If you are a noodle fan, and you haven’t tried the Korean noodle dish Jjajangmyeon, then you need to try this recipe out. If I ask my family what they want to eat, Jjajangmyeon is always in the top 3 things they ask for. I mean who doesn’t want fresh cut noodles, with the fried pork belly, in a sweet and savory black bean sauce. All served with a pickled, crunchy, yellow radish.
It is hard for me explain how good this dish is, other than when we go to the Korean restaurant with my Korean in-laws, we almost always end up eating Jjajangmyeon. So as a stay-at-home Dad, that only cooks what I want to actually eat, (I’m cooking so I get to choose), Jjajangmyeon is one of the first items I learned to cook. So good, so worth it, and so easy to cook.
Tips for cooking Jajangmyeon
- Get Fresh Knife Cut Noodles – I feel like if you don’t buy the fresh noodles (you can get them from an Asian supermarket), then you probably won’t get the best tasting dish. I would almost recommend waiting until you can get fresh tasting noodles.
- Get the Black Bean Sauce that is branded Daesang Chinese Black Bean Sauce – I have never seen a recipe for Jjajangmyeon without this brand of black bean sauce. I’m not saying your Jjajangmyeon won’t taste good, but there has to be a reason everyone utilizes this brand.
- Fry your Pork Belly until it turns a bit orange from the grease. – This gives your Jajangmyeon texture, and this adds that fried goodness. As you have soft noodles, soft sauce, and the cooked onions, you want some texture and the fried pork gives it that.
I adapted this recipe from Aaron and Claire, and it is another go-to recipe for dinner. All the ingredients are either frozen or are able to last a long time, so Jjajangmyeon is the perfect combination of quick, tasty, and ingredients always-on-hand to cook.
Jjajangmyeon
Equipment
- Non-stick Pan
- Pot
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Black bean sauce
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 2 1/2 tbsp Sugar
- 200 grams Pork belly
- 1 package Fresh cut noodles
- 1 1/2 cups Vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp Chicken broth
- 200 mg Water
- 1 tbsp Water
- 1 tbsp Potato starch
Optional
- 1 Yellow pickled radish
Instructions
- Get Ingredients
Prep
- Cut and dice your onion.
- Cut your frozen pork belly into about 1/4" widths.
Cooking
- Pour the package of black bean sauce into a non-stick pan. Fill up the oil until it reaches about half way up the black bean sauce.
- Set your stove to medium heat and begin to fry the black bean sauce for about 3 minutes. You will know it is done when it because fragrant from the frying.
- Remove the black bean sauce and oil into a separate bowl that can handle the hot oil, like pyrex. If you can leave 2 tbsp of the hot oil in the pan. If not add back in 2 tbsp of vegetable oil to the pan.
- Get the stove back to medium heat and add in your chopped pork belly. Fry until your pork belly is cooked and the it starts to turn orange (that means it will taste amazing).
- When the pork is cooked, add 1 tbsp of soy sauce around the edge of the pan (watch out for splashing when you add the soy sauce).
- Add in your diced onions, and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat.
- When the onions are beginning to soften add your sugar, chicken broth, oyster sauce, 2 tbsp of black bean sauce. Stir and mix for a minute.
- Reduce the heat to medium low, and add in 200 mg of water to your sauce, and continue mixing for 2-3 minutes.
- Mix the 1 tbsp of water with 1 tbsp of potato starch to create your slurry separately. Add you slurry to your black bean sauce and make sure to stir right as it is added to your sauce. At this point your sauce is done, and you are really just tasting for how thick you want your sauce.
Noodles
- Bowl water in a pot according to the directions on the noodle package. If there are no instructions, then I typically go with 1-2 inches above the noodles.
- When the water is getting to boiling, rinse your fresh cut noodles. This gets all of the starch off of them. Then add your noodles to the boiling water. My package says 5-7 minutes is when they will be cooked, but I have found that 4-5 minutes is really how long it takes to cook them. You want the noodles in-between al-dente and cooked, firm and chewy is my best way to describe them.
- Add your noodles to a plate or bowl, and pour your sauce over the top.
Optional Yellow Radish (but not really optional because it goes amazing with Jjajangmyeon)
- Cut your yellow radish in half-crescents and serve alongside your Jjajangmyeon.
Leave a Reply