Rasta Jajangmyeon
Two of my all time favorite foods, rasta pasta and jajangmyeon, combined into one incredible bowl of noodles. The flavors of these two dishes actually work really well together. As a guy who specializes in mash-up recipes, one thing I love about this dish is it is a mash-up of two things that are already mash-ups themselves! Jajangmyeon is a Korean-Chinese dish, and rasta pasta is an Italian- Jamaican dish. So many melding cultures on one plate!
The inspiration for this recipe
Georgina and I were making brown stew chicken the other night and when I added the browning sauce to the meat, peppers, and onions, the colors reminded me of when you add the black bean paste to jajangmyeon, That was all I needed to be inspired to combine these two incredible dishes.
Let’s make the jerk seasoning
You could use store bought jerk seasoning for this recipe if you wanted. But jerk seasoning is one of my favorite things to make at home. I always make a double batch and add it to everything I cook that week. I currently have been using the recipe from Jehan Can Cook as a baseline, but I change it up a bit based on my personal tastes.
Just toss it all into the blender and blend it up! In this photo is scallions, shallots, garlic, scotch bonnet, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, brown sugar, salt, thyme, lime, and soy sauce. So good! The fact that ginger and soy sauce are in the recipe and are commonly in Korean dishes, made me confident that these flavors would really meld together in rasta jajangmyeon.
Preparing the ingredients for Jerk Jajangmyeon
You want to get everything ready before you start cooking. Chop the peppers, onions, and cabbage, as well as the chicken. Typically in jajangmyeon, all the veggies and meat are the same size, so try and cut everything similar.
Traditional jajangmyeon would have pork, but I used chicken thighs since they are common in rasta pasta. I also traded the veggies. You could expect radish, potato, zucchini, and onion in typical jajangmyeon. I used red and green peppers, onions, and cabbage to make it more like rasta pasta.
For the noodles, go to a Korean market in the refrigerated section and grab any of the fresh noodles that have a photo of jajangmyeon on the packaging. If you can’t get to a store near you, these would work too, but the fresh ones are much better. Also grab the bean paste while you are there!
Cook the rasta jajangmyeon
Get the pan nice and hot and add the chicken first. Try and get some good browning on the edges. Then add the veggies and continue to cook to soften and slightly brown.
Make a space in the center of the meat and veggies and add in the bean paste and jerk seasoning. Stir it around in the middle to simmer, then slowly spread it out until it is coating all the meat and veggies.
Finally stir in some water and a cornstarch paste to make the rasta jajangmyeon more saucy and thicken it all up.
Serving rasta jajangmyeon
Cook the noodles, then rinse them in cold water. I like to add them to a bowl with a little sesame oil to prevent them from clumping up while I finish up everything else. Then put the noodles into the bowls and top with lots of that jerk bean paste goodness! Garnish with cucumber and scallions and serve!
I am obsessed with how good this rasta jajangmyeon came out. Thankfully I made a ton of it and Georgina and I feasted on the leftovers for days! I think I got her hooked on the bean paste too, she has been mixing a little into everything lately!
It’s really a bunch of my all time favorite flavors in one bowl, how could you go wrong?
Twists on this dish
I mentioned before that you could make this a bit easier by using store bought jerk seasoning. You could also switch up the meat and veggies to your liking! Adding some shrimp would be awesome, since shrimp is also common in rasta pasta.
If you have never made jajangmyeon at home, this recipe from maangchi is my favorite.
I love jajangmyeon so much, check out this jajangmyeon burger I made! If you want something to do with the leftover jerk paste, I love this jerk mayo ribeye slider! It’s also great in hummus!
Rasta Jajangmyeon
Equipment
Ingredients
Jerk Seasoning
- 1 1/2 tablespoons allspice
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 3 scotch bonnet peppers seeds removed
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons ginger paste
- 2 shallots
- 4 scallions
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
Rasta Jajangmyeon
- 2 tablespoons peanut or other high temp cooking oil
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into small cubes
- 1 onion diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 cup diced cabbage
- 1/4 cup jerk seasoning
- 1/4 cup Korean black bean paste
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- chopped scallions and cucumber for garnish
- 1 pound fresh Korean wheat noodles
Instructions
Jerk seasoning
- add all the ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside in the fridge until ready to use.
Rasta Jajangmyeon
- Add the chicken to a hot frying pan with a little oil and cook on high for about 8-10 minutes stirring often until browning around the edges.
- Add in the onions, peppers, and cabbage and stir well. Scrape the bottom of the pan as you cook to make sure all the browned bits from the chicken are incorporated into the dish.
- After about 7 minutes when the veggies are softened and starting to brown on the edges, spread everything to the sides of the pan and add some more oil. Add the bean and jerk pastes to the oil in the center and stir. Cook and continue to stir, slowly moving from the center, adding more veggies and meat into the paste, until you eventually have spread it throughout the whole pan.
- Put the cornstarch in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of cold water and stir to form a paste. Add enough water to your pan to just cover the chicken and veggies, then stir in the cornstarch mixture. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Let this lightly simmer for 10 minutes, adding more water if needed.
- Boil the noodles according to the package instructions. Strain and rinse in cold water. I like to stir them in a bowl with a drizzle of sesame oil to prevent them from clumping up.
- Stir some sesame oil into the pan with the meat and veggies and remove from heat.
- Add the noodles to the bowls, then top with the meaty sauce mixture. Garnish with cucumber and scallions and serve.