Jajangmyun

I've previously mentioned my love of jajangmyun noodles. Over the past few weeks I've attempted to make jajangmyun a few times and I think I've gotten pretty decent at it, so I thought I'd share my recipe with you ^_^

First I start by chopping up my ingredients. Typically in jajangmyun you also have pork, but since I've always been too lazy/cheap to buy any I skip it. You can also make jajangmyun with chicken or any other meat you have on hand. I use about half of a medium sized zucchini, a small yam, and a medium sized onion. In Korea they use sweet potatoes in jajangmyun (go gu ma), but since we don't have them here I used a yam instead. I've also used a regular potato. Also since I love onion I think I'll probably add another one next time I make jajangmyun. Adjust the amount of the ingredients based on your tastes. The potato and zucchini should be chopped into small cubes and the onion should be chopped into moon shaped pieces.

Next I cook up the black bean sauce in a medium sized pan with about two tablespoons of sesame oil. I used 1/2 cup of black bean sauce. You should be able to find this at an Asian market. Cook the black bean sauce for a couple of minutes and then remove it from the pan, leaving the oil. I tried skipping this step before but it didn't taste as good so be sure to do this! Also, if you are adding meat to your jajangmyun you should cook your meat in the same pan before the black bean sauce. Remove the meat and set aside before adding the black bean sauce.

Next, in the same pan you should cook up all the vegetables you chopped. You should cook until everything is cooked all the way through. Normally the potatoes take the longest so you may want to start those a few minutes before you add the zucchini and onions. Right around this time I try to make sure I have my jajang noodles cooking in a pot of boiling water. You want to try and have the noodles and the sauce done cooking at right about the same time. The noodles need to cook for about 5 to 6 minutes in boiling water.

Remember that black bean sauce we cooked up? It's time to add that back to the pan! You should also re-add any meat you previously cooked. In addition to adding the black bean sauce, you should add one cup of water, and about two tablespoons of sugar. You can play around with this depending on how sweet you want your jajangmyun. The recipe I first looked at said to only add two teaspoons which didn't taste right to me. Cook this until it boils.

After your sauce is boiling it is time to add your thickening agent. If you have it you should add cornstarch (about 2 tablespoons), but if you don't have cornstarch (like me) you can add flour. I add about three tablespoons of flour, but I think I might try a little less next time. The more you add the thicker your sauce will be. You should also be very careful when adding the flour. Add it very slowly and make sure to stir it in completely. The first time I tried making jajangmyun I got too excited and added all the flour at one time. Because of this there was many lumps of flour in my sauce! Your jajang noodles should be done cooking around this time. Make sure you rinse them a couple of times in cold water.

Now that everything is cooked you can plate up your jajangmyun! Make sure you eat it when it's still hot. It's looks kind of gross right? But I promise you it tastes delicious! I'm not even sure how to begin to describe the flavor, but it's slightly sweet.

Then all you have to do is mix and enjoy ^_^ This recipe makes about 2-3 servings of jajangmyun depending on how hungry you are. This seems to do pretty well in the fridge (and being reheated in the microwave). I save the noodles and sauce in the same container, but you could also make less noodles and then just save the extra sauce. I've read it goes very well on rice also!


I'm excited because in about a week I'm going with a couple of girls from work to dinner at a Korean restaurant and then to noraebang after! We picked the restaurant specifically based on the fact that they have jajangmyun so I'm really anticipating having someone make this for me soon! I hope after reading this you are also interested in trying or making jajangmyun yourself. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!