TteokBokkI (떡볶이) is one of the most popular Korean street foods. Since the way to cook this food is very easy and simple, Korean people often make it at home too. Depending on your personal tastes, you can make it spicier or sweeter. This snack has many different names according to its ingredients such as cheese TteokBokkI, RaBokkI (Ramen noodles), GanJang TteokBokkI, or GungJung TteokBokkI (soy sauce).
Yield: 3 Servings
Short Korean Lesson
- EoRinEe (어린이) = Child
- EoRinEeDeul (어린이들) = Children
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- 2 Cups (30 Pieces) Sticky Rice Cakes (2 inch)
- 2 Fried Fish Cakes
- 1 Cup Cabbage
- ⅔ Cup Onion
- ½ Cup Carrot
- 1 Green Onion
- 1 tsp Sesame Seeds
Broth Ingredients
- 2½ Cups Water
- 6 Pieces Kelp (1×2 Inch)
- 1 Dried Anchovy Pack (Optional)
Sauce Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp Hot Pepper Paste
- 1 Tbsp Hot Pepper Powder
- 2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
- ½ Tbsp Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- ½ Tbsp Minced Garlic
- Some Sesame Seeds (to garnish)
Directions
To make the broth we need 4 pieces of medium-sized dried anchovies that I’m going to put them in a bag along with 6 pieces of kelp and 2 pieces of fish cake. Here, dried anchovies and kelp are optional. Pour 2½ cups of water in a pan and add the fish cake, kelp, and anchovies. Cook it for about 10 minutes on medium-high.
While making the broth, let’s prep some of the vegetables.Slice ½ cup worth of an onion into quarter-inch pieces. Cut ½ cup worth of a carrot diagonally. Cut 1 green onion into ½-inch pieces. Cut ⅔ cup worth of cabbage into quarter-inch pieces.
After 10 minutes, remove the kelp, fish cakes, and anchovy pack from the broth. Save the fish cakes for later and discard the kelp and anchovy pack.
Cut the cooked fish cakes into 2-inch pieces. We also need 2 cups of sticky rice cakes for tteokbokki.
In the broth, add 3 Tbsp of hot pepper paste, 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder, 2 Tbsp of corn syrup, ½ Tbsp of sugar, 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, and ½ Tbsp of minced garlic. Depending on your tastes, you can make your tteokbokki sweeter or spicier by changing the amount of sugar or hot pepper paste. If you don’t like spicy food, skip the hot pepper powder. You can use sugar instead of corn syrup. Cook it for 5 minutes on medium-high.
After 5 minutes, add the rice cakes, carrot, onion, and cabbage into the broth.
Cook it for about 5 minutes on medium-high, or until the rice cakes become soft. Depending on the rice cake brand, the cooking time can vary.
When the rice cakes are done the cooking, add the fish cakes and cook for 1 more minute.
Lastly, add the green onion, cook for another minute, and then turn off the heat.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of TteokBokKi just before serving.
Enjoy! 😀
Hi there,
Can you use dry rice flour to make the korean rice noodles.
Thank yoi
hi Joanne Tran,
I’m sorry but what do you mean.. Korean rice noodles.. can you give me a link for it? so I know what you are talking about.
Hi Aeri!
With 2 cups tteok, you mean 15 pieces of 2 inch size? Or the 15 long rice sticks?
Thank you!
hi Mina,
Oh, whatever it is, you can get about 2 cups worth of tteok for tteokbokki. Tteokbokki tteok is usually about 2 inch length. With your question, I made it clear fot the recipe.. so you can consider about 30 (2 inch) pieces of rice cakes. Thanks for your question.
Thank you so much for the reply! I have already tried many of your recipes and they always turn out great! So a big thanks for the perfectly measured recipes!
Love from Germany
hi Mina,
Yes, I literally try to measure every single ingredients to make accurate recipes.. I’m glad you see my effort. hehe thanks
Hi Aeri!
Really enjoy your video and really great recipes for Korea food!
For ddeok bok ki the video doesn’t work anymore. Thank you!
Hi Crystal,
Thanks for your kind comment. Ah~~~ about the Tteokbokki video.. I need to remake the video because of the poor quality of the video and copy right issue for the background music I used in that video. I’m very sorry about it.
