What is Gungjung Tteokbokki?
Gungjung Tteokbokki is a non-spicy Korean Rice Cake Stir Fried with Soy Sauce. Believe it or now, this version has been around much longer than the more common red spicy version. The word ‘Gungjung 궁중’ is pronounced more like Koongjoong and it means royal court. So I guess we can also call this Korean Royal Court Rice Cakes.
The Korean Royal Court Cuisine (궁중요리 Gungjung Yori) as we know it today are recipes passed down through generations of King’s chefs during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and only became available to everyone after the fall of the dynasty. There are separate cooking schools dedicated to teaching this cuisine but as you can imagine, it’s really not your everyday food..
In contrast, the prevalent story for the very popular spicy rice cake (ddukbokki or tteokbokki) is that it only came to existence in the 1950’s in the 신당동 (shindangdong) part of Seoul. Since then it probably has become the most popular snack for kids-although recently pizza and hamburgers have started to take over.
But certainly, when I was a student, there was always a tteokbokki house near every school and we just could not go home without taking a tteokbokki break!
And here are 2 Spicy Rice Cake (Tteokbokki) recipes if you want to try it!
Get my STREET FOOD style Spicy Tteokbokki Recipe
If you are looking for the spicy tteokbokki that’s cooked at the table, you should check out my other Spicy Rice Cakes with Vegetables recipe.
Tteokbokki Memories
Eating tteokbokki after school…it was sooo good but also soooo spicy sometimes. As much as I loved eating the spicy version, I often had hard time with hot spicy foods when I was little. And even in high school, I had a hard time eating this spicy tteokbokki which not only had gochujang but also tons of black pepper!!
It was almost painful to eat but my friends and I kept going back for more.. lol
As a kid, I used to wash Baechoo Kimchi in water before I ate it. You would think that washing it with water makes it taste like nothing but it actually had plenty of flavor – still a little bit spicy, slightly sour, definitely salty and then that deep, can’t-really-describe-with-words unique taste of Kimchi.
Mostly, this is how most Korean kids get used to eating spicy foods at an early age – by just tasting the watered down version first and then you want more..
Because this Gungjung Tteokbokki dish is salty, savory and slightly sweet, it is a great dish that can balance the spiciness of many spicy Korean dishes. This non-spicy tteokbokki is great for dinner parties and also a great snack for kids since you can sneak in some extra veggies if you want.
ABOut rice cakes
For Gunjung tteokbokki, you can either use tteokbokki tteok, thicker garaetteok sliced into quartered batons and even tteokguk tteok (oval slices for rice cake soup).
INGREDIENTS and ADDITIONS
Seasoned beef is usually added but can be omitted if you want to make a vegan version. Best mushrooms to use are shitake and oyster but any mushrooms can be added.
In addition to carrots and onions you can add napa cabbages, fish cakes and even zucchini!
Gungjung Tteokbokki (Rice Cake Stir Fry with Soy Sauce)
Servings: 2 Cooking Time: 25 – 30 min Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Directions
- If you have access to fresh rice cake, that’s great. If not, no matter, just defrost frozen rice cakes by soaking in cold water first for 10 min. or more.
- Cook rice cakes in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until they are soft all the way through.
- Drain. Do not rinse. While it’s still hot, add 1 T soy sauce and 1 T sesame oil. Toss. Set aside.
- BTW, the label says the beef cut is 설도(seoldoe) which is bottom round or eye of round. It also says it’s 잡채용 (chopchaeyong – for chop chae).
- I used my apple lemon soy sauce but you can substitute it for regular soy sauce and more rice wine. See my bulgogi post for the exact recipe. Also note that the amount of sauce is good for 1 lb of beef which is too much if it was just the meat but I wanted this sauce to season the entire dish and thus the extra sauce.
Dried shitake mushrooms are probably the most authentic ingredient but these oyster mushrooms were so fresh looking at the market! King or enoki mushrooms will be good too~
- Korean leeks are pretty big and long (usually longer than 2 ft and some are even longer than 3 ft! see photo below left – this is a pretty big cutting board) but not as big and not as thick as the ones you see in the US. I know Korean leeks are probably hard to get in places outside of Korea so substitute green onions if you can’t get Korean leeks.
