Originally published Mar 14, 2013. Made a few edits to the recipe and fixed some links. I mention that I never liked this dish as a kid, but now I can’t get enough! My kids love it!
I have a confession to make.
I never liked jjajangmyun.
I know, crazy talk. My mom made it every now and then when I was a kid. As the rest of the family slurped away, I took bite after tentative bite wondering why my palate found it “just okay” and not as slurpingly good as the rest of the table. When I mention the dish to anyone who has had it, they swoon and speak of it lovingly and longingly.
To those unfamiliar with this dish, jjajangmyun is a VERY popular Korean-Chinese dish. This dish originated in China and has been adapted to suit the Korean palate. The sauce is made with a salty, tangy fermented black bean paste as its base and is chock full of vegetables and meat.
Anyway, I wanted to overcome this distaste for this ever-popular dish and try to make it myself.
Guess what happened?
It totally worked. I’m “cured”. My belly is happy.
Jjajangmyun (Noodles in black bean sauce)
Ingredients
- 8-12 ounces thick-cut bacon, pork belly, cut into 1/2-inch pieces You can also use ground pork.
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup jjajang or black bean paste Make sure you get the Korean black bean sauce for this dish. The Chinese version of black bean sauce is VERY different.
- 2 cups water or broth
- 2 Tablespoons corn starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 4 portions cooked and prepared kalguksu Kalguksu is Korean "knife-cut" noodles.
- 1 small cucumber, julienned
Instructions
- Heat a wok or a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook until the edges are browned.
- Spoon out the excess bacon grease, but leave 1-2 tablespoons of the grease in the pan.
- Addthe carrots and potatoes and saute for 1-2 minutes.
- Add theonions and garlic and saute until the onions turn translucent.
- Addthe black bean paste to the pan and stir to combine. Make sure the meat andvegetables get evenly coated with the paste.
- Add the 2 cups of water (or broth) and bring to a high simmer.
- Meanwhile, make a corn starch slurry by whisking the corn starch into 1/4 water. Stir in themixture to the simmering sauce.
- Let the sauce simmer until itthickens a bit, about 3-4 minutes. You want the sauce to cling to the noodles.
- Take thepan off the heat and stir in the sesame oil.
- Ladleand portion the sauce evenly among the 4 bowls of noodles. Garnish with thejulienned cucumbers.
- Serve hot and slurp!
Notes
- You can find the black bean sauce at HMart in the same aisle as the gochujang and dwaenjang or you can get it here.
- A note about the noodles. Literally translated, kalguksu is knife-cut noodles. You can buy the “fresh” version which you can find in the refrigerated section of an Asian market or you can buy the “dried” version the “dried” version as well.
- The dish is typically made with beef or pork belly, but this can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the meat. My mom makes it with chicken thighs. Make sure the vegetables and meat are diced into uniform size; 1/2-inch is ideal. This ensures even cooking.
- This dish is typically served with a side of takuan or danmuji (pickled radish) and raw diced onions. I never liked the takuan, but needed something tangy with a little bite. I threw together some diced onions and let them pickle in a mixture of white vinegar and a bit of sugar for a few hours to mellow out the onion.
- And if you don’t have noodles, you can always serve the sauce over rice for jjajangbap!
Cook with me! Here’s a how-to video for jjajangmyun.
