A delicious hot pot stew loaded with kimchi, sausages, spam, rice cakes, and more. Budae Jjigae is a hearty and comforting stew, made with just a few ingredients in under 15 minutes!
what is Budae Jjigae?
Budae Jjigae (부대찌개), also called Korean Army Stew or Army Base Stew is a hotpot stew that was created after the Korean War out of necessity when food was scarce using processed foods from the US Military bases.
In Korean, budae (부대) means military, and jjigae (찌개) means stew. This hearty stew is loaded with kimchi, spam, mini sausages, tofu, rice cakes, and noodles. This is one of my favorite comforting hotpot dishes that I make once a month!
what you’ll need:
For the sauce:
Other ingredients:
- tofu
- onion
- cocktail sausages
- spam
- green onions
- glass noodles: and/or ramen noodles! I love adding rice cakes too!
- corn: or traditionally baked beans
- kimchi
- cheese: traditionally, this dish calls for a slice of processed cheddar cheese, like Kraft singles, but feel free to use your cheese of choice!
- broth: you can use anchovy broth, bone broth, or your broth of choice!
all the details
In a bowl, combine the gochugaru, gochujang, soy sauce, minced garlic, and sugar (or sweetener of choice). Mix to combine into a thick sauce. Set this aside.
Thinly slice the tofu, SPAM, green onion, and onions. Set it aside.
Arrange all the ingredients (except the glass noodles) in a shallow pan. Add the sauce to the center of the pan, on top of the ingredients.
Pour the broth over the ingredients, (if using a broth coin, add the coin to the pot and pour the water). Cover the pot and bring the stew to a boil on medium-high heat. Once the stew is boiling, add the noodles and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
more recipes you may like:
- Kimchi Udon Soup
- Chadol Doenjang-jjigae (Soybean Paste Stew with Beef Brisket)
- Yukgaejang (Korean Spicy Beef & Vegetable Soup)
- Korean Beef Seaweed Soup (Miyeok-Guk)
- Gochujang Stew
- Kimchi Tomato Soup
Ingredients
- 6 oz. soft tofu, sliced
- 6 oz. SPAM, thinly sliced
- 6 oz. Lit'l Smokies sausages
- 2 stalks of green onions, chopped
- 4 oz. glass noodles, presoaked
- 2 tablespoons baked beans or canned corn
- 1 slice of Kraft singles American cheese, or your choice of cheese
- 1 block of ramen noodles, dried
For the soup sauce:
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean chili pepper powder)
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili pepper paste)
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the gochugaru, gochujang, soy sauce, minced garlic, and sugar (or sweetener of choice). Mix to combine into a thick sauce. Set this aside.
- Thinly slice the tofu, SPAM, green onion, and onions. Set it aside.
- Arrange all the ingredients (except the glass noodles) in a shallow pan. Add the sauce to the center of the pan, on top of the ingredients.
- Pour the broth over the ingredients, (if using a broth coin, add the coin to the pot and pour the water). Cover the pot and bring the stew to a boil on medium-high heat. Once the stew is boiling, add the noodles and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
