Budaejjigae

Budaejjigae

“Budae” in Korean means army and “jjigae” means stew. Comprised of hodge-podge of Western and Eastern ingredients, budaejjigae is a living (and delicious!) artifact from a darker time during the Korean War.

During the 1950's, Korea was extremely poor. Food was scarce, meaning people had to be resourceful and creative to survive. In the beginning, leftover scraps and food waste from American army bases were collected and made to fit the Korean palate by adding spices, kimchi, rice, and water as a porridge style to maximize the flavor of the meat. Its original name was called “pig porridge” (꿀꿀이 죽) because it was a porridge fit to feed livestock. However, post war, the dish began to evolve into the budaejjigae we know today along with Korea’s socioeconomic rise. 

Another thing that comes to a shock to many foreigners who visit Korea is that people gift beautifully wrapped spam and ham “fruit baskets” during the holidays. Unlike its connotation in the US as a lesser cheap quality meat, Spam is looked on more positively in Korea. You’ll find spam in the most surprising places- kimchi stew, fried rice, kimbap, etc. I also grew up eating spam. When I was grocery shopping with my friends in highschool in Connecticut, (now almost 6-7years ago yikes) before eating spam was considered kinda “hip and cool”, many of my friends were shocked and disgusted. This came as a shock to me because I could understand why they could see Kimchi as gross from its pungency, but never thought that an American ingredient would be associated with lack of dietary education, low status, and poverty. Most had never even tried spam and had assumed it would taste like dog food. When they finally tried the musubi I made, their minds were blown. 

So, I’m going to add on another catch phrase today along with “don’t yuck my yum”.

Don’t yuck it till you’ve tried it.  

Ingredients

• ½ box of spam
• 5 hot dog sausages
• ⅓ cup of kimchi (I ran out so couldn’t use it in my video)
• ½ onion
• ½ cup ground beef
• 1 slice of American cheese 
• 2 tbsp baked beans* 
• 1 pack of instant ramen noodles, without the seasoning packet
• 2 spring onions, sliced down the middle and chopped into slivers
• 2 cups broth- I used chicken but beef, mushroom, veggie, dashi, all work

*baked beans are optional. If you’re not using baked beans, then add 1 tbsp of sugar in the sauce! 

Sauce

• 3tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) -  for more spice, add 1 tbsp more!
• 1 tbsp gochujang 
• 1 tsp minced garlic 
• Salt and pepper to taste

*1 tbsp of sugar if not using baked beans

Instructions

1. Prepare the ingredients. Assemble in a large casserole pot. 

1. Place on an induction/ gas stove. Buddaejjigae is best when it’s on a rolling simmer and shared with people like hot pot!
2. Mix the sauce together. Pour the sauce in. 
3. Simmer until the broth has thickened and the beef has cooked. If it over-simmers, just add some water to thin it out. 
4. Enjoy!

Budaejjigae

4 from 50 votes

Recipe by Doobydobap Course: AppetizersCuisine: Fusion, Korean, MexicanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2-3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

“Budae” in Korean means army and “jjigae” means stew. Comprised of hodge-podge of Western and Eastern ingredients, budaejjigae is a living (and delicious!) artifact from a darker time during the Korean War.

Ingredients

• ½ box of spam

• 5 hot dog sausages

• ⅓ cup of kimchi (I ran out so couldn’t use it in my video)

• ½ onion

• ½ cup ground beef

• 1 slice of American cheese

• 2 tbsp baked beans*

• 1 pack of instant ramen noodles, without the seasoning packet

• 2 spring onions, sliced down the middle and chopped into slivers

• 2 cups broth- I used chicken but beef, mushroom, veggie, dashi, all work

• Sauce

• 3 tbsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) - for more spice, add 1 tbsp more!

• 1 tbsp gochujang

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• Salt and pepper to taste

• *1 tbsp of sugar if not using baked beans

Directions

• Prepare the ingredients. Assemble in a large casserole pot.
• Place on an induction/ gas stove. Buddaejjigae is best when it’s on a rolling simmer and shared with people like hot pot!
• Mix the sauce together. Pour the sauce in.
• Simmer until the broth has thickened and the beef has cooked. If it over-simmers, just add some water to thin it out.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• If you’ve never tried Tajin before, it’s a seasoning blend of mild chili powder, lime, and sea salt. It’s usually eaten with fruit, and when you go to Mexico there are lots of street vendors with carts selling fruit on the stick with tajin seasoning. I personally LOVE it, especially with watermelon or pineapple, but if you haven’t tried it before, I recommend trying it with fruit before putting it on your food because it can be a hit or miss for some. 
• The plate I used is a cast iron slab I got in Korea for five bucks in a local market. They might have it in h-mart, but here's the next best thing that I would recommend from Amazon. It's a small lodge cast iron skillet pan that's oven proof + with a handle! It allows the heat to retain for longer and therefore sizzle when you are serving it. All in all, it's very versatile so I would definitely recommend having one!

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