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!
Hi Maangchi!
It’s me again, and i just made my ddukbokkie and added the starch noodles(dangmyun) and it taste really nice.
So thank you for telling me about dangmyun.
Thank you for your update!
Hi Maangchi!
Can you add additional ingredients to ddukbokkie?
if so, what kind?
You could add fishcake, starch noodles (called dangmyun: 당면)
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/starch-noodles, mushrooms…
,and shelled hard boiled egg.
Hi Maangchi!
I’m very new to cooking, so I was wondering how do you remove the intestines of the dried anchovies? Also, I heard that it is possible to use anchovy powder to make the stock. If I use anchovy powder, about how much should I add? Thank you very much!!
Check my kongnamulguk recipe. I am showing how to remove the intestines of dried anchovies there.
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kongnamulguk
I don’t like to use anchovy powder.
I made Dukbokki today and the flavor of the sauce was awesome but for some reasons, the sauce didn’t stick to the rice cakes well. So, when I ate just the rice cakes without much of the sauce, the taste was bland. Is the rice cake supposed to separate from the sauce? Also, I didn’t really care for the texture of the rice cakes that I bought. It wasn’t as chewy as the one I had at a Korean restaurant. Is it the type of rice cake I bought or I didn’t cook them long enough or too long? I couldn’t find the rice cakes as shown in your video. The rice cakes I bought were already split and shorter and fatter. Overall, it was good though if I ate using a big spoon and lots of sauce. Thanks for the recipe.
You made ddukbokkie by following my recipe?
Just follow the recipe tightly. Anyway,don’t give up making delicious ddukbokkie! It’s very easy to make.
You said, “the sauce didn’t stick to the rice cakes well”. Make more sauce and cook longer, then the sauce and rice cake will mix together.
Get this type of rice cake
https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/rice-cake
Maangchi Unnie,
You are so right! The anchovies make a WORLD of difference. I tried making this before and it just tasted like watery pepper sauce. It’s amazing! Thank you and keep up the good work! :)
yes, you can try it out without dried anchovies, but the taste will be a little bland. When I make my ddukbokie, first thing I have to do is to make good stock using dried anchovies.
I don’t like anchovies. Can I omit the anchovies?
Is it possible to make the mild recipe without the beef strips? D:
yes, I posted the mild version, too. Check the recipe again.
hi maangchi!
I made this for the second time, and it turned about better than the first time i made it. i also added fish cake to it and it was delicious!! Now I can make it for my sisters and cousins who always wants to try ddukbbokkie!!
wow, it sounds like you make very delicious ddukbokkie! hmmm, ddukbokkie party with your friends and sisters! : )
Hi!
Thank you very much for this recipe. I’m 19 and I’ve always loved Korean food; your videos are very easy to follow and you sound very fun and enthusiastic!
I will make this dish for my parents tomorrow, thank you again!
I just finish ddukbokkie.. I love it~ thank u so much for the recipe!!! :D
Hi Maangchi,
I have made tis spicy rice cakes before and kept some leftovrs in the fridge. However after trying to reheat them by reboiling with the sauce the next day, the rice cakes dun taste as chewy as before..I wunder wat’s the best way to reheat them?Do I steam them or stir-fry them again? Mus I reali finish them all withing hrs they are cooked?
No one would like leftover ddukbokkie or ddukguk (rice cake soup)! Make right amount and finish eating it all.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made i with fresh rice cake and I added a little bit more sugar for a sweeter taste. I yield the pepper paste at 2 – 2/12 tbs, and it was already VERY VERY spicy. Overall, it turned out delicious! As for the anchovies, I just dipped it in the sauce :)
I wonder if adding beef to this would be okay? Also, have you tried replacing sugar with honey? I’ve heard it gives it a different “sweetness” =]
very good! I’m happy to hear that you modified the recipe a little bit according to your taste and it turned out good! Yes, I sometimes dip dried anchovies in hot pepper paste, too!
i cant get it in brooklyn?
You can get all the ingredients for ddukbokkie at a Korean grocery store.
Address:
25 Wes 32nd St
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENCA276&q=Manhattan+25+West,+32nd+Street,&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=p21DSunIE4TKtgfjrZG1Ag&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1
i was wondering, where can i find dried anchovies?^^ lol
i live in new york, too, so you can just name some places! :D
hehe i wanna try making the ddukbokkie
oh and btw i went to wonjo today in korean town
and i saw it on their menu, it was so tempting to call it,
but my friend said they didnt make it good there ):
i was so bummed! luckily i found your site tho!
