Homemade Jjapaguri (Ram Don). Korean noodles smothered in a spicy roasted black bean sauce with cabbage, onion, and steak. Inspired from the Korean movie Parasite.

This jjapaguri dish is so popular thanks to the movie Parasite which won multiple Oscars in 2020 - one of them was Best Picture. Pretty amazing if you ask me and it put Korea on the map for the film industry.
From that movie came this delicious dish and on the internet you will find the instant version. The instant kind is made with the dried ramen packs by Chapagetti and Neoguri.
Chapagetti is the instant form of Jjajangmyeon noodles but made with ramen. Neoguri is an instant seafood broth ramen. When you combine the two with some steak, the dish "Jjapaguri", "Chapaguri" or "Ram-Don" is born!
Since I like to share a healthier homemade version, I decided to create my homemade version of the jjapaguri recipe from scratch.
Using Korean wheat noodles, roasted black bean sauce and some other ingredients. You can use instant ramen instead but I really wanted to make a homemade version with a healthy spin.
Other recipes you may like!
JAJANGMYEON BLACK BEAN NOODLES
QUICK SPICY RAMEN STIR-FRY
JAJANG TTEOKBOKKI
JAPCHAE KOREAN SWEET POTATO NOODLES
RABBOKI KOREAN SWEET SPICY RAMEN
KOREAN KIMCHI BIBIM GUKSU
What does it taste like?
Ram Don is a noodle dish with a thick sauce that tastes savoury, sweet and spicy altogether.
The roasted black bean sauce gives it that delicious rich taste and the gochujang gives it that spicy kick. There's also a seafood flavour to this dish which I've added using dried kelp. And since it's sweet, I've added sugar to this dish.
This sauce smothered over those thick chewy noodles along with a bite of steak make it so delicious and satisfying.
For this recipe
You will need the following ingredients for my homemade jjapaguri recipe:
- 3 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1-2 rib eye steak, cut into bite size pieces
- ⅓ cup roasted black bean sauce
- 1 tablespoon gochujang paste
- 1 small cooking onion, finely diced
- ⅓ cup green onion, sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1 ½ cups cabbage, finely chopped
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 2 pcs dried kelp
- 530 grams Korean wheat noodle (thick kind)
- Optional: Green onions & Korean Hot Pepper Flakes
How to make Ramdon from scratch
In a small bowl, mix together your cornstarch and water.
In a large non-stick pan set over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and add your steak pieces. Fry until medium rare (about 5 minutes total). Remove the steak and set aside.
Lower heat to a low setting and add 2 tablespoon of oil followed by roasted black bean paste and gochujang paste. Mix and swirl it around in the oil to make it glossy, aout 2 minutes. Push aside.
Raise heat to medium. Add onion, green onion and cabbage. Stir fry until soft. Then mix in with the black bean sauce.
Add cornstarch water mixture, dried kelp and sugar. Mix until well combined with veggies and sauce. Allow this to simmer and thicken.
Once sauce has thickened, add in your steak and cook for 1 minute. Remove sauce off heat.
Boil your Korean wheat noodles for 4 minutes max. Strain and pour noodles into the hot sauce.
Garnish with more green onions and hot pepper flakes for more spice (optional).
Give my Jjapaguri recipe a try!
Well I hope you give my Homemade Jjapaguri (Ram Don) recipe a try! It always excites me when you guys make my recipes and I hope this is one you try.
Thanks for visiting my blog! If you enjoyed this jjapaguri recipe from scratch, please share it with your family and friends or on social media! Take a picture if you've made my recipe and tag me on Instagram @christieathome in your feed or stories so I can share your creation in my stories with credits to you!
Made this recipe and loved it?
If you could leave a star rating for my jjapaguri from scratch, I would greatly appreciate it 🙂 Thanks so much!
Take care,
Christie
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Homemade Jjapaguri Ram Don (30-min. Recipe)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1-2 rib eye steak cut into bite size pieces
- ⅓ cup Korean roasted black bean paste
- 1 tablespoon gochujang
- 1 yellow onion finely diced
- ⅓ cup green onion sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1 ½ cups cabbage finely chopped
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoon white granulated sugar *add more sugar if you like it sweeter
- 2-4 pieces dried kelp
- 530 grams Korean wheat noodle thick kind
- Optional: Green onions & Korean Hot Pepper Flakes
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix together your cornstarch and water.
- In a large non-stick pan set over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and add your steak pieces. Fry until medium rare (about 5 minutes total). Remove the steak and set aside.
- Lower heat to a low setting and add 2 tablespoon of oil followed by roasted black bean paste and gochujang paste. Mix and swirl it around in the oil to make it glossy, aout 2 minutes. Push aside.
- Raise heat to medium. Add onion, green onion and cabbage. Stir fry until soft. Then mix in with the black bean sauce.
- Add cornstarch water mixture, dried kelp and sugar. Mix until well combined with veggies and sauce. Allow this to simmer and thicken.
- Once sauce has thickened, add in your steak and cook for 1 minute. Remove sauce off heat.
- Boil your Korean wheat noodles for 4 minutes max. Strain and pour noodles into the hot sauce.
- Garnish with more green onions and hot pepper flakes for more spice (optional).
Michelle | Sift & Simmer
Yum, my kids love ramdon! This version looks so savoury and saucy!
christieathome
Oh nice! I love that they enjoy it! It's such a great and indulgent dish!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
I love what you used to create your spicy roasted black bean sauce, so perfect! 😋
Kerry N
Looks great, I will be trying this by the end of the week. Thank you for the recipe.
christieathome
Thanks Kerry! I hope you enjoy my homemade version of it! Just a note, it's not as "seafoody" as the instant version but just as delicious 🙂 Have a great day!
Barbora
Hello, I would like to try this recipe this week, as I only order this as a takeout. Would please just share with me where do I find specifically korean roasted black bean sauce? I could find some black bean sauces on Amazon but they weren’t “roasted”. Tha nk you in advance!
christieathome
Hi Barbora, you can find roasted black bean sauce at any Korean grocer and I would recommend asking the staff which aisle it's located. You may also get lucky and find it at an Asian grocer. I hope you enjoy my recipe!