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.
Simple and delicious. Thank you for such clear instructions and a great tasting recipe!
Thank you very much for letting me know! It always makes me soo happy to hear that someone really made my recipe and enjoyed it. 💕
I don’t have frozen rice cakes, I have dry ones in a shrink wrapped package. Can you direct me to a recipe or instructions for those? Thanks so much!!!
You should soak the dry rice cakes in water for at least a day or longer until it seem fully hydrated and similar to the frozen ones. And then you can drain and boil them like frozen rice cakes but may need to cook a little longer. If the weather is hot where you are, you may want to soak them in the fridge. Otherwise, should be OK. Maybe change the water after a day if you are going to soak longer. Hope this helps, good luck!
Omg I made it all the way down from grinding the rice and its sooooo delicious! My rice cakes I think might have too much water because while delicious and chewy they are a bit soft when I cook them (but still delicious so I’m eating them anyway) next time I will try a little less – thank you so much for your recipes, and especially breaking them down to how to make the parts because I can’t buy the ingredients here, also made the lemon apple soy sauce which s divine
I’m so happy that you decided to make the apple lemon soy sauce – it does really make a difference doesn’t it? Thank you so much for leaving me a comment. It is always so good to hear that it turns out well for others. Have a good one!
So.. I forgot to ask you – I was curious. Did you make your own tteok?? Amazing..
This will be next recipes to try because I saw fresh 꺽뽁이 in local Korean supermarket. It would be a great snack for our family :).
Good luck!!
Yum! My BFF Grace showed me how to lightly fry the flat oval rice cakes in butter til crispy, then salt them. I make them as a snack all the time, but now I’m going to get a package of these to make your dish! Thanks for sharing!
Frying rice cakes in butter sounds yummy! I’ll have to try it. Hope you like it with soy sauce. Thanks for your comment!
Koreans also like to grill it plain and then dip it in honey or sugar and eat as a snack.