KO EN Korean Appetizer⏱ 20 minEdit history

Kimchijeon (Kimchi Pancake)

Name: Kimchijeon (Kimchi Pancake)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 1.5 cups Well-fermented kimchi; 1 cup Korean frying mix; 2 tbsp Kimchi brine; 0.75 cup Water; 0.5 stalk Green onion; 0.25 Onion; 1 Cheongyang chili; 1 tsp Sugar; 4 tbsp Cooking oil

Korean kimchi pancake — well-fermented kimchi chopped into a batter and pan-fried crisp. The classic rainy-day dish with makgeolli, and the tastiest way to use up sour kimchi.

Ingredients

2servings

Well-fermented kimchi · chopped1.5 cups
Korean frying mix · or flour + salt1 cup
Kimchi brine · for color and flavor2 tbsp
Water · cold0.75 cup
Green onion · sliced, optional0.5 stalk
Onion · sliced, optional0.25
Cheongyang chili · optional1
Sugar · if the kimchi is very sour1 tsp
Cooking oil · generous4 tbsp

Steps

Chop the well-fermented kimchi; slice the green onion, onion, and chili.
⏲ 2 min
Whisk the frying mix with water and kimchi brine into a slightly thin batter, then fold in the kimchi and vegetables. Add a little sugar if the kimchi is very sour.
⏲ 2 min
Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan over medium heat and spread the batter into a thin round.
⏲ 1 min
Fry until the bottom is golden and crisp. Don't fuss with it too much.
⏲ 4 min
Flip once and crisp the other side, drizzling oil around the edges for extra crunch.
⏲ 3 min
Cut into pieces and serve right away — lovely with makgeolli or a soy dip.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Tuna kimchi jeon: Add canned tuna for a richer, heartier pancake.
Cheese kimchi jeon: Top with mozzarella for a melty pull.
Seafood kimchi jeon: Add squid or other seafood.
Mini jeon: Fry small for bite-size pancakes.

Tips

Three of the five tips are one instruction: keep the gluten down. A thin batter, cold water and the kimchi brine are three different ways of stopping a wheat batter from building a network, because what is wanted here is a brittle sheet rather than a bread. Fish and chips states the first two as a pair — "cold, fizzy, and made at the last second are three ways of protecting" the same thing — and the brine is the third, working by acid rather than by temperature. The kimchi brings it for free, which is the quiet reason the sourer jar is the better one.
Bindae-tteok is the control, and it says so. That page files this dish with gamja-jeon and haemul-pajeon as the three that "stir ingredients into a wheat-flour batter", against itself, where "the ground bean is the batter" and there is no flour at all. With no gluten to manage, none of the three tips above has anything to do there — which is why that pancake is thick and this one is thin.
"The more fermented the better" is a statement about heat, not about taste. Kimchi explains where the sour jar goes and why: into kimchi jjigae, kimchi fried rice and this, because "heat pushes that sourness into the background." A jar too sharp to eat straight is the right one for the pan, and the sugar in the recipe is there for the same reason — not to sweeten the pancake but to bring back what the fermentation spent.
Which is also why the brine goes in rather than being drained away. It is the only liquid in the bowl that is already seasoned, already sour and already carrying the ferment's savour, so it is doing three jobs the plain water beside it cannot: hydrating the flour, weakening it, and seasoning the batter from the inside instead of from the dipping sauce.
The more fermented (sour) the kimchi, the better — really ripe kimchi is best.
Keep the batter slightly thin for a thin, crisp pancake; cold water crisps it more.
Kimchi brine deepens the color and umami.
Use plenty of oil over medium heat so it crisps and cooks through.
Flip it only once so it stays crisp and doesn't fall apart.