636 recipes. Page 5 of 27
Everyday Korean side dish recipes
Cooked bulgur is mixed into a Korean bean sprout side dish, so the crunch of the sprouts comes between plump grains. The dressing is the usual namul one of soy, sesame oil and garlic with a little apple vinegar added, and seaweed flakes go on just before eating.
No heat touches the garlic chives: they are simply tossed with soy sauce, vinegar and gochugaru. Pressing or squeezing draws water out of the stems, so the tossing is a light lift for no more than 20 seconds, and the dish is served right away or within five minutes.
King oyster mushrooms are torn lengthwise by hand, so their fibrous grain stays intact. They are seared in a dry pan first to drive off moisture, which is why the soy sauce clings as a dark glaze instead of turning watery.
Autumn mackerel needs nothing but salt, and that is down to its fat. The fat under the skin melts out and does the frying itself. Grated radish mixed with soy sauce sits alongside. If a pan feels like a chore, an air fryer at 180°C for 15 minutes works too.
Aralia shoots are around only briefly in spring, and this jeon gives them just a thin coat of flour and egg to keep their bitter, herbal fragrance in front. Before frying they are blanched for 30 seconds in boiling water with a little vinegar to take off the harsh edge.
The wingettes brown in a dry pan, skin side first, before the soy sauce mixture goes in to reduce. By the time the sauce is nearly gone, the meat pulls easily off the bone.
Chewy shiitake caps and meaty strips of king oyster mushroom hold their chew through days in a garlicky soy, vinegar and sugar brine with dried chili. Cutting both to a similar thickness lets them season at the same pace. One minute of blanching is enough. Any longer and the mushrooms turn soft and watery. Squeezing them firmly afterward matters more than the blanch itself, since leftover water dilutes the brine.
A mustard dressing gives these sprouts a nose-tingling heat, softened by the sweet tartness of vinegar and sugar. Mustard mixed ahead of time develops a sharper pungency. Unlike the usual seasoned bean sprouts, this one is always served cold, and the chill makes both the mustard and the crunch more pronounced. Overcooked sprouts go soft and lose the snap the dish depends on. Because cucumber and carrot carry a lot of water, the cucumber is salted and pressed first to keep the sauce from going thin. Set beside fatty mains like samgyeopsal or bulgogi, it clears the palate.
All the tang and heat of Buffalo wings, minus the bones: shredded cooked chicken baked with cream cheese, cayenne hot sauce, ranch and blue cheese until hot through. With the chicken already cooked, the oven only has to bring the center to 74°C, and raw chicken does not belong in this timing.
Shiitake, enoki and oyster mushrooms share one pan, and each keeps its own texture: chewy, threadlike and thick. The first wave of liquid they release has to evaporate over high heat, and the ground perilla seed waits until the mushroom edges look slightly dry. Added any sooner, it turns into a damp paste instead of clinging.
Mackerel is cut into pieces, brushed with gochujang, soy sauce and ginger juice, and left for 30 minutes before it cooks. Skin side down, the pieces stay untouched for 4 to 5 minutes until the edges set red. Any piece sitting where the sauce starts to blacken gets moved aside.
Eggplant cut into 7 mm rounds steams in its own moisture while the egg coating sets, and the inside turns soft as custard. At Chuseok many families fry these alongside zucchini jeon for the ancestral table.
Chicken thighs go straight into the soy braising liquid without browning, so the seasoning works between the fibers and the meat ends up glossy brown and seasoned through. Big chunks of potato soften at the edges and drink up the sauce, turning fluffy and starchy.
This kimchi is eaten the day it is made rather than aged: oyster and shiitake mushrooms get a one-minute blanch and a dressing of gochugaru and anchovy fish sauce. Tearing the oyster mushrooms along the grain into thick strips keeps them from collapsing, and the thick shiitake caps stay chewy throughout. Mushrooms that are not squeezed hard thin the paste and soften further in storage. Even chilled, it is best within 2 days.
Chewy seaweed stems meet crisp julienned apple, and a mustard dressing adds a sinus-tingling heat. Salted seaweed stems need a proper soak: if too much salt remains, the apple's sweetness disappears, and if they are blanched too long, they lose their snappy bite. Vinegar and oligosaccharide syrup, a mild Korean sweetener, round the mustard into something sweet and sharp. The salad is served cold.
Cedrela shoots are dressed only with soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil, keeping the seasoning plain so the aroma of the young shoots stays in front. Trimming a little extra from the lower stems, which are much thicker than the tender tips, lets the whole shoot cook evenly in just 40 seconds of blanching.
Five ingredients: oyster mushrooms, shiitake, butter, soy sauce and garlic. The garlic flavors the butter, the mushrooms fry in it, and soy sauce poured around the rim of the pan catches and reduces into a salty, faintly sweet film on each piece. A last bit of butter melted in over low heat gives it a gloss before it goes over rice.
Salted and dried yellow corvina has dense, concentrated flesh that grills up chewy and deeply savory, with no extra salt needed. A 10-minute soak in rice-rinsing water takes the edge off the saltiness; leaving it longer washes out flavor too. It is salty enough that a small piece carries a whole bowl of rice.
The eggplant is salted and blotted dry, and the ground pork is cooked first with onion and garlic, then cooled before it goes into the batter. Because the meat is never raw in the pan, even thick rounds cook evenly to the center, and the softened eggplant stays moist between bits of pork.
Bone-in chicken, chunky potato, carrot and onion braise in soy sauce and sugar, with no glass noodles. The glossy sauce forms only in the last few minutes, after the potatoes are tender and the lid comes off. Uncover too early and the liquid runs out before the potatoes cook; keep it covered to the end and the sauce stays thin.
Tender amaranth leaves soak up a soy and vinegar brine quickly. The vinegar takes away their raw grassy taste, and sliced cheongyang chili and garlic leave a sharp finish. Washed greens need to air-dry completely on a rack, because leftover water clouds the brine.
Unlike kimchi, mu-saengchae skips fermentation: the julienned radish is dressed and eaten the same day, with its crunch intact. Ten minutes under coarse salt pulls water from the strips so the chili-flake dressing clings instead of sliding off. Anchovy fish sauce lays a savory base under the radish's clean, mild flavor. Fresh from the bowl it snaps; after a night in the fridge it softens into a lightly pickled side with a different character. It is a standard partner for fatty dishes like samgyeopsal or braised short ribs.
Chamnamul pairs soft leaves with crisp stems, and the whole method aims to keep both after blanching. Cut to 5 cm, a stem and its leaves come up together in one pinch of chopsticks, and the dish goes to the table at room temperature while the stems still snap.
Canned saury goes into a soy-seasoned stir-fry of oyster mushrooms and cabbage, and a teaspoon of lemon juice just before the heat goes off takes down the fishy smell. The fish is already cooked, so it waits until the vegetables have dried out again and is folded in gently to keep the pieces large.