Jeyuk bokkeum (Korean spicy stir-fried pork)
35 min · 43 g protein · 626 cals / serving
Thin slices of pork marinated in a sweet, spicy, garlicky gochujang sauce with ginger and grated apple, then seared hot with onion, cabbage and carrot until the edges catch and caramelise. Wrap it in cool lettuce leaves with a little rice, or pile it straight on the rice. One of Korea's favourite weeknight dinners.
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes, Korean chilli flakes (gochugaru). Not crushed red pepper: if that is all you have, use 1 tsp of it plus 2 tsp sweet paprika for the colour
- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin, or Korean cooking wine (mirim)
- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ginger, grated
- 1/2 small apple, or Asian pear, grated
Pork
- 1 1/2 lb pork shoulder, picnic end, skin and outer fat trimmed pork picnic shoulder, raw, sliced 3 mm (1/8 inch) thin
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 3 1/2 cups cabbage, in bite-size pieces
- 1 small carrot, thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 4 green onions, in 5 cm (2-inch) lengths
- 1 tsp canola oil, for a non-stick or well-seasoned pan
To serve
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 cup jasmine rice, short-grain if you have it, steamed
- 1 large head green leaf lettuce, leaves separated, for wrapping
Steps
- Stir the gochujang, chilli flakes, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger and apple together in a large bowl. Add the pork and massage the marinade in. (Freezing the pork for 30 minutes first makes thin slicing easy.)
- Add the onion, cabbage, carrot and green onion and toss. Leave 30 minutes at room temperature, or up to a day in the fridge. Cook the rice meanwhile.
- Heat half the oil in a large non-stick or well-seasoned skillet or wok over medium-high heat (the marinade carries its own sesame oil). Add half the pork and vegetables in a single layer and cook 5–6 minutes, stirring only every minute or so, until the pork is cooked through (145°F), the onion is soft and the edges are caramelised and slightly charred. Repeat with the rest. Turn the heat down if the sauce starts to burn.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with the rice and lettuce leaves: put a spoon of rice and a piece of pork in a leaf, fold and eat in one bite.
Good to know
Can I use pork belly or butt?
Yes. Fattier pork butt (the upper shoulder), alone or with a little belly, is the restaurant cut and very juicy, at about 36 instead of 52. Avoid loin and tenderloin: they go dry in a hot pan.
Is it very spicy?
Medium: gochujang is as much sweet and savoury as hot. Use half the gochugaru for a milder pan, at about the same score, or add more for heat. Never swap in crushed red pepper spoon for spoon, it is several times hotter: use 1 tsp of it plus 2 tsp sweet paprika.
Can I make it ahead?
Yes, the marinated raw pork and vegetables keep a day in the fridge, or freeze flat in a bag for up to 3 months and cook straight from thawed.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 113
- Protein
- (29%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (21%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (51%)
- 15 g
- of which sugar
- 4 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 279 mg
About 65% of the alcohol remains after cooking; the label counts only that.
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2503 kcal goes into the pot and 2180 g of ingredients comes out as about 2220 g of food: 113 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.