Korean Recipes from Korean Fried Chicken to Kimchi Fried Rice

Our best Korean recipes include recipes for everything from Korean fried chicken, kimchi fried rice and Korean meatballs to Korean barbecue starters such as Korean cucumber salad, ‘coleslaw’, potato salad, and corn cheese. We’ve also got recipes for Korean noodles galore, from recipes for japchae, stir fried glass noodles with vegetables, and for jazzing up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, Korea’s most popular instant ramen.

I’ve had cravings for Korean food. If you have, too, and you love Korean food as much as we do, try some of our best Korean recipes. We’ve got recipes for the famous Korean fried chicken, fantastic with Korean potato salad or Korean ‘slaw’, the spicy Korean kimchi fried rice called bokkeumbap, and Korean meatballs, goji wanja, a popular street food snack in Korea that’s also cooked in the home.

We’ve also got recipes for some of the addictively delicious starters (banchan) served before Korean barbecue and as Korean drinking food (anju), from a classic Korean cucumber salad to Korean corn cheese, which can be made even cheesier or spicier, with the addition of gochujang, Korean chilli paste, or gochugaru, Korean chilli flakes, as well as recipes for Korean instant ramen noodles, and japchae, stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables.

Korean cuisine is once of our favourite cuisines. Terence and I fell in love with Korean food in Australia, way back in the 1990s when we lived in Potts Point, a cool inner city suburb of Sydney, which was packed with Korean and Japanese restaurants in those days, from Japanese izakayas to Korean barbecue joints. Most Friday nights we’d be tucking into Korean BBQ with a group of friends, while mid-week I’d often pick up take-away japchae on my way home from evening classes.

Korean food is hugely popular in our adopted home of Cambodia, which has a sizeable Korean expat community and a population of young Cambodians obsessed with all-things-Korean, from K-Pop to Korean movies and Korean food, but while there are loads of Korean fast food outlets in the student district where we live in Siem Reap, our favourite Korean restaurant is in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, so we tend to cook more Korean food at home than we eat out.

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And if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, we have many hundreds of recipes from around the world in our archives from places we’ve lived, travelled and loved. Note that you can save your favourites by clicking on the heart on the right of any post to create your own private account. Now let me tell you all about our best Korean recipes.

Our Best Korean Recipes from Korean Fried Chicken to Kimchi Fried Rice

Our best Korean recipes include everything from Korean fried chicken to Korean meatballs, Korean starters and salads to Korean noodles and Korean fried rice.

Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe for Jazzing Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun

Terence’s Korean instant ramen noodles recipe jazzes up Nongshim Shin Ramyun, which are the most popular Korean instant ramen and the best instant ramen noodles as far as we’re concerned. Terence likes the spicy soup seasoning of Nongshim Shin Ramyun, especially the Shin Black Noodle Soup, so all he does is add slices of pork, blanched bean sprouts and Chinese greens, a boiled egg, chilli oil, and fried shallots.

Instant ramen noodles get a bad rap as fast food for lazy people or poor students, but as I said in my post in which I share my best instant ramen recipe and now not-so secret formula for upgrading instant ramen noodles, all you have to do is take the dried instant noodles themselves, discard those little packets of dehydrated veg and seasoning, and add your favourite ingredients to really take instant ramen to the next level.

For Terence, the spicy soup base of Nongshim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup hits the spot, so he just adds melt-in-your-mouth slices of char siu pork, crisp Chinese greens, blanched bean sprouts, a boiled egg, deep-fried shallots, and his heady homemade chilli oil. Unlike me, Terence generally doesn’t find instant noodles very satisfying, but with a little planning, you can easily turn instant ramen noodles into a ‘real’ meal.

Best Korean Instant Ramen Noodles Recipe for Jazzing Up Nongshim Shin Ramyun

Classic Korean Japchae Recipe for Stir Fried Glass Noodles

This classic Korean japchae recipe makes one of my favourite noodle dishes, a delicious Korean noodle dish of stir fried glass noodles with mixed vegetables. The potato starch and sweet potato starch noodles, called dangmyeon in Korean, are doused in sesame oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds, then combined with stir-fried carrot sticks, onion, mushrooms, and spinach.

