Korean Chive Pancake – Buchujeon (부추전)
Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon) uses Garlic Chives and is one of those foods that may seem like there is not much difference between different recipes but just like how there can be a big difference in taste and texture between a plain ol’ breakfast pancake that you get from a fast food restaurant and pancakes that you get from a good breakfast diner; you can actually have an amazingly good chive pancake and oh, so-so Buchujeon that you get from any old Korean restaurant.
The key to making the best Korean chive pancake is the batter to chive ratio. As my mother-in-law used to say, “It should look like you don’t have enough batter and too much chives”. When making Korean chive pancakes or any other buchimgae/jeon, Chives or any other main ingredient should NEVER be swimming in the batter but be just barely covered in batter.
I have to confess, I always have doubts every time I make it. ‘Should I add more batter?’…is what I always ask myself and then most times I am able to stop myself and make an amazingly flavorful chive or zucchini pancake.
Before we get to the recipe, a little note about what I have been feeling lately. Skip this part if you want to get cookin’!!
So, this morning was one of those days where things just did not start right. Didn’t have a good night’s sleep – woke up about several times during the night, randomly for no reason. Perhaps, it was because I was kinda upset before going to sleep. No, no major life problems here but I just made the mistake of watching News on TV and that really started to upset me. Politics…..sigh….not my cup of tea. I usually don’t watch it because it just makes me angry. What I really get upset about is how people on all sides, twist the truth or even flat out lie to support their cause. Anyway, luckily, I did go back to sleep after few minutes and so I am functioning.
And then, one of the first emails I see is that my foodgawker submission was unfortunately NOT accepted. In the beginning, when I first started to submit pictures to foodgawker, I got more images rejected than accepted. It got so discouraging that I stopped submitting for couple years. I started to submit again this year and almost every image I submitted was accepted so I thought I figured it all out and I was all set.
Well, noooooo….for the last few pics, they started to reject me again. Anyway, whatever… just like anything in life, dealing with rejections and failures are a regular part of blogging and you just have to learn to chug along. Of course, not a happy feeling. I always remind myself that if I can make someone’s day better with my recipes then that is good enough.
So.. to turn a negative into a positive one, I decided to switch my posting order and post something that I most recently took pictures of and brought me so much joy doing it. I was recently inspired by what I have been watching lately to make me fall asleep – Chef’s Table. Oh, how amazing those chefs are. And then I found these beauties in my garden…
Did you know that chive flowers smell so elegant and pretty (similar to lilac) and yet when you put it in your mouth, it tastes just like chives? Just a little lighter in intensity of flavor…just like these cute, delicate and shy flowers. 😉 Too bad that there are never sold at grocery stores..
BTW, did you also know that planting chives under apple trees helps to keep apple scab diseases away and also deters insects from climbing the tree? So I planted some this spring. Hopefully they will grow more fuller next year.
Anyway, I decided to decorate my Chive Pancakes and Dipping Soy Sauce with these heavenly white flowers. It gave me so much joy to play with them and to take photos of them. Brings smile to my face just thinking about that day.
Recipe of Korean Chive Pancakes (Buchujeon)
Yields: 5 x 10-inch pancakes Cooking Time: 20 minutes Difficulty: Easy
- 7 oz (200g) Garlic chives/Buchu (부추)- makes about 5 cups
- 1 1/2 Cup flour (I used unbleached flour) or GF flour
- 1 Cup + 2 Tbs water
- 1 egg (large)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (fine sea salt)
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Clean chives and cut into 2 inch long pieces.
Cut chives for Korean Chive Pancakes - Make batter by mixing flour, water, egg, salt and sugar. Whisk well until batter is smooth.
Korean Chive Pancake or Buchujeon batter - In a mixing bowl, add chives and then pour batter but do it in gradual amounts to make sure you don’t have too much batter. If chives are swimming in batter, then you have too much batter. Batter should just cover and coat the chives.
Korean Chive Pancake batter for Buchujeon I find 1/2 cup batter to 1 cup chives is a good amount. This makes one 10 inch pancake.
- Heat frying pan on medium high heat. Add 2 tsp of vegetable oil for a 10 inch pan.
- When oil moves around freely like water, when swirled, pour chive pancake mixture and spread it out with spatula on pan. A mistake you can make here is to make the pancake too thick. Allow some empty spaces between chives and spread it out as thin as possible.
Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon) starting to cook in pan - Cook for about 2 min or until about 70% of surface looks cooked.
Korean Chive Pancake frying in pan - While pancake is cooking, make a simple Dipping Soy Sauce and serve either with some sesame seeds or chopped green onions or chive flowers like I did here!
Korean Dipping Sauce with Chive Flowers for Korean Chive Pancakes - Turn it over and add another 1~2 tsp vegetable oil around the edges of the pan. Cook for another 2 min or so until nicely browned.
Korean Chive Pancake turned over in pan - Transfer pancake onto a cutting board and cut into squares or diamonds like I did here. You can also just serve it whole and allow people to just cut it at the table. Serve with fresh chive flowers like below or just sprinkle some fresh chopped chives for extra chive flavor!
