched online but only see the soup receipe used for festivals or soemthing… i would very much appreciate it.. thanks for ur wonderful receipes..
brown rice cakes can be used just like the white ones in whatever recipe.