Simple yet absolutely delicious Korean Soy Sauce Noodles (Ganjang Bibim Guksu) is every Korean kid’s favorite dish growing up. It’s nutty, salty and of course, sweet. Just need 4 seasoning ingredients besides the noodles but full of fabulous flavors. Ready in 10 min or less!!
Ganjang Bibim Guksu 간장 비빔국수 or Korean Soy Sauce Noodles (lack of a better name..) is basically Korean’s version of Butter spaghetti that you make for your little picky eaters. I loved this as a kid and now that I think about it, I think this was probably the first dish that I started making for myself (sorry, I am changing my story from making Spaghetti meat sauce as my first dish). But of course, an adult cooked the noodles for me cause I was probably like 7 or 8.
It’s such a simple dish that it never crossed my mind to share it on my blog but recently I was asked to come up with a recipe that highlights sesame oil and boy, what better dish to highlight the wonderful sesame oil than this dish!
If you asked anyone who grew up in Korea in the 70’s and 80’s, I bet you, they would all say that they grew up eating this when they were kids 😝. It’s the perfect quick lunch or afternoon snack when moms don’t feel like cooking. Kids love it because it’s a perfect balance of salty and sweet but not at all spicy (although I will share later how you can spice it up!). And usually, you don’t add any vegetables but please feel free to add a soft boiled egg, green onions, kimchi, perilla, ssukat.. whatever you wish.
For Yummy Korean Soy Sauce Noodles, Use Best Sesame Oil and Jin Ganjang (soy sauce)
Because this dish is such a simple recipe, using the best quality sesame oil and soy sauce (jin ganjang) will make a difference in flavor. You can read my Ultimate Guide to Sesame Oil and also my Know Your Soy Sauce post to find the best tasting and high-quality oil and sauce for this recipe.
FROM JINJOO!
Tips and Substitutions
- Substitutions for Rice Syrup – Korean Jocheong rice syrup has about 21g of sugar for 2 Tbsp. Honey has 34g and Maple Syrup has 24g of sugars for 2 Tbsp. So, for 1/2 cup rice syrup, you can substitute 5 Tbsp honey + 3 Tbsp water OR Tbsp + 1 tsp honey + 2 tsp water OR 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp maple syrup
- Because chicken thighs and breasts take a long time to cook, you need to cook at medium to medium low heat so as to not burn the outside and have still have uncooked inside.
- How to tell if chicken is fully cooked? Besides taking it out of the pan and cutting it, the best way to tell if chicken is cooked is by pressing it with your spatula or turner. If it kind of feels mushy or soft in the inside then it’s not fully cooked. If it feels springy and bounces back when pressed, then it’s all cooked. Something I picked up from Culinary school back in the day!!
- Serve with Kimchi, Korean Lettuce Salad (Sanchu Geotjeori) and Chrysanthemum Tea and everyone will love you for it!!
How to make Korean Soy Sauce Noodles (Ganjang Bibim Guksu)
| Servings: 2 | Cook Time: 8 min | Difficulty: Easy |
Ingrdients
- 200 g Somyeon 소면 (thin korean dried noodles) or 2 cups cooked thin noodles
- Sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce (Jin Ganjang)
- 1.5 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/2~1 tsp gochukaru (korean red chili powder) – optional
- 1 green onions, sliced (optional)
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Measure dry noodles by either weighing it or by using your fingers.
Although everyone’s finger lengths are different, you can get into the habit of measuring with your fingers. For me, 2 servings is when I can fit the noodles in the circle that I make with my thumb and index finger. 
- Boil a pot of water (about 5 cups for 200g noodles). Add the dried noodles and cook on medium high per package directions. For ssal somyeon, you just need to cook for 4 minutes. Cook with no lid and if it looks like it’s going to boil over (lilke in the picture), pour about 1/2 cup of cold water and the foam will quickly go down. You may need to repeat as necessary until you reach 4 minutes.
- Prepare a big bowl of cold icy water and dump the hot cooked noodles into the cold water bath. Rinse noodles until it’s completely cooled down. Drain.
- In a bowl, add the noodles, add sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds and mix well. Taste and adjust as needed.
- That’s it!! That’s all you need to do to make Korean soy sauce noodles! Optionally, add some sliced green onions or some gochukaru to your Ganjang Bibim Guksu to make a grown-up version 😝! It will add a great fresh zingy flavor that I personally like better. Here’s how that looks – I hope you try it cause it’s extra yummy!!!
Although everyone’s finger lengths are different, you can get into the habit of measuring with your fingers. For me, 2 servings is when I can fit the noodles in the circle that I make with my thumb and index finger. 
Korean Soy Sauce Noodles (Ganjang Bibim Guksu)
Ingredients
- 200 g Somyeon 소면 thin korean dried noodles or 2 cups cooked thin noodles
Sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce Jin Ganjang
- 1.5 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder (gochukaru) korean red chili powder – optional
- 1 green onions sliced (optional)
Instructions
- Boil a pot of water (about 5 cups for 200g noodles). Add dried noodles to pot and cook per package directions. For ssal somyeon, you just need to cooke for 4 minutes. Keep the lid off and if it looks like it will boil over, add a splash of cold water and the foam will go down.
- Prepare a big bowl of cold icy water and dump the hot cooked noodles into the cold water bath. Rinse noodles until it’s completely cooled down. Drain.
- In a bowl, add the noodles, add sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds and mix until noodles are evenly coated. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- That’s it!! If you want, you can add some sliced green onions or some gochukaru, it will help to add another layer of fresh zingy flavor.
Tips & Notes:
- The sodium level on this dish is quite higher than the actual dish because the noodles will lose a lot of sodium after it’s boiled in water and rinsed.
- Feel free to try other toppings to this very basic noodle dish. You can add a soft boiled egg, more cooked veggies, whatever you want to try!
- Noodles – I like to use Sempio Ssal Somyeon 쌀소면 which is gluten-free and delicious. But you can use any other thin wheat Somyeon noodles or even angel hair pasta. You can read more about Somyeon HERE.
Hello~
Just wondering, how well do these pack? Say if I wanted to make them in the evening for my lunch the next day, would they still be fine or would they dry out/stick together?
I would say it would be best if you made the sauce separately and then mix it before you eat lunch. You could still cook the noodles the day before and try coating it with just sesame oil to prevent it from sticking together. Then just add soy sauce and sugar before eating? Hope that helps.
I tried it for my 6yo daughter for her lunch. She loves it, it’s such a simple and
Yet delicious lunch . Now I have one more quick fuss free recipe for her lunch ideas . Thank you. Hope to see more kid friendly dishes.
Wonderful!! It was definitely my favorite when I was 6! Yup, will try to do more kid friendly dishes – thank you!
Yum! Excited to try this! Never had this growing up though (80s korean-american kid), gotta ask my mom about it.
Ps. The “chef’s tip” section in this post is about about beef stock and tteok guk 😉
Yay!! Yes, ask your mom and she would know what I mean.. and thank you for letting me know. Not sure what happened but the editor just swapped out my chef’s tip from my previous post.. sigh.. will add the proper one back in. Enjoy!