Korean Chive Pancake with Chive Flowers (Buchujeon) 
Korean Garlic Chive Pancake with Chive Flowers -
Buchujeon or Korean Chive Pancakes cut into diamond shapes with Chive flowers And there you go!! This is my daughter’s absolute favorite and it was one of the first vegetable dish my daughter started to eat when she was a child.
Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon)
Ingredients
- 7 oz Korean or Chinese chives – makes about 5 cups
- 1 1/2 Cup flour (I used unbleached flour)
- 1 Cup + 2 Tbsp water
- 1 egg (large)
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt (Trader Joe's) (fine sea salt)
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Clean chives and cut into 2 inch long pieces.
- Make batter by mixing flour, water, egg, salt and sugar. Whisk well until batter is smooth.
- In a mixing bowl, add chives and then pour batter but do it in gradual amounts to make sure you don’t have too much batter.
- Heat frying pan on medium high heat. Add 2 tsp of vegetable oil for a 10 inch pan.
- When oil moves around freely like water, when swirled, pour chive pancake mixture and spread it out with spatula on pan. A mistake you can make here is to make the pancake too thick.
- Cook for about 2 min or until about 70% of surface looks cooked.
- While pancake is cooking, make a simple Dipping Soy Sauce and serve either with some sesame seeds or chopped green onions or chive flowers like I did here!
- Turn it over and add another 1~2 tsp vegetable oil around the edges of the pan. Cook for another 2 min or so until nicely browned.
- Transfer pancake onto a cutting board and cut into squares or diamonds. You can also just serve it whole and allow people to just cut it at the table.
Tips & Notes:
You can also use Korean Buchimgaru (부침가루) or Pancake mix.
Garlic chives are different from the common chives. Leaves are flat like wheat grass.
Chive pancakes are best when served hot, they can also be eaten at room temperature.
Koreans love eating this Buchujeon as appetizers with Makgeoli. Try also serving this as appetizers instead of side dish at a party.
Store leftovers in fridge and reheat on pan on medium heat.
Nutrition Information:
Tips
- You can also use Korean Buchimgaru (부침가루) or Pancake mix that you can buy from Korean grocery stores and follow their instructions. That’s what I did in my Zucchini Pancake recipe but I thought I would create my own from scratch for this one.
- Garlic chives are different from the common chives which have a hollow inside. Leaves are flat like wheat grass.
- Although these chive pancakes are best when served hot from the pan, they can also be eaten at room temperature which means they can be good lunch box banchan.
- Koreans love eating this Buchujeon as appetizers with Makgeolli. Try also serving this as appetizers instead of side dish at a party. Check out my Makgeolli recipe here if you want to make some at home.
- Store leftovers in fridge and reheat on pan on medium heat.
you have done a wonderful job of documenting how to make something simple fresh and wonderful
I made this today with a few substitutions, I’m vegan so used some flax as an egg substitute, I also used a little maple syrup instead of sugar and miso instead of salt. I used whole grain pastry flour and soy milk instead of water. My batter turned out a but thicker than in the pictures, probably because of the whole wheat. In future I might use doenjang instead of miso (but mine isn’t made yet) and probably some date paste instead of the maple syrup. I like to try make everything as close to whole food as possible. I didn’t use oil and turned out fine and crispy using a non-stick pan. I may add a bit of roasted sesame paste to the batter in the future to get a little sesame oil taste.
Thank you for sharing and glad you are making it your own!
This tasted really good even though I don’t think I made it properly. I think my batter was a little too thick and maybe I didn’t put quite enough in – I had a really hard time spreading the pancake out in the pan fast enough before it started setting. However, I did manage to get it crispy. It was really tasty with some soy sauce + Chinese black vinegar + a little sugar!
Well, one thing to know is that my pancake has-on purpose-lot more chives than most. It doesn’t spread out easily like a breakfast pancake and you do have to use your hands or spoon a little to spread it out but the end result is a crispier and yummier one so glad you liked it!
Thank you for this! Making this tonight and needed a little recap. I’m Korean American and want to hold onto our culture through food. P.S Love the flower decoration in the soy sauce 😀 Great pics!
Great! I am so happy to hear that you are planning to make it tonight!! You should make some quick doenjang or gochujang jjigae to go with it. And thank you for wanting to hold on to our culture through food. I hope my daughter will do that someday. 🙂 Thank you for liking my pics too – so nice to hear that. 😍
I happened upon your blog via Twitter, and so glad I did! You have some lish-looking recipes, and I really like how you style and photograph the food too! I’ve become enamored with edible flowers recently and your chive flowers look stunning on these pancakes. Pinned, and thanks! –Ginger
Hi Ginger! Thank you so much!! I am totally in LOVE with edible flowers too..and trying to add it to my styling as much as I can. It’s not always easy to do with Korean food but I try.. I will be looking you up. So happy to connect and so glad you found me.