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Jeon, also known as Korean pancakes, represents a number of pancake-like dishes in Korean cuisine that are often served as appetizers, side dishes, or consumed as snacks. Although jeon are typically prepared in savory versions, there are also some sweet varieties of these flavorful pancakes.
At their simplest, it is food that is first coated in flour and eggs, then pan-fried in oil. Jeon incorporates ingredients such as thinly sliced meat, poultry, seafood, and various vegetables. The pancakes are traditionally prepared every year during the Korean Lunar New Year and Korean Harvest Festival, although they are eaten daily throughout the year.
VARIATIONS OF Jeon
MOST ICONIC Jeon
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Gamjajeon is a type of Korean pancake prepared with grated or puréed potatoes, while some varieties may include scallions, chives, carrots, or onions. The pancakes are usually small and round and should be pan-fried until perfectly crispy on the outside.
They make for an excellent snack, side dish, or an appetizer, as well as a light main course. Gamjajeon are usually served with choganjang dipping sauce that combines soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and water, or optionally gochujang chili paste, chili flakes, and sesame seeds.
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Pajeon is a variety of jeon (Korean pancakes), made with a batter of rice flour, eggs, and green onions (pa), the key ingredient in this dish, hence the name. It is a popular snack or an appetizer that is usually served with rice and a combination of soy sauce and vinegar, used as a dipping sauce.
There are endless variations of the dish prepared by adding other ingredients to it, such as vegetables, kimchi, or seafood. The pancakes, which are easily recognizable by the green onions sticking out from all sides, can either be cooked as small discs or one large pancake that is then cut into individual portions.
MOST ICONIC Pajeon
View moreIn its simplest form, this South Korean pancake incorporates sliced kimchi, preferably ripe version, with a simple flour batter. The dish belongs to a wide group of jeon—savory Korean pancakes—and it is easily adapted with various ingredients such as chili paste (gochujang), ground meat, or other vegetables.
The pancakes are occasionally served with a dipping sauce on the side and may come sprinkled with sesame seeds. They are usually enjoyed as a quick, filling snack or an appetizer, but they can also be served as a main course or a side dish.
Ggul tteok are colorful Korean steamed rice cakes that are usually shaped into bite-sized balls. Translated as honey cakes, they are traditionally served drizzled with honey-infused syrup. Even though ggul tteok are often prepared plain, some varieties are filled with sesame and occasionally served dusted with roasted soybean powder.
Available at many specialized shops, these chewy cakes are usually enjoyed as a dessert or a sweet snack.
Gim gui is a simple, yet delicious Korean side dish consisting of crispy and salty roasted seaweed. The dish is a common item in numerous bento boxes due to its great flavor and hefty doses of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. Many people like to consume gim gui with a cold beer on the side because of its overpowering saltiness.
Although gim gui can nowadays be found in most grocery stores, in the past, every Korean cook used to roast his own seaweed. When beer is not available, it is recommended to pair gim gui seaweed with freshly steamed white rice and consume the whole thing as a nutritious snack.
Nurungji is the South Korean version of scorched rice—a crispy and nutty layer of golden-brown rice that forms at the bottom of the pan. This simple snack is prepared with pre-cooked rice, or it can be a by-product of cooking rice. Nurungji can be enjoyed on its own, but it is often sprinkled with sugar and served as a dessert.
Optionally, the crust can be topped and shortly cooked with water or tea to create sungnyung—an infusion that is served after a meal and should be enjoyed as a drink.
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Haemuljeon is a traditional dish originating from South Korea. This type of jeon (pan-fried battered food) is made with a combination of seafood, scallions, eggs, flour, and oil. Seafood such as mussels, oysters, squid, shrimp, and clams are cut into bite-sized pieces and then mixed with the scallions, eggs, and flour.
Once battered, the mixture is pan-fried in hot oil on both sides until the pancake turns golden brown on both sides. Haemuljeon is served hot with a dipping sauce on the side. The dipping sauce usually consists of soy sauce, vinegar, red pepper flakes, sugar, and black pepper.
Bungeoppang is an unusual fish-shaped South Korean pastry filled with red beans. The outer shell is made with a simple batter consisting of eggs, flour, raising agents, sugar, and water. It is poured in fish-shaped molds, and a dollop of smooth or coarse red bean paste is then placed in the middle.
Enclosed in the mold, the pastry is baked on the stove until golden brown and crisp on the edges. The red bean filling is evenly distributed within the pastry and stays safely tucked inside. One of the most popular varieties of this sweet snack is known as ice bungeoppang, the factory-produced treat which combines ice cream with red bean filling.
MOST ICONIC Bungeoppang
This popular Korean snack consists of thin strips of dried squid (ojingeo chae) that are stir-fried together with gochujang-based chili paste and various additions such as garlic, soy sauce, or rice wine. The spicy snack is often served at bars and goes especially well with beer, but it is also commonly enjoyed as an accompaniment to rice or other Korean dishes.
It is typically served in small bowls and comes garnished with roasted sesame seeds. Ojingeo chae muchim is a similar dish in which the thin squid strips are merely coated in a spicy paste.
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