The original japchae consisted of thinly sliced mixed vegetables with a ‘special sauce’ – hence the name: ‘jap’ means mixed and ‘chae’ is vegetables. The glass noodles made from sweet potato starch didn’t appear until 1919 when a dangmyeon factory was opened in Sariwon and a version of japchae made with dangmyeon became popular a decade later.

Ever since in Korea, japchae has been a dish eaten out as well as eaten in, a traditional home-cooked meal and celebratory dish made for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries, as much as it is a Korean restaurant speciality and takeaway favourite.

Classic Korean Japchae Recipe for Stir Fried Glass Noodles with Mixed Vegetables

Classic Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe

This classic Korean cucumber salad recipe makes a light refreshing cucumber salad or cucumber side dish. Serve the salad crunchy as a cooling accompaniment to spicy Korean fried chicken, meatballs and stir-fried ramen, or any salty, fried Korean drinking food (anju). Or serve a smaller portion of a softer cucumber salad as an array of Korean salad starters (banchan) before Korean barbecue.

If you are a cucumber lover, we’ve got loads of cucumber recipes for everything from Eastern European cucumber dill pickles and Thai cucumber relish to cucumber salads, dips and sides, including a traditional Greek tzatziki, a dip of cucumber and Greek yoghurt, a Middle Eastern cucumber yoghurt salad called khyar bi laban, and Indian raita, a cooling side of diced cucumber, tomato, shallots, fresh mint and coriander that’s perfect with spicy curries.

We’ve also got recipes for a Cambodian cucumber salad, Burmese cucumber salad, Japanese cucumber cabbage salad, my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother’s cucumber sour cream salad, our radish cucumber salad, this cucumber and shredded chicken salad with carrot, daikon and chilli oil and my favourite cucumber salad, featuring cucumber spears tossed in our easy vinaigrette and fresh herbs, piled onto a creamy butter bean purée.

Classic Korean Cucumber Salad Recipe for the Refreshing Korean Side Dish

Classic Korean Coleslaw Recipe

Our Korean coleslaw recipe makes a Korean cabbage salad that’s a little zingy, a little sweet, a little sour, and a lot crunchy. This Korean slaw is the perfect side dish for Korean barbecue, fried chicken and fried chicken burgers. We love to serve this Korean slaw with an array of Korean side dishes and small plates, such as Korean meatballs, cheese corn, and potato salad.

If you’re a lover of cabbage dishes, especially coleslaw and cabbage salads, such as my colourful coleslaw made with purple cabbage and pickled pink shallots, this Burmese raw cabbage salad, and this Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad, you’ll this classic Korean cabbage salad recipe for Korean coleslaw.

We love to serve this Korean slaw as a side to Korean fried chicken – or any fried chicken for that matter! – as one of an array of banchan, Korean sides or starters for Korean barbecue dishes, with Korean-style burgers like this Japanese chicken katsu burger, or tucked into a Korean-inspired gourmet hotdog.

Classic Korean Coleslaw Recipe for a Korean Cabbage Salad Side Dish

Korean Potato Salad Recipe

Our Korean potato salad recipe will make you a popular Korean barbecue restaurant banchan or side dish that’s also eaten as comfort food in the home. Like a Japanese potato salad, Korean potato salads include salad vegetables such as raw cucumber, carrot and onion, and have a texture that’s somewhere between a potato salad and mashed potatoes.

This Korean potato salad is super versatile – like the best potato salads – and while this is a classic potato salad in Korea, there’s no reason you can’t bump up the amount of boiled eggs, say, reduce or increase the veggies, especially the corn, or add bacon or ham, like a Japanese potato salad, which is similar.

