Learn how to make the popular Korean hot pot dish – Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew or Army base stew) the easiest way! It is loaded with Kimchi, spam, sausages, ramen noodles and more!

After the Korean War, there was a shortage of food in Korea and most of the food that was available were things like Spam and frankfurters provided by the Americans, and so they developed this fusion dish. It remains a popular hot pot dish in Korea even today. I first ran across this as an instant noodle flavour so I tried to make the real thing. I used pork broth as the main soup stock but it seems to be mostly done with chicken broth or myeolchi yuksu (Korean anchovy broth). 🇰🇷🥫🌭🍜🧀🌶️🍄🫕

After the Korean war there was a food shortage. So whatever was on hand at army bases were made into soups or stews. It was usually leftover processed foods. For all who have served....

To make kimchi jjigae (TCHEEgeh), you really should use ripe (as in sour) kimchi. You could make it with the fresh stuff, but that's not what this dish was invented for, which was to get rid of the kimchi that's been fermenting just a little too long when you've got huge earthenware jars full of fresher stuff still waiting to be eaten.And because it's jjigae or stew, you don't want it to be all that soupy. Jjigae is meant to be thin enough to give you the occasional spoonful of intensely flavored and piping hot broth to eat with your rice, but not so soupy that you could drink it.This recipe is easily doubled if you'd like more servings. Just need a bigger pot. ;)

A Kimchi Stew with a lot of ingredients that make it an easy week-long meal. (The ingredients are for 2 servings, but normally come in larger amounts that will last more days.)Inspiration from Hyosun at Korean Bapsang

A one of dish from korea which have a long history. They say necessity is the mother of invention and this stew is a sterling example of that sentiment. Budae jjigae was created in Uijeongbu, an hour north of Seoul, soon after the Korean War when food scarcity led starving Koreans to concoct a meal using food that was discarded or handed out at US military bases. The Koreans added the unfamiliar ingredients, like Spam, hot dogs and baked beans, into a traditional spicy soup flavoured with gochujang, Korean red pepper paste, and topped it with a square of melted American cheese.

Budae-jjigae (부대찌개; literally "army base stew") or spicy sausage stew is a type of jjigae (stew), made with ham, sausage, spam, baked beans, kimchi, and gochujang. The dish was created shortly after the armistice that ended the Korean War, using the scrounged or smuggled surplus foods from U.S. military bases. Although the dish was born in the period of post-war impoverishment, it continued to be popular during the period of rapid growth, and is still popular today.Wikipidia

I had some kimchi in my fridge. I like stir-fried udon noodles with kimchi but this time I felt like preparing jjigae-style stewed noodles.Use the kimchi and its pickling brine too. It cooks through easily in residual heat in a clay pot so after covering with a lid, stop heating quickly. You can cook the egg to your liking but I like the eggs to be soft-set. Recipe by Bananazakuro

My mother long ago worked for several years in Seoul and had introduced me to this tofu stew. It's a simple dish as far as that goes. The normal soup base is supposed to be what they call myeolchi dashima yuksu (멸치다시마육수), a kelp and anchovy broth. I have substituted Japanese kombu dashi with no trouble, even used katsuobushi dashi at times. Seafood of various types, such as clams and shrimp is usually mixed in, and I've even seen pork slices added. 🇰🇷🫕🍄🐚🦑

I love to eat Korean food and because of this pandemic, I'm forced bring my cravings to me.

I made this soup to replicate the one I had at a food stall in Korea.Please be careful not to cook the oysters too long. The earthenware pot will break if the heat is too strong, so please be careful. Recipe by Cooking S Papa