This was so good! I did not use the red pepper powder and used honey instead of corn syrup, and the flavor was perfect for me. So much better than store bought! Thank you!
hi Vincci,
Great job, vincci. You made it healthier by using honey instead of corn syrup. Please try my other recipes too..and if you can.. share your picture with me on instagram or facebook (aeriskitchen). 🙂
Does this keep? And if so, how long will it stay good?
hi Ashley,
It tastes the best when it’s still warm and soft. It will be soft for several hours in the room temperature. If you keep it in the refrigerator for over a day, you can reheat it in the microwave for few minutes then it will be soft again. It can be kept for several days. thanks
What happend if i don’t use chili powder? Can i just skip it? I’m afraid it will be to spicy. Thankyou 🙂
Hi Clara,
Yes, you can skip it. thanks 🙂
hi Aeri…..
nice to see you in this blog 🙂
please allow me to introduce my self, my name is Sonya. I’m from Indonesia. firstly, i would like appologize if my English very bad 🙂 ….. but i’ll try my best to do it .
i’m soooo happy….interested…..curious…. when i firstly finded your website 🙂
i like all about korean :)) …. so here i am hahaha…..
searching tteobokki recipe, and finally stop at your blog 🙂
i would like to make friends from abroad. especially Korea 🙂
i live in Tangerang Selatan – Indonesia ( small town near around Jakarta district…. Jakarta -which is a capital city of Indonesia- ) with my family. Husband, 2 kids (girl – 11 yo, boy – 5 yo) and my Dad 🙂
i’m a housewife.
and i’m very pleasant to learn more about Koreaan food 🙂
thank you for spend your precious time to read my comment 🙂
see u soon,
Sonya
hi Sonya,
I’m so happy to meet you too. 🙂 Yes, I can see you love Korea. Thank you. hehe.. Please visit here more often and share things with me.
Hi,Aeri !
It’s so hard to find GoChuJang in my country,Malaysia. Can i use something else instead of GoChuJang?
or can i just make it myself?
thank you 🙂
Hi Nadinda,
I don’t know if you already know another popular Korean cooking blogger, Maangchi. She actually posted a recipe for gochujang before and I believe that her recipe is great. Here is a link for you..just in case you don’t know about it. ^^ Hope it’s helpful for you.
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gochujang
Hi Aeri. I have few question to ask. First, Can I use honey instead of corn syrup? Second, I cant find any korean soy sauce at place I live. so, im thinking to replace it with my country soy sauce. My country soy sauce have two type which is sweet and salty. So, I want to know which flavour korean soy sauce is? Sweet or salty? Third, I dont have any kelp. I only have roasted seaweed for kimbap. Can I just use that or can I just skip it? Hope u can help me by answering this questions. Thanks in advance ^^
hi Syafy,
If your honey doesn’t have too strong flavor in it, yes you can use honey instead .. or you can use sugar also.. Korean soy sauce is more salty than sweet.. so try salty one..but since the saltiness can be different, adjust the amount of your soy sauce for this recipe. You can skip kelp..and don’t use that seaweed for kimbap..it’s totally different thing.. hehe Hope you enjoy your tteokbokki .thanks
Hi Aeris,
First, I love your cooking tutorials. Thank you so much for making them. I was wondering if you have a recipe for Hyoja-dong Tteokbokki (or something similar to the one sold at Tongin market)
Hi Jolene,
I’ve never tried or heard of that particulr tteokbokki.. hyoja-dong tteokbokki before.. but I guess it’s a town name in seoul.. I’m sorry that it’s not that helpful recipe ^^;;.. how about try my tteokbokki recipe.
