Buchujeon Garlic Chive Pancake. A crispy, flavourful, savoury Korean pancake made with onions and garlic chives! So good paired with a savory tangy dipping sauce. Great as an appetizer, snack or side dish. Ready in 30 minutes!
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What is Buchujeon?
Buchujeon is a delicious crispy pan-fried Korean chive pancake. "Buchu" means "garlic chives" and "jeon" means pancake in Korean. The batter is made of garlic chives, green onion, onion, all purpose flour, cornstarch, various seasonings and cold water. It's served with a savory dipping sauce to make it complete. Many Korean restaurants will serve this popular dish as an appetizer or side dish. Koreans love to enjoy this savory pancake on a rainy day with cold beer.
I remember my first time having Korean savory pancakes. The version I had contained seafood (Haemul Pajeon) but I remember the most tastiest part of this dish was the garlic chives and onions. After making this dish so many times, I've finally perfected the recipe and I'm happy to share it with you all. I honestly love this version so much because it's so crispy and packed with oniony flavor!
Ingredients
You will need the following ingredients for this Korean pancake chives:
- Neutral oil: like avocado oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil. Avoid olive oil, coconut oil or any heavy scented oils.
Buchujeon Batter:
- Garlic chives
- Green onions
- Small Onion
- All purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Salt
- Regular soy sauce: or substitute with low sodium soy sauce or light soy sauce. If you’re gluten-free, substitute with tamari sauce, coconut aminos or a gluten-free soy sauce of your choice.
- Chicken bouillon powder
- Nutmeg (optional)
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Cold water
Dipping sauce:
- Regular soy sauce
- Rice vinegar
- Gochujang
- Sesame oil
- Sesame seeds
How to make Buchujeon
- First in a large bowl, combine batter ingredients adding the cold water last. Mix well until well incorporated but try not to over mix.
- Then heat 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large pan on medium heat.
- Next scoop half of the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly into a thin pancake. Fry on each side until golden crispy brown, about 5-10 minutes on each side. Tip: to flip the pancake, slide the pancake onto a large plate, then flip the non-fried side of the pancake into the pan.
- Once done, the pancake should be crispy, a bit charred, brown and cooked through. If you notice that the pancake is still not cooked through, leave it on the pan to cook over low-medium heat until it is. It should not be gooey inside.
- Then transfer pancakes to a cutting board or use clean scissor to cut into smaller pieces
- Finally in a small bowl, combine dipping sauce ingredients. Serve and enjoy with pancake.
Storage & Reheating
This dish will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge. To reheat, microwave for 2-3 minutes or reheat on the stovetop in a pan on medium heat until hot.
Expert Tips
- Chop the chives into 1 inch pieces. This will help it mix evenly with the batter
- Thinly slice onions so they can also easily mix.
- Use a non-stick pan. It'll really help in this situation so the batter won't stick and will be much easier to flip.
- Generous amount of oil is necessary or the pancake won't become crispy.
- Charring is recommended. It really brings out that delicious taste from the aromatics.
- Make sure the pancake is cooked through and is very crispy brown on each side.
- Slice the pancake on a cutting board or you can use clean scissor.
Other Korean recipes you may like!
- Haemul Pajeon
- Korean Tuna Pancakes
- Korean Street Toast With Ham
- Sweet Spicy Gochujang Chicken
- Korean Potato Salad
- Ganjang Bibim Guksu
- Spicy Gochujang Sesame Tofu
- Sundubu Ramen
📖 Recipe
Easy Buchujeon (Korean Garlic Chive Pancakes)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or as needed
Batter
- 100 grams garlic chives chopped into 2 inch long pieces
- 2 green onions chopped into 1 inch long pieces
- ½ small onion thinly sliced
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon regular soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon chicken powder
- â…› teaspoon nutmeg optional
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 ½ cup water cold
Dipping Sauce:
- 2 tablespoon regular soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- ½ teaspoon gochujang
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- â…› teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine batter ingredients, adding the cold water last. Mix until incorporate and do not over mix.
- Heat 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large pan on medium heat. Scoop half of the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly into a thin pancake. Fry on each side until golden crispy brown, about 5-10 minutes on each side. Tip: to flip the pancake, slide the pancake onto a large plate, then flip the non-fried side of the pancake into the pan.
- Once done, the pancake should be crispy, a bit charred, brown and cooked through. If you notice that the pancake is still not cooked through, leave it on the pan to cook over low-medium heat until it is. It should not be gooey inside. Repeat for the above steps for remaining batter.
- Transfer pancakes to a cutting board or use clean scissor to cut into smaller pieces.
- In a small bowl, combine dipping sauce ingredients. Serve and enjoy with pancake.
Wendy
Made this yesterday and my boyfriend ate the whole entire pancake! Thanks for the recipe 🙂 I thought the apple cider vinegar was too strong in the sauce but the pancakes itself was very tasty~
christieathome
Thank you so much for these kind words and for making my recipe! I'm so glad you enjoyed the dish and note taken on the ACV 🙂 Have a lovely day!
Jennifer
I made this twice over the weekend, and it was delicious.
I used a tablespoon of regular chives instead of garlic chives, because I couldn't find fresh chives and good luck finding garlic chives on Maui.
For the sauce, I halved the amount of vinegar, and subbed unseasoned rice vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. I also used twice as much gochujang in my dipping sauce.
Thanks for the recipe!
christieathome
Thanks so much for making my recipe, Jennifer! So glad you enjoyed it with normal chives. Great substitution!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
What a fun party starter or late night binge watching snack! I'm just loving all of the savory flavors in this pancake, too... it's the perfect plant-based treat!