If you’re a potato salad lover, you also need to make my Russian-Ukrainian family’s pink beetroot potato salad, iconic Russian Olivier potato salad, my mum’s show-stopping salmon potato salad, and our warm German potato salad. This fragrant herb potato salad is also addictively delicious.

Korean Potato Salad Recipe for the Korean Barbecue Restaurant Side Dish

Korean Corn Cheese Recipe

This classic Korean corn cheese recipe makes a scrummy dish of corn kernels cooked in mayonnaise and shredded cheese just like our favourite Korean eatery makes. A beloved side dish or banchan served in Korean barbecue restaurants, you’ll spot this cheesy corn on menus of Korean drinking food or anju in bars. It also serves as comfort food in the home.

Some Korean corn cheese recipes make an incredibly cheesy corn dish. You probably know the kind and might have seen the over-the-top photos on social media of forks raised with gooey mozzarella cheese that stretches between the utensil. We’ve never actually seen anything like that in actual Korean restaurants.

The corn cheese that our favourite Korean eatery serves is nothing like that. It looks exactly like the Korean corn cheese does in our image, below. If you want to make this dish even cheesier, just add more cheese. And if you want to make it spicier, add more of the spicy Korean chilli paste called gochujang to the corn mixture and/or sprinkle the Korean chilli flakes gochugaru on top of the dish.

Korean Corn Cheese Recipe for the Popular Korean Drinking Food Dish

Korean Fried Chicken Recipe

This Korean fried chicken recipe makes crispy fried chicken coated in a spicy sauce. The chicken skin quickly soaks up the Korean fried chicken sauce and while that means it’s no longer super crispy, the spicy goodness makes up for it. If you can stop yourself from eating it all, the spice-soaked chicken skin tastes even better the next day.

One of our best fried chicken recipes, this Korean fried chicken recipe will make you crispy fried chicken that’s brushed in a special spicy Korean fried chicken sauce. The chicken skin soaks the sauce right up so you’ve got fried chicken with a super flavourful skin. While no longer crunchy, it’s incredibly delicious.

This Korean fried chicken recipe is perfect, as it’s finger-licking good, to quote a jingle of another KFC. And it tastes even better re-heated the next day. If you enjoy this try our Japanese fried chicken recipe, which, while not spicy, is super-crunchy.

Korean Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken in a Spicy Sauce

Korean Meatballs Recipe

If you’re a lover of meatballs – more meatball recipes here! – and a fan of Korean food, you’ll love this quick and easy Korean meatballs recipe for a much-loved Korean street food snack, goji wanja. Also made and eaten in the home, you’ll spot these meatballs on Korean pub and bar menus for anju or drinking food.

This Korean meatballs recipe is super versatile recipe, too. The juicy meatballs can be finished in the sauce, making for melt-in-the-mouth meatballs. Or you can add a tad more sugar and reduce the sauce down to a sticky glaze, which can be brushed on the meatballs. I prefer a firmer meatball and lighter sauce drizzled on the meatballs before serving, but up to you.

A Korean ingredient that’s a must is the spicy Korean chilli paste called gochujang – even though I’ve listed it as optional! The reason I’ve done that is for those of you who don’t like spice. These meatballs are just as tasty without gochujang. Another option for chilli lovers are the Korean chilli flakes called gochugaru. Although once again for us they’re essential.

Korean Meatballs Recipe for the Popular Korean Street Food Snack

Korean Spicy Ramen Noodles with Meatballs

This Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs recipe makes Korean instant ramen in a spicy sauce with Korean meatballs, sprinkled with sliced scallions and sesame seeds, and served with a cucumber salad. The ramen noodles and meatballs are stirred through a spicy oil made from chilli oil, gochujang, chilli crisp, and noodle water, just as Italians do with pasta water.

Inspired by spaghetti and meatballs, my Korean spicy ramen noodles and meatballs recipe makes the ultimate comfort food for lovers of noodles, meatballs and Korean spice. If you made a batch of my Korean meatballs, above, and our cucumber salad, also above, and have leftovers, then do try this.