Hi. I bought rice cake past fee days. Is it okay for me to store it in my fridge? Or do i need to store in a room tempreture? How long it would last for the rice cake if i store in my frindge? Tq
hi Amelia,
If you want to keep it for a long time .. like over a month.. keep it in the freezer..and if you want to eat it in a week .. keep it in the refrigerator.. you don’t keep it in the room temperature though.^^ thanks
Hi aeri, love your recipes and i am just writing to ask what i can use instead of fish cake ….is it okay to use tofu fish cake ? Its very difficult to find authentic fish cake here in myanmar 😀 thanks
hi esther,
Yes, you can use that too.. 🙂 Thanks ^^
hi aeri! I’m from Malaysian
i don’t like vegetables
can i not put the vegetables into tteobokki
will it taste same???
thanks
hi nadiah,
Of course you will lose the flavor of vegetables in your tteokbokki…so it will not be the same. Even you do not like vegetables.. you might like them in tteokbokki sauce.. why don’t you try? since vegetables are healthy too. 😉 Thanks
Hi Aeri I was wondering where can I get dried anchovies pack？ is it sold in most Korean grocery store?
hi Sophie,
I bought it in a Korean grocery store in USA. Some Korea store might not have it..because it is more common to use dried anchovies for Korean cuisine..instead of the dried anchovy packs I use… so if you can not get it you can replace it to dried anchovy pieces instead. Thanks 🙂
Hi Aeri. I want to ask something. Can I use raw anchovies instead of dried anchovies for the brooth? Or it’ll be taste better without anchovies?
Thank you.. I love your recipe..
hi nie704,
Oops, you do not want to use raw anchovies here.. hehe I will say ..just skip the dried anchovy part. 🙂 Thanks
You can use dried anchovies for the broth. Just make sure to take them out.
hi Claire,
Yes, you can use dried anchovies. Just make sure that some dried anchovies can give too fishy flavor to the broth if that’s the case, it’s better to skip the dried anchovies. THanks
Hi Aeri.. I want to ask something. Can I put raw anchovies instead of dried anchovies for brooth? Or it will be better without anchovies at all? It a little bit hard to find unsalted dried anchovies at here.. Thank you very much. I love your recipe..
I love this dish and was surprised how easy it was to make it! thanks for the recipe =)
hi Shampoo47,
Super easy but delicious..right ?? hehe try it someday. 🙂 Thanks
Hai Aeri,
May i know is it ok to use local(Malaysia) chili paste & is it ok if not using kelp, and anchovy pack ?
I super love this recipe! My friends and i cook this recipe whenever we miss seoul. Thanks aeri for sharing this recipe.
By the way, can i use maple syrup instead of corn syrup? ^.^ thanks!
hi Nat,
I’m glad that you and your friend enjoy my recipe. Thanks 🙂 About your question, since maple syrup has it’s own strong flavor.. I will say use sugar instead of corn syrup… If you still want to try maple syrup, it’s up to you though. ^^
can or not if I use my hand to make the dough ❓ because I don’t have dough machine at my home… 😐
Hi alice,
Yes, you can knead the dough by hand too.
Hi Aeri,
Can I add beef to this dish? Beef or chicken or pork?
Thanks,
Annie
hi Annie,
Yes, it’s up to you. 🙂 Thanks
This is the best spicy ddeokbokki recipe I’ve found. I made it for dinner this evening and it was so delicious! I’ll have to try out your Gunjung version soon 🙂
awesome news to hear from you. 🙂 Thanks. Yes, please try my other version of tteokbooki too. ^^
Hey…Can I just use pork bulgogi marinade as sauce? 🙄
hi Yun,
I have a recipe for what you want. Please check this out. It is nonspicy tteokboki using bulgogi sauce flavored. http://aeriskitchen.com/2010/07/royal-palace-tteokbokki-%EA%B6%81%EC%A4%91-%EB%96%A1%EB%B3%B6%EC%9D%B4-goonjung-tteokbokki/
Thank you 😉 🙂
hi Yun,
You are more than welcome. 😉
Hey Aeri,
If i use sugar instead of corn syrup, will the taste be the same? And can i use gochujang only and not using the chilli powder? Also must i use
korean soy sauce?
Hope to hear from you soon as i will cook this dish soon.
Cheers
Bokja xx
hi bokja,
Sorry for late reply. Yes, you can use sugar instead.. you can also use only gochujang if that;s what you want.. if you skip soy sauce.. you might need something else like salt to adjust the saltness.. thanks
Hi!!! Can I skip dried anchovies and just put kelp and fish cake for the broth? Thank you(:
Hi trina,
Yes, you can skip dried anchovies. 🙂