This week I am sharing a Better-Than-Takeout Black Bean Sauce Noodles (Jajangmyeon) recipe!
Jajangmyeon is a popular Korean-Chinese noodle dish covered in a thick layer of rich black bean sauce and topped with fresh cucumbers. This mouthwatering noodle dish is often featured in k-dramas as a popular take-out food.
With a few essential ingredients such as the black bean paste and jajangmyeon noodles, it is easy to make this satisfying dish at home!
First, let’s saute the bite-sized pork belly pieces until they are crisp and browned.
Because pork belly will release a lot of oil, there’s no need to add oil in the beginning.
The oil from pork belly is perfect for frying the black bean paste as well. To make a tasty Black Bean Sauce Noodles (Jajangmyeon), the secret is gently frying the black bean paste until it’s fragrant.
What I normally do is to leave only two tablespoons worth of oil in the pan and drain the rest, then stir fry the black bean paste over low heat for a few minutes until the paste has mixed well with oil and fragrant.
Black bean paste is easy to find in most Korean grocery stores. Above is the kind that I used this time. Similar products are also available on Amazon such as this Assi Black Bean Sauce.
Now is time to make the black bean sauce.
First, we need to stir-fry the potato, onion and pork belly for a couple of minutes. Once the potato has turned translucent or soft, we can then add in the fried black bean paste and oil mixture from the last step.
After adding water and waiting for it to boil, I seasoned the sauce with sugar and let it simmer for about ten minutes with the lid on.
Once the potato is cooked through, and the texture of the sauce is nice and thick, our black bean sauce is ready!
While we wait for the black bean sauce to be ready, let’s cook the jajangmyeon noodles following the instruction on the package and set aside.
Above is the noodle I used to make this Jajangmyeon noodle dish. Similar to black bean paste, the Korean knife-cut fresh noodles are available in most Korean grocery stores.
If it’s hard to find in the area you live, I recommend substituting it with Japanese udon noodles.
Drizzle with sesame oil, top with cucumbers and sesame seeds, this better-than-takeout black bean sauce noodles dish is ready to serve! Don’t wait, enjoy while is hot.
Grab a pair of chopsticks, stir and mix the noodles thoroughly until all noodles are covered by the sauce evenly. Dig in!
Take a bite of the chewy noodles and juicy pork belly together, I am 100% sure you’ll be wowed by the flavor.
Share this recipe with your friends or leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts about this recipe. Cheers and see you next time!
- 2 servings of jajangmyeon noodles
- 1 cup pork belly, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup diced onion
- half a cup potato, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 cups water
- a quarter cup Korean black bean paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ⅓ cucumber, shredded for topping
- a touch of sesame oil for topping
- a touch of roasted sesame seeds for topping
- In a skillet, stir in the pork belly, sauté for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat or until crisp and browned, set aside.
- Drain most of the oil in the pan leaving about 2 tablespoons worth, add Korean black bean paste into the pan,
stir fry for about 1-2 minutes over low heat until the paste has mixed well with oil, set aside. - Bring a large pot of water to boil, add in two servings of
jajangmyeon noodles and boil for 3-4 minutes until cooked through (stir occasionally to avoid sticking), fish out the noodles, rinse under cold water, drain well and plate. - Turn to medium-high heat, stir in the potato, onion and pork belly in a pan,
stir fry for about 3 minutes until the potato has turned translucent, add in the black bean paste and oil mixture, stir fry to mix everything well. - Pour in about 2 cups of water, gently stir to mix everything well, cook under high heat until the water starts to boil.
- Turn the heat down to low, toss in the sugar and mix well, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for about 10 minutes (stir occasionally during simmering).
- Taste the potato,
if is soft and cooked through, and the texture of the sauce is nice and thick, remove from heat and place on top of the noodles. - Drizzle with a touch of sesame oil, top with cucumbers and roasted sesame seeds to serve.
- Mix well and enjoy while hot.
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22 comments
Isn’t homemade always better than takeout? hahah I love this recipe already, can’t wait to make it for the family!
Thank you yum going to
cook it tomorrow
Wow this looks delicious! Can’t wait to make this with my wife!
Thanks Tony, I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Delicious!! I ate this and drank soju and felt like I was in the middle o f a Korean drama. Better yet, it made me want to go to Korea.
Hi Jan, Thanks for your support! 🙂 I am glad you enjoyed it!
this recipe is soo good thank you! 🙂
Would this recipe work with black bean garlic sauce? I don’t have a Korean market near me so it was all I could find.
The original Chinese version uses a sweet bean sauce and a hot bean sauce combined together. you could probably just use the sweet bean sauce combined w a soya sauce for similar flavor. The Chinese version is much more savory and less sweet.
This is a great recipe! Much easier to do than others I added carrots to this and some oyster sauce. Also added a some corn starch to thicken. Thank you so much for this easy to make version.
Wow, It has been awhile I have not made one of my favorite KOrean dish the jajamyeon, I will make them today. Thank you for sharing Emma 🙂
I accidentally bought black bean sauce instead of the paste. How do I adjust?
Black bean sauce might too be a great seasoning for this particular recipe (It’s a Chinese sauce instead of for Korean cuisine) but it’s a great seasoning for the steamed pork rib recipe, https://www.spicetheplate.com/pork/steamed-pork-ribs-with-black-bean-sauce/, hope it’s helpful!
This is my son’s favourite food from Korea, thank you for an excellent recipe. It came out perfectly and even I enjoyed it a lot! I usually am not a big fan of jajjangmyeon because I find it too sweet. This recipe was much more savoury. Loved it.
Awesome, I am so glad you and your family enjoyed the recipe!
Thank you for the amazing recipe, I’m going to make it this week. Today I bought the ingredients but realized that I bought chinese black bean paste instead of chunjang. So I was wondering if I could still use the chinese paste for jajangmyeon?
Hi, I really love Jjangmyeon. But I have a bit of black bean paste left over, and the best use by date is coming up soon. If I made the sauce in advance, how long can I keep in the refrigerator/freezer?
Thank you
When I buy the pork belly, what approximate weight does 1 cup equate to?
Most Asian markets have pork belly available for sale. One cup to me is about the size of a fist, hope is helpful!
Can you use laugama chili oil with black bean along with black bean sauce?? instead of the paste???
Absolutely!
Pretty much double the cooking time on everything and use 1 cup of water at best, perhaps 1/2 a cup even or you get soup to boil down for 30-40 min. The idea is there but proper amounts and times are a must