Flavor Planet

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!

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