Instant ramen noodles are our go-to noodles when we need a quick, easy lunch. But we rarely use the seasoning packets. I have my (now not-so) secret formula to elevating instant noodles while Terence goes all out, making a jazzed-up Korean ramen noodle bowl with sliced pork, boiled eggs, Asian greens, and bean sprouts. With this spicy ramen recipe, I also discard the seasoning.

Korean Spicy Ramen Noodles and Meatballs Recipe with Cucumber Salad

Spicy Korean Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap

This spicy Korean kimchi fried rice recipe makes a classic kimchi bokkeumbap stir-fried with Korea’s famously fiery fermented cabbage called kimchi and the spicy chilli paste, gochujang, topped with soft fried egg, and sprinkled with roasted seaweed, and sesame seeds. It’s fantastic, filling and comforting.

We use these adorable little non-stick single-egg pans to fry our eggs. We coat the small pan with the lightest coating of vegetable oil then crack an egg into the pan, and slow-fry over the lowest heat for a couple of minutes until the egg white is just cooked and yolk is still soft.

If it’s not spicy enough for you sprinkle on some gochugaru, Korean chilli flakes. If you can’t source gochugaru, just use Southeast Asian chilli flakes, and if there’s no Korean roasted seaweed at your favourite Asian supermarket, Japanese nori works. When it comes to sesame seeds, I’ll sprinkle on a mix of black and white sesame seeds or one of my homemade furikake seasoning mixes.

Spicy Korean Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe with Fried Egg for Kimchi Bokkeumbap

Korean Spicy Noodles Recipe for Stir-Fried Udon with Kimchi, Bacon and Fried Eggs

This Korean spicy noodles recipe makes stir-fried udon noodles with kimchi, bacon and fried eggs. While the Japanese fried udon noodle dish, yaki udon, has a soy based sauce, this Korean-style yaki udon heats things up with kimchi, the spicy Korean chilli paste called gochujang and Korean chilli flakes, gochugaru. We added fried eggs for this Weekend Eggs recipe.

Having said that, as with our Japanese okonomiyaki recipe, the eggs aren’t the star of this dish – although with the okonomiyaki recipe, eggs are essential to holding the Japanese savoury pancake together. You could certainly make this Korean spicy noodles recipe without eggs, however, for us, fried eggs with soft runny yolks that ooze into the noodles when broken, really make this dish. Soft boiled eggs would also work.

You’ll need spicy Korean kimchi fermented cabbage, the spicy Korean chilli paste called gochujang, and the Korean chilli flakes called gochugaru for this recipe. If you can’t buy them from your local supermarket, try a good specialist Asian market or grocery store, or Amazon.

Korean Spicy Noodles Recipe for Stir-Fried Udon with Kimchi, Bacon and Fried Eggs

Cheese Ramen Recipe for Cheesy Instant Ramen Noodles

This cheese ramen recipe makes cheesy instant ramen noodles, my guilty pleasure when I’m over-worked, over-tired, racing to meet a deadline, and can’t summon the energy to cook. An American-influenced Korean comfort food, these noodles are a favourite of Korean students and I totally understand why. Instead of American burger cheese I use Italian Parmigiano Reggiano and mozzarella but use what you like.

In Siem Reap our supermarket has a whole long aisle dedicated to dried noodles and half of that aisle is filled with instant ramen varieties. I’m often amazed by the crazy flavours, many of which are Italian-American influenced, from ‘loaded pizza’ instant ramen to hot ‘chicken carbonara’ ramen.

As a food writer, I’m naturally curious and love trying things new to me, so I couldn’t resist trying the Parmesan ramen. I was so disappointed but was intrigued by the idea of cheese in instant ramen – which is when I learnt about the Korean love of cheesy ramen.

I really love the combo of grated Parmigiano Reggiano (or Grana Padano or Pecorino Romano) and grated mozzarella, but you can use any combination of cheeses. I almost added a little red Leicester cheese. A vintage cheddar, or any cheddar, would be delish too.