Skip To Main ContentMasterClass logo
|Articles
At Work
Log In
Sign Up
Food

Jajangmyeon Recipe: How to Make Black Bean Noodles

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Jul 7, 2022 • 4 min read

Jajangmyeon is a popular Chinese-Korean noodle dish that consists of thick noodles tossed in a rich black bean sauce. With a few simple ingredients from the Korean grocery store, you can transport your taste buds to Korea.

Learn From the Best

Sign Up

What Is Jajangmyeon?

Jajangmyeon (짜장면)—also called jjajangmyeon zha jiang mian—is a Korean noodle dish consisting of a rich, dark sauce made from black bean paste (also known as chunjang and jjajang), and poured over fresh noodles. Chefs and home cooks often add pan-fried pork and stir-fry vegetables to the dish.

This Chinese-Korean fusion dish, which immigrants from the Shandong region of China brought to Korea in the early twentieth century, is now a staple at Chinese restaurants across South Korea. The name “jajangmyeon” (sometimes spelled jjajangmyeon) comes from the Chinese word “zhájiàng,” meaning “fried sauce,” and “myeon” meaning “noodles.”

4 Types of Jajangmyeon

In addition to the traditional form of this dish, there are many popular variations of jajangmyeon cooked in Korean kitchens:

  1. 1. Gan jajangmyeon: Chefs make this drier variety of jajangmyeon without adding any additional stock or liquid to the black bean sauce.
  2. 2. Samseon jajangmyeon: This seafood jajangmyeon contains squid, mussels, and clams.
  3. 3. Jaengban jajangmyeon: This variation consists of noodles stir-fried in a black bean sauce and presented on a large plate or serving platter.
  4. 4. Yuni jajangmyeon: This variety of jajangmyeon uses ground meat and is also known as euni jajangmyeon.

3 Tips for Making Jajangmyeon

Whether it’s your first time cooking Korean food or you’re well versed in Korean recipes, these simple black bean sauce noodles may become your new favorite comfort food. Follow these tips to craft a delicious personalized jajangmyeon:

  1. 1. Change up the meat. You can make jajangmyeon with various meats—like steak, pork belly, chicken breasts, and ground pork—and seafood, like shrimp, squid, and clams. Alternatively, you can omit the meat altogether and use firm tofu.
  2. 2. Incorporate different vegetables and toppings. You can use a wide variety of vegetables—carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, peas—to make this dish. Garnish your noodles with a spicy chili sauce, like gochujang or sriracha, thinly sliced green onion, kimchi, bamboo shoots, pickled radishes, boiled or fried eggs, sliced raw onions, sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds.
  3. 3. Use fresh, frozen, or dried wheat noodles. Fresh jajangmyeon wheat flour noodles or udon noodles, which you can find at specialty Asian and Korean markets, will produce the best-tasting jajangmyeon. However, you can also use frozen and dried noodles (or instant noodles like ramen) to make this dish.

How to Store Jajangmyeon

It’s best to eat jajangmyeon immediately, but it will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days when stored properly. For the best result, store the cooked noodles and the meat and black bean sauce mixture in separate airtight containers to prevent the noodles from becoming soggy during storage.

Classic Jajangmyeon Recipe

email recipe
6 Ratings | Rate Now

makes

prep time

20 min

total time

40 min

cook time

20 min

Ingredients

For the meat:

For the sauce:

For assembly:

  1. 1

    Pat the pork shoulder dry with a paper towel, and slice it into ½-inch cubes.

  2. 2

    In a large bowl, whisk together the mirin, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, ginger, garlic, and pepper. Add the cubed pork to the bowl and stir to coat. Allow the pork to marinate at room temperature for 10–15 minutes.

  3. 3

    Make the jjajangbap sauce in a small bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the black bean paste, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and rice wine.

  4. 4

    Stirring frequently, cook the sauce until slightly thick, about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and set it aside.

  5. 5

    Cook the meat. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

  6. 6

    When the oil is hot, add the marinated pork to the pan and cook until the meat is no longer pink, 3–4 minutes.

  7. 7

    In the meantime, bring a large pot of cold water to a boil. Add the noodles to the hot water and boil until they’re cooked, about 3–4 minutes. Drain and set aside.

  8. 8

    Add the onion and zucchini to the pan with the pork and cook until the vegetables have softened slightly, 2–3 minutes.

  9. 9

    Add the cabbage to the pan and cook until it softens, about 2 minutes

  10. 10

    Add the black bean paste mixture to the pan and stir to coat the meat and vegetables in the sauce.

  11. 11

    Pour the chicken stock and cornstarch slurry into the pan and stir to incorporate.

  12. 12

    Stirring occasionally, cook until the sauce has thickened up to your liking, about 2–4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

  13. 13

    Divide the noodles into 4 serving bowls. Top each bowl of noodles with a ¼ of the saucy meat and vegetable mixture and garnish with thinly sliced cucumbers before serving.

Become a better chef with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Niki Nakayama, Gabriela Cámara, Chef Thomas Keller, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel, Gordon Ramsay, Alice Waters, and more.