Jajangmyeon Burger
Jajangmyeon was the first Korean dish I ever had, about 20 years ago, at a place called Buk Kyung II in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. I was immediately OBSESSED. After that, when I got Korean, I would look for the dish on the menu and never find it. Finally after some research, I realized that jajangmyeon is actually a Chinese Korean Mash-up, so it wouldn’t be at every Korean restaurant.
Thankfully, I found Maangchi’s recipe shortly after, learned it’s a pretty easy dish to make, and have been making it ever since!
Oddly enough, I have never done any new mash-up ideas with it. I randomly dreamt up the idea to use the sauce as a burger topping and suddenly had to make it ASAP! I had an internal struggle on weather to put the noodles on the burger or just the chunky sauce, but the chewy noodles are such an important part of the dish for me that I ended up going for it. Plus noodles on a burger look cool, so that’s an added bonus!
Start with pork in the pan. I used pork shoulder for this one, but belly is more common.
My veggie mix is cabbage, daikon radish, onion, and sweet potato. Regular potato is more common, and there is often zucchini in there, but again, I was using things I had around. I make jajangmyeon often and like to play with the veggie mix from time to time, especially when zucchini is out of season. Anyways, add the bean paste to this mixture, then some water.
So Good
I made a quick gochujang mayo by mixing… you guessed it, gochujang, and mayo. Slather that mayo on the toasted buns, then top with a double smash burger, then the noodles.
Then a bunch of sauce!
Finally, add some cucumber and gochugaru.
Incredible! Be sure to check out Maangchi’s recipe for a more info on how to make jajangmyeon.
Jajangmyeon Burger
Ingredients
Jajang sauce
- 1/2 pound pork sholder cut into small cubes
- 1 cup chopped cabbage
- 1 cup chopped daikon radish
- 1 cup chopped potato
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup fermented black bean paste
- 1 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Burger
- 8 oz Korean fresh noodle Refrigerated – Look for the ones with the picture of Jajangmyeon on the package!
- 1 tablespoon gochujang
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 2 pounds ground beef 80/20
- 8 slices munster cheese
- 4 burger buns
- cucumber slices
- gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
Instructions
Jajang Sauce
- In a large frying pan or wok, bring some oil to high heat and add the pork. Cook 3 minutes. Add in the veggies and cook 5 minutes.
- Stir in the bean paste and add a cup of water. Cover and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the corn starch and water. Drizzle the cornstarch mixture into the pan and stir to combine. Simmer for 2 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil.
Burgers
- Cook the noodles to package instructions. Rinse and set aside.
- Stir the gochujang and mayo together until combined.
- Toast the buns.
- Form 8 meatballs with the beef. Season with salt and pepper. Bring a cast iron pan to high heat with some peanut or vegetable oil. Cook the burger balls on one side for about 2 minutes. Flip, then smash as thin as you can with your spatula. Cook 2 minutes. Flip and add cheese.
- Spread some of the gochujang mayo on the bottom bun. Top with two burger patties. Next add some noodles, then a big spoonful of Jajang sauce. Top with cucumbers, chili flakes, and the top bun with more gochujang mayo. Serve.
