Jajang Tteokbokki – Kang’s Kitchen (Korean Rice Cakes with Black Bean Sauce)

A variation of tteokbokki mixed with jajang sauce resulting in delicious chewy rice cakes slathered in black bean sauce for a salty and savory Korean street food twist! 

As I mentioned in the gukmul tteokbokki post, there are so many variations tteokbokki can take! Spicy varieties are most abundant but savory ones like jajang tteokbokki is delicious too and great for kids who cannot take the spicy heat yet! 

Kang’s Kitchen returns this season led by Kang Hodong and the rest of the “New Journey to the West” cast where they head to Gyeongju, Korea to open up a pop-up restaurant serving quick-restaurant snacks like tteokbokki, noodles, and bingsu. Similar to the last season with omurice, celebrity chef Baek Jong Won comes to help the cast think of recipes pre-opening. Famous actor, Ahn Jae Hyun (also starred in Newlyweds Diary), is in charge of tteokbokki. He makes two versions, one being spicy and the other with this jajang sauce! Both are very popular. This jajang sauce comes together so quickly and is based off of Baek Jong Won’s jajangmyun recipe, a popular Korean-Chinese black bean sauce. The black bean sauce is made from chunjang, a Korean salty black soybean paste which is stir-fried with green onions, onion and pork. The sauce is normally mixed with noodles or rice but the chewy rice cakes also make a really nice combo with a chewy texture and savory sauce. Add in just a bit of spice from some gochujang and it has a great balance! 

Also great to serve with gimmari, fried mandoo (dumplings) and danmuji (pickled radish). As served in Kang’s Kitchen, it will also go very well with a spicy side-kick like gukmul tteokbokki. Enjoy!

and some clips from the show!

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Jajang Tteokbokki - Kang's Kitchen (Korean Rice Cakes with Black Bean Sauce)

A non-spicy variation of tteokbokki mixed with jajang sauce resulting in delicious chewy rice cakes slathered in black bean sauce for a salty and savory Korean street food twist! 

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time25 mins

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Korean

Servings: 2 people

Jennifer | Chopsticks and Flour

Ingredients

Jajang Sauce

• 1 ¼ Tbsp oil
• 1 ¼ Tbsp green onion chopped (scallion)
• 3 ¾ Tbsp onion chopped
• ⅛ tsp minced ginger
• 1 oz (25 g) ground pork
• 2 ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp chunjang

Tteokbokki

• 10 oz(300 g) rice cake 떡 (2 cups scant)
• 2 sheets fish cake
• 1 cup 240 ml, water
• ½ - 1 Tbsp gochujang red pepper paste, to taste depending on desired spice
• 1 green onion stalk chopped

Instructions

Jajang Sauce

• Heat a small frypan with 1 ¼ Tbsp oil. Add in the green onion and stir-fry until the green onions are golden and aromatic (1-2 minutes).
  
• Add in the onions, minced ginger and ground pork to the frypan. Continue to stir-fry until the pork is cooked through and no longer pink.
  
• Add in the sugar to the frypan and allow the sugar to melt and to bring out the caramelized sugar flavor.
• Pour the soy sauce into the outter rim of the frypan.

  *This allows the soy sauce to get cooked and have a more aromatic and “fire” like flavor. This is often a tip given by celebrity chef Baek Jong Won for sauces that use soy sauce.
• Mix in the oyster sauce. Mix in the chunjang. Simmer and cook for about 5 more minutes until the sauce gets thick. Set aside.

Tteokbokki

• If using refrigerated or hardened rice cakes, soak in room temperature water for about 10 minutes to soften. Cut the fish cake into bite size pieces.
• In a medium frypan on medium heat, add in the softened rice cakes, fish cake, and water.
  
• As the jajang sauce sets, the oil and sauce will separate. Dump out the oil from the sauce. Add the sauce into the frypan. Add in the gochujang. And mix the sauce so there are no clumps.
  
• Continue to simmer until the rice cakes are soft and the sauce has thickened (4-6 minutes). If the sauce reduces too much, add a few Tbsp of water and continue to simmer. Top with chopped green onions.