Japchae: The Complete Guide to Korean Stir-Fried Noodles

Japchae-noodle dishes are bright and colorful, filled with loads of veggies, juicy chunks of marinated beef, and a sesame-based sauce. This is actually a mixture of a stir-fry and noodle salad made using sweet potato noodles that have a peculiar slippery, chewy texture. It is totally delicious!

Japchae

I would explain Japchae as a type of Korean noodle dish that is a hybrid between a stir-fry and a salad. In my opinion, this is a marriage between the two, for in one bowl, noodles and sauce are mixed with the sautéed vegetables instead of on the stove and at barely warm temperatures.

You begin whisking the sauce in a huge bowl and then mount all of the ingredients in one after the other in said bowl: the noodles, a huge pile of stir-fried vegetables, and finally the pan-seared marinated beef. Give it all a mighty toss in the bowl to combine everything in it. This step is so satisfying; seriously, I’m into this. Just make sure you use a really huge bowl or you’ll be cursing!.

Ingredients in Japchae

Here’s all you’ll need for the noodles and sauce:

• salt and pepper
• garlic
• sesame oil
• sugar
• sweet potato noodles
• soy sauce

Some comments about some of the ingredients shown:

Japchae noodles – these are dried sweet potato noodles. Also called dangmyeon, these noodles are made from sweet potato starch and become almost translucent when boiled. It’s like Korean glass noodles! The packets you see above are sold in large supermarket stores in the Asian section, but can be bought more cheaply at Asian stores.

Replace – glass noodles transparent vermicelli noodles. And – while Koreans might think I’m insane to say this – you can absolutely make this dish with any type of noodle. It will still be delicious! 

 Soy sauce light or all-purpose. But not dark soy sauce; it is too salty and too dark in colour. For more details on which soy sauce to use, go here.

Toasted sesame oil is browner in colour and nuttier in flavour than untoasted sesame oil-which is yellow. In Australia, toasted sesame oil is the most commonly stocked variety; untoasted is a little bit more difficult to get.

Beef and marinade

This recipe utilizes beef short ribs. I know, it’s an unusual choice for a stir fry, but I think you’ll be surprised. It was for me!

• garlic
• soy sauce
• pepper
• beef short ribs(sub steak)
• sugar

Beef (options!) – My favourite cut for Japchae is beef short ribs. Believe it or not, it’s not only for low and slow! When the bone is taken out and sliced thin, the beautifully marbled meat is juicy, tender and full of flavour after just 90 seconds of cooking over high heat. (If you use whole beef short ribs, they need to be cooked gradually to dissolve the coarse fibres. Try this, this or this recipe).

It’s way better to have super tender and juicy beef chunks in a less saucy noodle dish than your typical Chinese Beef Stir Fry. So, I really do hope you give beef ribs a shot! I really think that’s better value than scotch or rib-eye more expensive steaks.

Other options are scotch fillet/boneless rib eye, which is the juiciest. If using other cuts of steak, such as rump, porterhouse/t-bone, sirloin/strip etc. (especially if they are inexpensive cuts), I suggest tenderizing them before using them in the recipe so that the pieces of beef are super tender. Thin slices of beef are hard to keep juicy because they cook in an instant. As I mentioned earlier, saucy beef stir fries get away with this. Not so with noodle dishes.

Soy sauce – Same as above!

Vegetables

These vegetables here are one of the most popular combinations for Japchae, with spectacular contrast in colors, textures, and flavors. But use whatever veggies you like that will hold up in a stir-fry.

• onion
• shiitake
• baby spinach
• green onion

Just a few notes on some vegetables:

Shiitake mushrooms are Asian mushrooms that have a fuller mushroom flavor than regular white mushrooms, brown mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms. If you can’t find them or they are too expensive, go ahead and substitute ordinary mushrooms. They are, of course, more reasonably priced at Asian stores.

*She ducks as Koreans throw rotten tomatoes at her*

How to make Japchae (semi-traditional way)

Traditional Japchae recipes call for cooking each vegetable separately to account for the differing cook times and to retain the flavor of each element. Yes, it is a pain in the neck-it counted as 6 vegetables above!.

However, when you throw them all together in one big stir-fry, those flavors tend to bleed together a bit. So I compromised, cooking the veggies in two batches, grouping them by cook time and flavor “bleeding” so that I could achieve the same effect as cooking them each alone. Added bonus: we use less oil.

Hope my minor shortcut does not offend Korean nationals! ????

Cutting beef short ribs

As I said before, I think beef short ribs are the best beef for Japchae because they’re the most juicy and flavorful. It’s usually sold on the bone – osso buco cut, which means the bone is cross cut, off the bone is rare in Australia so here’s how you cut the meat.

Such as with the use of a boneless steak or a boneless beef short ribs, this would therefore eliminate your need to cut the meat off the bone!

I’m not going to lie: beef ribs. My step photo templates require an even number of photos, and I only had 5. So I just put this in as a placeholder. “The beef short ribs. Ta da!

Remove excess fat. Beef ribs generally have thick layers of fat on them. Cut through the thick superficial layers. Not all, of course! That fat is what keeps it moist!

Place the beef rib upright and make cuts against the bone to take off the meat. Pretty easy as the bone is straight and flat.

Slice the steaks in half horizontally into thin strips of beef.

Cut in halves then stack and cut into thin 0.5cm/1/5″ slices.

Done!

Cooking Japchae

Beef strips are yummy. You are going to love how juicy these are!

Marinate the beef for about 20 minutes. Toss together in a bowl the steak and marinade ingredients, then set aside while you prepare and cook everything else-so it marinades for about 20 minutes. Because the strips of beef are so thin, it does not need a long time to marinate; though it would not hurt them to be left overnight.

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients of the sauce. We’re going to place the entire batch of Japchae in this bowl so make it large!

Cook Japchae noodles according to package instructions. Mine says 8 minutes in boiling water.

Drain noodles, rinse under tap water, shake out excess water, and set them in the bowl with the sauce. Do not mix; just let it be.

Vegetables Batch 1 – Sauté the onion, mushrooms, and white half of the green onions in a pan until the mushrooms start to soften a little. Transfer to the noodle bowl.

Vegetables batch 2 – Sauté the carrot and capsicum/bell pepper until just cooked but still tender crisp. Examples of “tender crisp” ????. The overcooked carrots, soggy and mushy, are absolutely unacceptable! Throw in the spinach and the green part of the green onions in for about a minute, or until the spinach has wilted. Transfer to the noodle bowl.

Beef cooking: Time to cook the beef! Cook over high heat for about 90 seconds, until the red is gone. Hopefully you will notice some browning in some places at this period. Then place it in the bowl.

Toss! Now add the sesame seeds and toss! You used a big bowl, as I mentioned in the beginning? If not, you’ll start crying or swearing right now.

Stir-fry and stir-fry until the sauce coats well. Check the color of noodles; the sauce colours these shining brown.

Then, place all in a bowl, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve!

YUM. That sauce is amazing! I like how it is not as sweet as the Japchae sauce served at some Korean restaurants that to me are a bit overly sweet.

It’s a large batch recipe so it’s perfect to take leftovers to work. It will keep in the fridge for three days-just heat it up, or serve hot if you prefer. But it’s also really nice at room temperature! Nagi x.

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