Tteokbokki Recipe (Spicy Korean Rice Cakes)
Easy tteokbokki recipe: chewy Korean rice cakes and fish cakes in a sweet, spicy gochujang sauce, ready in 30 minutes like Seoul street food.
This tteokbokki recipe makes the famous red, glossy rice cakes you see bubbling in wide pans at every street stall in Seoul. Chewy cylinders of rice cake and slices of fish cake simmer in a quick anchovy and kelp stock with gochujang, chilli flakes, soy sauce and a little sugar until the sauce turns thick, sticky and sweet with a slow building heat. It takes about 30 minutes from start to finish.
The name comes from tteok, the Korean word for rice cake, and bokki, which means stir-fried. The oldest version, gungjung tteokbokki, was a royal court dish of rice cakes stir-fried with beef, vegetables and soy sauce, with no chilli at all. The bright red, spicy style that most people know today took off in the 1950s and 60s, when gochujang-based tteokbokki became a cheap, filling snack sold near schools and markets. It is still the classic after-school treat in Korea.
The technique is simple, but two details make the difference. First, soak hard or refrigerated rice cakes in warm water before cooking so they soften evenly instead of staying chalky in the centre. Second, let the sauce reduce. The starch from the rice cakes thickens the liquid naturally, and you stop cooking when the sauce clings to every piece and coats the back of a spoon.
Look for cylinder-shaped garaetteok in the fridge or freezer section of a Korean or Asian grocery. Flat, oval rice cake slices work too. Korean eomuk fish cake sheets add a savoury bite, but you can leave them out or swap in boiled eggs, cabbage or ramen noodles, which turns the dish into rabokki. If you have no anchovy stock, use water with a small piece of kelp or a mild vegetable stock. For less heat, reduce the chilli flakes and keep the gochujang.
Serve tteokbokki straight from the pan with halved boiled eggs and spring onion on top. In Korea it is often eaten with gimbap or crispy fried snacks dipped into the leftover sauce.
Watch how it is made on our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/shorts/zCj3wG_cdjA
Watch how it is made
Ingredients
- 500 g cylinder Korean rice cakes (garaetteok)Substitute: flat sliced rice cakes
- 150 g Korean fish cake sheets (eomuk), cut into trianglesSubstitute: extra rice cakes or cabbage
- 500 ml anchovy and kelp stockSubstitute: water with a 10 cm piece of kelp
- 3 tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
- 1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)Substitute: 1 tsp mild chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugarSubstitute: 1.5 tbsp honey or rice syrup
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 spring onions, cut into 5 cm lengths
- 0.25 small white cabbage, roughly chopped (optional)
- 3 boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
- Soften the rice cakes. If the rice cakes are hard, frozen or straight from the fridge, separate them and soak in warm water for 10 to 20 minutes. Fresh, soft rice cakes only need a quick rinse.
- Mix the sauce. In a small bowl stir together the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar and garlic until smooth. Mixing it first helps the paste dissolve without lumps.
- Heat the stock. Pour the anchovy and kelp stock into a wide, shallow pan and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. A wide pan lets the sauce reduce quickly and evenly.
- Add the sauce. Stir the sauce paste into the boiling stock until it is fully dissolved and the liquid turns deep red.
- Cook the rice cakes. Drain the rice cakes, add them to the pan with the cabbage and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often so they do not stick to the bottom.
- Add the fish cakes. Add the fish cake pieces, the boiled eggs and most of the spring onion, then keep simmering for 5 to 8 minutes more. Roll the eggs in the sauce so they turn red all over.
- Reduce the sauce. Keep cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens, turns glossy and clings to the rice cakes. If it gets too thick before the rice cakes are soft, add a splash of water.
- Taste and adjust. Bite a rice cake: it should be soft and chewy all the way through. Add a little more sugar if it is too spicy or a touch of soy sauce if it needs salt.
- Serve hot. Spoon the tteokbokki onto a plate, halve the eggs, and finish with the rest of the spring onion and the sesame seeds. Eat right away, because rice cakes harden as they cool.
Tteokbokki is best eaten fresh, because the rice cakes firm up once cold. To reheat leftovers, add a few spoons of water and simmer gently until soft again. Check the labels if you need a gluten-free version: many gochujang brands and most fish cakes contain wheat, and some rice cakes are made with wheat flour. Add a slice of cheese or a pack of ramen noodles in the last few minutes for popular Korean variations.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce tteokbokki?
Tteokbokki is pronounced roughly TUHK-boh-kee. The double t is a tense, sharp t sound with no breath behind it.
What does tteokbokki taste like?
Tteokbokki is sweet, savoury and spicy, with a thick sauce and soft but chewy rice cakes. The texture is similar to very firm, bouncy mochi or gnocchi.
Why are my tteokbokki rice cakes hard?
Hard rice cakes usually were not soaked or simmered long enough. Soak refrigerated or frozen rice cakes in warm water first and cook until they are soft all the way through when you bite one.
Can I make tteokbokki less spicy?
Yes. Leave out the gochugaru, use 2 tbsp gochujang and add a little more sugar or a splash of soy sauce. You can also add a slice of cheese, which mellows the heat.
Is tteokbokki gluten-free?
Not always. The rice cakes are often pure rice, but most gochujang and fish cakes contain wheat. Use certified gluten-free gochujang, skip the fish cakes and check the rice cake label.
What is the difference between tteokbokki and rabokki?
Rabokki is tteokbokki with instant ramen noodles added to the pan. The noodles soak up the spicy sauce and make the dish more filling.
