Quick tips
- Slightly sour kimchi works better for stew than very fresh kimchi.
- Briefly stir-fry the onion, pork or tuna, and kimchi before adding water.
- If you use tofu, add it near the end so it keeps its shape.
Kimchi Jjigae Recipe – Korean Kimchi Stew with Pork or Tuna (김치찌개)
Stews & soups🕒 55 mins🍽️ 3 servings
Korean stew
Kimchi Jjigae the way I cook it at home
Kimchi Jjigae is one of those warm, honest stews I want to keep in my family recipe archive. It tastes best with slightly sour kimchi and a little time for the broth to become deeper.
My notes for this recipe
Kimchi Jjigae is a simple Korean kimchi stew that tastes best with well-fermented kimchi. This recipe includes two easy versions: a hearty pork kimchi stew and a quick tuna kimchi stew. The base is Jongga pogi kimchi, onion, a little sugar, and rice water or water. It is warm, simple, and perfect with steamed rice.
How I cook it
- 3:00
Slice the onion. Depending on its size, use half an onion to one whole onion.
- 5:00
For the pork version, add a little neutral oil to a pot. Briefly sauté the onion, then cut 200–300 g pork into bite-sized pieces and brown it together with the onion. If using pork belly, you can also sear it in one piece first and slice it afterward.
- 2:00
Add 500 g Jongga Pogi Kimchi and briefly mix it with the onion and pork. Do not fry it for too long; it should just combine well.
Add about 10 g sugar, roughly one Korean spoonful. Stir briefly.
- 1:00
Pour in 800 ml water or, if you have it, rice water. Rice water gives the stew a slightly rounder flavor.
- 15:00
Boil the stew over high heat for about 15 minutes.
- 30:00
Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for another 30 minutes, until the flavor becomes deep and well-rounded.
- 2:00
Serve hot with rice. If you use much more than 300 g pork, the dish becomes more like Kimchi Jjim, a braised kimchi dish, rather than a classic stew.
