Jajangmyeon or Jjajangmyeon (짜장면) is a Chinese-style Korean noodle dish with wheat noodles and a thick sauce topping made primarily of chunjang (sweet bean sauce) plus diced pork and vegetables. The Korean version is darker and sweeter than the Chinese. It originated in Inchon in the late XIXth century from Shangdong province. The name is Korean calque of Chinese zhajiang (or "fried sauce"). "Myeong just means "noodles."
This dish is easy to prepare and a crowd-pleaser. Simply leave off the pork and use water instead of chicken stock to make it vegetarian. You can get the noodles and bean paste at most Asian stores very inexpensively.
Ingredients
| 6 oz | jjangmyeon/udon noodles per serving |
| Sauce | |
| 5 tbsp | Chunjang (춘장), Korean black bean paste—some may be labeled as jjajang (짜장) |
| 2 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1 tbsp | sugar |
| 1 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 1 cup | chicken stock or water (add ½ cup more for thinner (more liquidic/watery) |
| 1 tbsp | potato- or corn starch |
| Pork | |
| 10 oz | pork (with some visible fat—shoulder cut, Boston butt) |
| 1 tsp | grated ginger |
| 1 tbsp | rice wine (or mirin) |
| ¼ tsp | salt |
| ⅛ tsp | pepper |
| ¼ tsp | baking soda (for browning) |
| 2 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1 tbsp | soy sauce |
| Vegetables | |
| 1 | onion, extra large, diced |
| 8 oz | green cabbage, diced ½" - ¾" |
| 8 oz | zucchini, diced ½" - ¾" |
| 1 small | cucumber julienne/matchsticks |
Preparation
These steps appear numerous, but they're really just three things broken up: a) sauce, b) meat and c) noodles. That's all—no more work than spaghetti and meat balls.
1. Have a pot of water ready to cook the noodles. Turn the heat on when you start cooking the meat to have boiling water ready for cooking the noodles, by the time the sauce is done.
2. Prepare the pork and vegetables. Marinate the pork with the rice wine, ginger, salt, pepper and soda while preparing the vegetables.
3. Add the black bean paste to a small saucepan with the oil, sugar, and the optional oyster sauce. Fry it over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Heat a large pan with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium high heat. Add the pork and stir fry until no longer pink, adding a tablespoon of soy sauce half way through.
5. Add the onion and cook until soft, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the cabbage and zucchini and continue to stir fry until vegetables are slightly softened.
7. Stir in the black bean paste and mix everything together until all the meat and vegetables are coated well with the paste.
8. Mix everything together until all the meat and vegetables are coated well with the paste. If you prefer ganjjajang (간자장), a drier sauce, you can stop here and skip the next two steps.
9. Pour in the stock (or water) and bring it to a boil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
10. Stir in the starch, slurried in chicken stock or water, and cook briefly until thickened. Add more sugar to taste.
11. Add the noodles in the boiling water. Cook according to the package instructions and drain. Do not overcook. The noodles should have a firm bite (al dente) to them. Place a serving size of noodles in each bowl. Spoon the sauce over the noodles and garnish with the optional cucumber matchsticks.