Budae Jjigae or Korean Army Stew is a delicious stew originally developed out of necessity after the Korean war. It’s a spicy kitchen sink type stew filled with processed meats, noodles, and a variety of other cheap ingredients, resulting in an incredibly flavorful family-style stew.
Budae jjigae is a bittersweet dish for many Koreans (including my relatives), but it also shows the resourcefulness of the people during a time of desperation and famine.
History of Budae Jjigae
Budae Jjigae also known as Korean army stew is a dish that was developed after the Korean war. It was during a time when food was scarce in Korea and people were dealing with famine.
It’s an inexpensive stew made up of American processed meats such as Spam and hot dogs left behind from American solider rations. Since resources were scarce during the time, any cheap ingredient was added into the stew to ultimately create a delicious, rich, flavorful stew that could feed an entire family.
Today you can find this stew served at many Korean restaurants that serve bar type foods like Korean Fried Chicken. It’s also incredibly easy to make at home with hundreds of variations based on personal preferences.
How to Make Budae Jjigae
Ingredients
Process
- Place all paste ingredients into a small bowl. Whisk together. Set aside.
- In a large, shallow pot arrange sausages, spam, tofu, cabbage, rice cakes, and mushrooms.
- Top with paste mixture.
- Pour water in pot and bring to a boil. Gently stir to evenly distribute the paste.
- Once mixture is brought to a boil, add noodles, and continue to cook until everything has cooked through, and noodles are soft.
- Top stew with American cheese and green onions and boil for another minute. Remove from heat and serve.
Tips and Tricks for Making the BEST Budae Jjigae
- The spicy paste sets the foundation for the overall stew, so you don’t want to skimp on the ingredients. It’s especially important to use gochujang for the authentic (slightly) sweet and spicy umami flavor it provides. (If you’re interested to learn more about gochujang and my preferred brands you can find more information in our Gochujang Noodles recipe post.)
- Keep things cheap and simple, like the dish was originally intended to be. It will truly give you the best flavor and experience!
- Eat it immediately after making it to ensure the noodles and rice cakes don’t bloat and become soggy.
Variations for Korean Army Stew
There are so many versions of Budae Jjigae out there and if you want to mix things up you can add:
- kimchi – which will add an additional spicy, fermented kick to the dish. If I add kimchi, I usually omit the green cabbage.
- Korean dumplings (mandu) – on occasion, when I want to ‘beef’ the dish up even more I add a few frozen mandu to the stew and it really makes a fantastic addition.
- canned baked beans – I’ve never added this into my Korean army stew, but know that it was one of the ingredients added back in the day and could see how the sweet, tangy and creamy flavors and textures would be a good fit!
- (cut up) hot dogs – which are more commonly used than the lil smokies we use in our recipe. Whichever you use, you won’t be disappointed.
- other quick cooking vegetables – I love bulking this stew up even more with simple vegetables – my favorites being julienne carrots and thinly sliced zucchini.
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Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew)
INGREDIENTS
sauce paste
- 2 1/2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste )
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 1/2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean hot pepper flakes)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
stew
- 7 ounces drained firm tofu cut into thin squares
- 6 ounces (1/2 can) Spam cut into thin squares
- 6 mini sausages such as lil smokies
- 1 cup chopped green cabbage
- 1/2 pound tteok (oval shaped rice cakes)
- 5 ounces enoki or snow white mushrooms, trimmed
- 5 cups water
- 1 pack instant ramen noodles (without flavor packet)
- 2 slices American cheese
- 2 green onions thinly sliced on a bias
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place all paste ingredients into a small bowl.
- Whisk together. Set aside.
- In a large, shallow pot arrange sausages, spam, tofu, cabbage, rice cakes, and mushrooms.
- Top with paste mixture.
- Pour water in pot and bring to a boil. Gently stir to evenly distribute the paste.
- Once mixture is brought to a boil, add noodles, and continue to cook until everything has cooked through, and noodles are soft.
- Top stew with American cheese and green onions and boil for another minute. Remove from heat and serve.
NOTES
- The spicy paste sets the foundation for the overall stew, so you don’t want to skimp on the ingredients. It’s especially important to use gochujang for the authentic (slightly) sweet and spicy umami flavor it provides. (If you’re interested to learn more about gochujang and my preferred brands you can find more information in our Gochujang Noodles recipe post.)
- Keep things cheap and simple, like the dish was originally intended to be. It will truly give you the best flavor and experience!
- Eat it immediately after making it to ensure the noodles and rice cakes don’t bloat and become soggy.
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I can’t believe this was so easy to make at home! I love getting this at Korean restos, but now I can make it at home all the time! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
I first tried Budae Jjigae at a Korean restaurant near me. I had to be talked into it by my husband but of course I loved it (I mean — how could you not?!). I was so excited to see you guys post this recipe and I immediately ran out to get all the ingredients so I could make it for dinner. Turned out amazing — thank you!!