This rice cake stir fry is a great for parties, pot luck and as snack for kids. So enjoy!
Storage
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for several days. Dduk becomes hard once it’s stored in the fridge. Reheat it slowly on medium to med-low heat by adding couple T of water and stirring often. Microwaving will reheat faster but dduk will become really hard once it cools so I don’t really recommend it.
Rice Cake Stir Fry with Soy Sauce (Gungjung Tteokbokki)
Ingredients
- 1 lb rice cake for ddukboki
marinade sauce for rice cake
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
marinade for beef
- 1/2 lb beef (chuck, sirloin, bottom round) or stew meat, cut into thin strips
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp rice wine
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- black pepper
Vegetable ingredients
- 4 oz oyster mushrooms (dried or fresh shitake, enoki, king all work well), torn
- 1/2 yellow onion , sliced
- 1 small carrot , sliced
- 2 green onions or 1/2 Korean leek (대파 Daepa)
Finishing Seasoning
- swirl of honey (optional)
- swirl of sesame oil (optional)
- sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- If you have access to fresh rice cake, that’s great. If not, no matter, just defrost frozen rice cakes by soaking in cold water first for 10 min. or more.
- Cook rice cakes in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until they are soft all the way through.
- Drain. Do not rinse. While it’s still hot, add 1 T soy sauce and 1 T sesame oil. Toss. Set aside.
- Cut beef into thin strips (approx 1/4 in), against the grain. This is probably the most time consuming part of this recipe. EASY TIP: cut bulgogi meat into smaller pieces instead.
- Marinate beef strips in my apple lemon soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, sesame oil, honey, garlic mixture and let it sit while you prepare other ingredients.
- Substitute my bulgogi marinade. Also note that the amount of sauce is good for 1 lb of beef which is too much if it was just the meat but I wanted this sauce to season the entire dish and thus the extra sauce.
- Cut carrot lengthwise and then into thin slices diagonally so that the size is similar to your tteok piece.
- Tear 0yster mushrooms by hand into smaller pieces.
- Dried shitake mushrooms are probably the most authentic ingredient but these oyster mushrooms were so fresh looking at the market! King or enoki mushrooms will be good too~
- Cut 1/2 of a Korean leek first into 2 in long pieces and then quarter them.
- Cut onions into thin slices.
- Heat frying pan on med-high heat. Transfer beef (set aside any leftover marinade sauce) into the pan and saute the beef strips for 2-3 minutes.
- Saute carrots, onions and mushrooms (except for green onions) with the beef, 2-3 min.
- Add rice cakes and stir fry for 5-6 minutes until everything is evenly cooked.
- Taste. For kids snacks, keep the seasoning light and do not add the leftover marinade sauce. For side dishes, add some of the remaining beef marinade sauce for additional seasoning.
- Add green onions. For final seasoning, swirl in some honey and sesame oil before serving.
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds as garnish.
DELICIOUS!!!! I made mine with Tofu that I fried in my air fryer, and added cubed gray squash. It was SOOOOOO good! Family said I was expected to make this a lot! I used a teeny bit of chili sesame with the regular sesame oil. The perfect amount of spice!
Oh yay!! Using Tofu is a great idea – I’m sure that was yummy. Thank you for sharing your tips!
This was super easy and delicious, I can’t eat spicy food right now so really appreciated how flavorful it was! I didn’t have some of the ingredients so used ground pork and bok choy instead of beef and cabbage. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Also good to know that it works well with bok choy too. Thank you for letting me know.
I’m so excited to use this recipe but wanted to use pork belly strips instead of beef. Is there a difference in cooking time if I use that instead?
Oh hmm.. well, not really but you will just have to make sure the pork belly is cooked and also I think you may want to render the fat as much as possible and discard before adding everything else because it may be too rich otherwise. good luck!
I want to use this recipe. Your “apple lemon” sauce goes to a 404 page…
Hi Sara, I’m so sorry – I have been planning to update this post but have not gotten around to it yet…anyway, I think you were wanting to go to the Bulgogi recipe, not the apple lemon soy sauce? I’ve added links to both so it should work now. Also, you can always just search for the recipe in my search box on top right. Thank you soo much for letting me know. Enjoy!