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Today, we’re making a Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancake! This delicious pancake will have you licking the plate clean after! Using sour kimchi and our special technique to make the CRUNCHIEST Korean pancake ever, you’re going to love it! If you’re looking for an awesome kimchi pancake recipe, then you’ve found it! If you’ve made my crispy kimchi pancake recipe, let me know in the comments!
Watch How To Make "Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancake"
The Secret: Old Kimchi!
When you’ve got some funkier-than-usual kimchi sitting in your fridge, you’ve got the perfect ingredient for these crispy Korean kimchi pancakes! It might sound strange, but the extra sourness really adds depth and flavor to an otherwise delicious pancake!
Prepping the ingredients for our Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancake
To start I thinly slice my onion. I’m only using about a quarter of this because I don’t want to overfill my pancake. I’m also only using the greens of a stalk of green onion. I cut it into 1-inch pieces.
Here, I’m using about a handful of kimchi, maybe about 1/4 to a 1/3 cup and cutting it into small chunks. I recommend cutting it up so that when you bite into your pancake, you don’t pull out a whole strands of kimchi.
A delicious batter for our Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancake
For our batter, this is the same mix that we’ve used in our delicious SUPER crispy Korean pancake recipe: equal parts flour and potato starch, baking soda, and salt.
For our wet ingredients, we’re starting off with the kimchi juice and adding the miso, and giving it all a mix so we don’t end up with large miso chunks in our final crispy Korean kimchi pancake. Now we’re adding just a little less soda than in our last pancake because we don’t want the batter too watery.
And now our dry mix goes into our wet and we’re mixing it until everything is well incorporated. You’ll have some small lumps in the flour, so don’t go TOO crazy trying to get a completely smooth batter.
Heat & Oil: The secret to a crispy Korean kimchi pancake
Now back over at the stove, we’re adding some oil to the pan. After our oil has been heating for a few minutes, half the batter goes into the pan, then we’re topping it with our sliced onion, some of our green onions, and half of our kimchi, making something that looks awfully christmasy if you ask me.
And while the batter is still uncooked, we’re pressing the ingredients in, then going in with the rest of our batter. Finally, we’re topping it off with the rest of our kimchi and green onion, kind of like topping a pizza. Now you could just add everything into the middle, but I wanted you to be able to see what was in the pancake from just looking at the top of it.
After a few minutes, we flip and are greeted by this BEAUTIFUL crunchy crust. That beautiful brown color and crunchy texture is what civilizations have warred over for centuries, and we’ve just created it in our own kitchen.
The Three Secrets to Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancakes
1. Batter’s Up
Our homemade Korean pancake batter mix guarantees a crunchy pancake with a delicious, creamy interior. Rather than buying the recommended Korean pancake mix + fry mix that a lot of other recipes call for, we use my tested and reliable Korean pancake mix.
2. Old Kimchi
Like we mentioned above, old kimchi adds so much more flavor and depth to these pancakes. The extra sourness and acidity cuts through the oil from frying the pancake. As an added bonus, these Korean pancakes are so flavorful that they DON’T need any dipping sauce!
3. Heat & Oil
Like I mentioned in my first post about how to make Korean pancakes crispy, you need the proper amount of oil to get a guaranteed crunch! I know some of you may have some reservations about the amount of oil I use, and you can certainly use less if you’d like.
On that note, cooking with the proper heat is vital to ensure that your pancake ends up light and crispy, rather than oily and heavy. It’s important to remember that we’re essentially deep-frying this baby!
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Crispy Korean Kimchi Pancakes Recipe
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- Flour 40g
- Potato starch 40g (Sub: Corn starch)
- Baking soda 1/4 tsp
- Salt 1 pinch
Wet Ingredients
- Sour Kimchi 1/3 cup (Sub: Fresh Kimchi)
- Kimchi Juice 2 tbsp
- Sparkling water 70g (1/3 cup)
- Miso 1 tbsp (Optional)
- Onion 1/4, thinly sliced
- Green onions greens only, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Oil 4 tbsp
Instructions
- Preheat a pan with 4 tbsp of oil for 4 minutes over medium heat.
- Mix Dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.
- Combine Dry and Wet ingredients. Mix until combined, small lumps in the batter are okay.
- Pour half of the batter into the pan, making sure to get it over the entire surface.
- Add the sliced onions, half of the green onions, and half of the kimchi. Lightly press the vegetables into the batter while it's still uncooked.
- Pour the rest of the batter over the top, then top with the remaining green onions and kimchi. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Flip the pancake and cook for another 3 minutes. After a minute of cooking, or until the batter as completely set, check the underside of the pancake to ensure it doesn't burn.
- Remove the pancake to a rack and allow to cook for a minute. Slice and serve.
I made this today! It was delicious! I found that getting the pan super hot, and then turning the heat down while cooking, helped! I used a lid to help cook the pancake after flipping it once. Turned out crispy on the outside and held its shape! Inside it was soft, kimchi deliciousness.
Eva, that’s so good to hear! Also, I just want to say THANK YOU for being the first person to comment on the site, ever!! I’m so glad the recipe worked out for you and glad you enjoyed the double crunchiness of the kimchi and the pancake! Trust me, I worked on this recipe and ate so many dang pancakes that I’m done with them for a little while, haha! But once I’m over my pancake exhaustion, I’ll be working on more to come! In the meantime, please feel free to check out some of the other recipes I have here! I hope that I can keep making delicious recipes that you and many other will enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks so much for making my day!
You are welcome! I like watching your videos on youtube and I will continue to keep looking at your new recipes to try! I also keep using this as my reference for a good kimchi pancake!