Hey Maangchi, I was wondering if there is some sort of substitute for the anchovies in case some people don’t like anchovies. :)
what about dried kelp and dired shittake mushrooms? You will have to make delicious stock.
hello maangchi! just wanted to say thanks for posting the 덕볶이 recipe. ever since I came back from study abroad in seoul i have been wanting to eat 덕볶이 so much. I made some for my family, they loved it and it tasted so good it just brought all the memories of the good times eating 덕볶이 with my korean friends in 신촌 in front of 연세대학교.
yeah, some food reminds me of good memories, too. Food is more than food! : )
hello maangchi! I successfully finished cooking your ddukbokki recipe! I was so happy that I even took pictures of it! k.k Is it supposed to be reddish orange or deep red? because mine turned out quite reddish orange k.k i just need it for reference k.k thank you so much! no mu no mu ma sit ddo yo… k.k ^.~
Yeah, it sounds like you made delicious ddukbokkie!
annyeong maangchi! i’m trying to make this today :) is it a good idea if i add odeng or omuk? which one of the two is better? ^^ thank u so much ^^
Now I’ve found your question. Yes, you can add fish cake to your ddukbokkie. I usually don’t use fish cake in my ddukbokkie though.
hello,maangchi
if i cant buy the dired anchovies.can i put something else?
thanks
how about making stock using dried shiitake mushrooms and dried kelp?
Both thumbs up for this website. I´m half korean half german and I love korean food and cooking. Have you any side dish for this recipe? Do you rather eat it alone or together with something?
It doesn’t need any side dish.
Hi, I love your video recipe! I was wondering if there was any way to substitute the dried anchovy for making the stock. I want to make it for my fried but they can’t have anything with seafood / beef.
oh, your friend must be a vegetarian. Make stock using dried kelp and dried shiitake mushrooms.
hi maangchi…
Its me again..I try this dukkbokkie in our cooking class in school here in the Philippines..hehehe…at first our teacher assign us to cook any traditional dishes of other culture and ever since i love korean things especially the foods!..and first thing come up on my mind is that i will cook korean food!!!YEHEY!(excited)…I search in the internet to help me and I found you in youtube..my hero!hehehe
then after all the cooking me,my classmates and teacher watching what Im doing and in the end Im the famous in the kitchen…they like the dukkbokie that I cook…hehehe
thank maangchi for your help!
keep cooking amazing foods!
…always,SHARIZ~
Shariz,
Yayee! Good news! Congratulation! It sounds like you had your own cooking class there. Interesting to know your classmates and teacher like dukkbokie! Thank you for letting me know about it!!
is it usually made with anchovies?
i really don’t like fish at all. but i lovvvve dok poki!
You could use dashi powder instead of dried anchovies.
where are anchovies? i don’t see you add them into the ddukbokkie, but i think at the end you should add the cooked anchovies into the pan and stir, then transfer to serve, right?
check the video again please!
really thank you for your site…i’ve learned a lot even only by watching…the recipes you do are delicious…my mouth is watering everytime i watched your video which pushes me to go to the market and buy those recipes and cook…hahaha…chincha mashissoyo…
chincha thank you! : )
anyonghaseyo…i watched your videos and even tried cooking them at home…and really my family love to eat korean food…hehehe…thanks for your site…and more power…aja! aja!
Hi maangchi!
Thanks for your awesome recipe and replies! =) I have a qn though, can i replace the dried anchovies with something else? I’m not sure if i can find. =(
how about using dried shiitake mushrooms and kelp?
I made my first ttukbokie after I watched Maangchi’s video. I didn’t have anchovies on hand, so I tried using dashi broth powder. it’s not the same flavour but gives it a good strong fish stock flavour. One day I will find some anchovies and do a comparison.
Maangchi, thanks for your great videos!
wonderful news! Thank you for your update!
Hello Maangchi,
How long should I cook the rice cake before I add the green onion? Until the rice cake is fully soft? Or, when the rice cake is still slightly firm? Also, how long do I cook the green onions?
Thanks,
Anna
I add green onions when the rice cake is still slightly firm. I love the taste of fully cooked green onions. You could add more green onions in the recipe. Thank you for your question, Anna!
Just made this and am happy to say it turned out beautifully. So easy, too!
Hi. I made this dish…and it turned out sweet and VERY VERY spicy! i like it but i couldnt eat all of it becuz it was too spicy. Great recipe thou
oh, sorry to hear that it was too spicy for you! Check the non-spicy version or use less spicy ingredients then.
ana,
yes, you could use frozen rice cake, too.
What if in my country there are only frozen rice cakes would it be the same taste ?
Thanks !
Pappi,
of course you can use the same recipe. Using fresh rice cake is better!
Hi Maangchi,
I love your site :)
I bought some rice cake today for this recipe, but I got the ones that are still soft instead of the harder ones you need to break apart like what you used in the video. Do I still have to use the same amount of anchovy broth or adjust the recipe?
Thanks!