Jjajangmyeon (Korean Black Bean Noodles)

When I was growing up in Korea, jjajangmyeon was one of my go-to choices when my parents took me out for dinner. I was fascinated by the look of jet-black, gravy-like sauce on top of hand-pulled noodles, and as soon as I got my bowl, I slurped the saucy noodles as if I was going to inhale them in one bite. Whether it was for a moving day, a graduation, or a birthday party, I always found reasons to slurp jjajangmyeon. 

I’ve tried many different recipes to mimic the flavors of jjajangmyeon that I fell in love with as a child. I remember there weren’t many vegetables in the sauce, mostly cabbage and onions. But there were large chunks of pork in the sauce, and it had a rich, thick consistency, almost like a chocolate hot fudge sauce.

This jjajangmyeon is a nearly perfect recreation of my childhood dream dish, with a few twists. It’s intensely savory, comforting, and perfectly slurpable.

Jjajangmyeon is a popular Korean-Chinese noodle dish that’s made out of jjajang sauce and fresh noodles, often hand-pulled. It was originally inspired by the Chinese dish, zha jiang mian, but the Chinese immigrants modified the flavors and techniques to meet Korean preferences. The current form of jjajangmyeon was developed in Incheon Chinatown in the 1910s. 

Jjajangmyeon is very savory, deliciously salty, mildly sweet, and pleasantly earthy at the end. It can be a bit greasy, so pickled yellow radish is usually paired with the dish to cut through the sauce’s richness.

The sauce is made of three key ingredients: black bean paste (also called chunjang), meat, and vegetables.

Black bean paste, chunjang, is why the sauce has its signature jet-black look. It has a slightly earthy, salty flavor, and it’s mostly used to make jjajang sauce. Most black bean paste sold at the market is mixed with caramel, which makes the sauce even darker, with a sweeter note at the end. 

The sauce starts with stir-frying the vegetables and meat. Different types of vegetables are used, such as potatoes, zucchini, cabbage, and onions. For the meat, pork is the popular choice. Once the vegetables and meat are finished stir-frying, the mixture gets seasoned with chunjang, followed by water to make it brothy. And a slurry, a mixture of starch and water, is added to thicken at the end. 

For jjajangmyeon, it’s most ideal to use fresh wheat noodles. But dried wheat noodles, ramen noodles, rice noodles, and even somen can be paired with jjajang sauce. But beyond the noodles, the jjajang sauce can be served over rice or mixed with chewy rice cakes for jjajang tteokbokki. 

1. Take the time to stir-fry the vegetables. As they get more caramelized and tender, the sauce becomes more flavorful. 
2. Gently fry the chunjang, black bean paste, in the pool of oil. Some recipes recommend frying the black bean paste on its own to eliminate the slightly bitter taste of the paste. But in this recipe, the shallow-fry happens in the pan with the vegetables, hence why it starts with more oil than usual.
3. Explore the garnish options. Serve jjajangmyeon with julienned cucumber for crunch and freshness. You can also add fried eggs on top — the rich yolk makes the jjajangmyeon extra flavorful. If you want to enjoy it spicy, sprinkle on some gochugaru.