Tteokbokki (Spicy Korean Rice Cake Street Snack)
Chewy cylindrical rice cakes simmered in a sweet-spicy gochujang sauce with fish cake and scallions — a classic Korean street-food snack you can make at home in one pan.
AI image35 min
start to finish
15 min
hands on
Some skill
difficulty
4
servings
Ingredients
For the stock
Sauce
Contains fish, soy, gluten, sesame. Cooking for an allergy? Check the label on every packet you use — brands differ, and we can only tell you what the recipe calls for.
Roughly, per serving
480 kcal12g protein80g carbs10g fat
An estimate, not a lab analysis.
Method
If your rice cakes are frozen, thaw them in the refrigerator overnight; otherwise place the refrigerated or room-temperature rice cakes in a bowl of warm water to soften.
Make a quick anchovy–kelp stock: combine 3 cups water, dried anchovies and kelp in a small pot and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat.
Simmer the stock gently for 6 minutes, then remove the kelp and strain out the anchovies, reserving about 2 cups of clear stock.
If you prefer, you may use 2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock instead of making anchovy–kelp stock.
While the stock is cooking, whisk the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar and corn syrup in a small bowl until smooth to make the sauce.
Heat the neutral oil in a large, deep skillet or wide pot over medium heat and add the sliced onion; sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add the minced garlic to the skillet and stir 30 seconds until fragrant.
Pour the prepared sauce into the skillet with the onions and garlic and stir 30 seconds to combine and bloom the flavors.
Pour in 2 cups of the prepared stock and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
Add the soaked rice cakes and sliced fish cake to the boiling sauce, lower the heat to medium–low, and simmer, stirring occasionally so the rice cakes don't stick.
If the sauce thickens too fast before the rice cakes are soft, add a splash of water or stock.
Simmer until the rice cakes are tender and the sauce is thick and glossy, about 10 minutes total (they should be chewy but soft through).
Stir in the toasted sesame oil and the scallions and cook 1 minute to wilt the scallions.
If using, nestle halved hard-boiled eggs into the pan and warm them 1 minute.
Taste and adjust seasoning with a pinch of salt or a little more soy sauce if needed, then sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve hot.
Worth knowing
- If you can't find garaetteok, use sliced tteok (tteok-sliced disks) or thick rice-cake slices — cooking time is similar.
- To make this less spicy for kids, halve the gochujang and add a tablespoon of tomato ketchup or extra corn syrup to keep sweetness and body.
- For a vegetarian version, omit anchovy and fish cake and use vegetable stock; note the dish will no longer be pescatarian.
- Leftovers refrigerate 2–3 days; reheat gently in a skillet with a splash of water to loosen the sauce.
Make it yours
Cooking without dairy, without an oven, for someone who won't touch chilli, or for six instead of four? Have the recipe rewritten around it — quantities, steps and all.
PescatarianOne panQuickBudget
Watch someone make it
A different recipe for the same dish, by a cook who has spent years on it.
More Korean cooking
An original Restaurant Pro recipe — our own composition in the idiom of Korean cooking, not any restaurant's recipe. Written to be pescatarian as listed.