Budae Jjigae - easy recipe for Korean Army Stew

Budae Jjigae, aka Army Stew, is nowadays one of the most popular hotpot dishes in Korea, but do you know that it was invented shortly after the Korean war using the leftover foods from the US military army base?

Loaded with tteokbokki, tofu, kimchi, spam, würstel, and breakfast sausages, Korean Army Stew is the ultimate comfort food that you'll ever need. We have got you a super easy recipe to make it at home, so let's get started now!

Serving: 4-6 people

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Army Stew is considered a fusion hot pot with Korean ingredients and western ingredients. You can get all the essential Korean ingredients on our website, from this Budae Jjigae Box specifically prepared for this recipe. The rest of the ingredients are easily found in your local supermarkets.

Ingredient list 1:

• 2 tbs Gochugaru Korean chilli powder
• 2 tbs Ganjang Korean soy sauce
• 1 tbs fish sauce
• 1/2 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tsp Doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste )
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 100ml water
• 1 tbs minced garlic (reduce if you don't like it)

Ingredient list 2:

• 2 tbs baked beans
• 120g cut kimchi
• 50g Korean sliced rice cake
• 150g würlstels, sliced to 5mm thick
• 100g firm tofu (natural no flavour)
• 150g Italian salsiccia or your local breakfast sausage
• 50g fresh mushrooms. Enoki, shiitake and oyster mushrooms are recommended, if you cannot find them you can use whatever type of mushrooms available in your local markets
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 200g Luncheon meat (Spam), sliced in 1cm thick
• 1 block of any Korean brand instant noodle (5 minutes to cook)
• 100g Korean glass noodles (6-7 minutes to cook)
• 1-2 slices of American cheese 
• 1000 ml plain chicken stock or water

Preparation:

1. To make the sauce, mix all the ingredients in list 1 in a bowl and let it rest.

2. In a large pot, add and arrange the ingredients in blocks from list 2 following the order.  Pour the sauce prepared in step 1 into the centre of the pot.

3. Place the two slices of cheese on top of all the ingredients, and add 1000ml of liquid (stock or water) to the pot. Budae Jjigae is ready to serve!

Serving:

Budae Jjigae is usually served over an electric stove on the dining table. You start cooking it when your friends & family start gathering around the table, when the pot starts boiling and the ingredients are ready, they can pick up the pieces of ingredients from the pot and enjoy. However, you can also pre-cook the stew, and serve it as you normally would.