Salt & Wind Travel

{Jeon} Korean Meat Pancake

This Jeon Korean Meat Pancake recipe was inspired by a very long story that started in Hawaii and kind of finished in Korea. Every time I make it I get reminded of my first experience trying it, and the lenghts I went to master the recipe, so very proudly now I share it with you.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Pancakes always sound like comfort food to me, but this recipe adds a twist to what we know and love for breakfast making it become lunch or dinner, which i think is extraordinary, because who hasn’t craved pancakes after noon?

Recipe Ingredients

These are the ingredients that you’ll need to make this recipe:

  • Low-sodium soy sauce or gluten-free tamari
  • Cold water 
  • Honey
  • Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Fresh ginger 
  • Boneless pork chop or other lean pork cut (not ground), frozen
  • All-purpose flour or gluten free flour
  • Rice flour
  • Baking soda
  • Kimchi 
  • Onions (aka scallions) 
  • Eggs 
  • Neutral oil (like canola, grapeseed, or peanut oil)
  • Rice wine vinegar
  • Toasted sesame oil
  • Toasted sesame seeds
  • {Gochugaru} Korean chile powder

How To Prepare This Recipe

These are the instructions that you’ll need to follow to prepare this recipe:

  1. For the marinade: Combine the soy sauce or tamari, the water, the honey, the lemon juice, the ginger, and the garlic cloves in a large shallow nonreactive bowl or dish and stir until well combined. Remove meat from the freezer, trim off any excess fat, and trim across the grain, into paper-thin slices. Add meat to the marinade and marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  2. For the batter: When meat is ready, whisk the all-purpose flour, the rice flour, and baking soda together in a large bowl. Add eggs and water to flour, and mix until well combined and batter resembles pancake batter. Remove meat from marinade and roughly chop into 1-inch pieces, then add to the batter along with all the kimchi and half the green onions and stir to coat thoroughly.
  3. Add some oil to a large nonstick frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Make sure the oil is hot before you start cooking, and note that the more oil you use, the crispier the pancake will get on the edges. Spoon one-third of the batter into the pan and cook until the underside is golden brown.
  4. Using a large spatula, carefully flip the pancake on the plate and cook until the underside is golden brown. Slide pancake onto a cutting board and rest. Repeat with remaining oil and batter to make two more pancakes.
  5. For the dipping sauce: Combine the remaining soy sauce or tamari, water, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, chile powder, and remaining scallions in a serving bowl and whisk to combine. Slice pancake into 6 or 8 wedges and serve with dipping sauce.

More About This Recipe

Sometimes it’s just a word or two that makes all the difference, you know? Like a few years ago when we were in Honolulu, we were at a happy hour and were served a Korean snack that the folks there called meat jun.

Now, we have had many Korean scallion pancakes – aka pajeon– but never had heard of meat jun. We declared the spelling incorrect and insisted that anything with ‘jeon’ (pronounced like fun with a j, btw) in the title was a pancake and not the battered and fried strips of meat we had been served in Hawaii.

To prove our point, we even texted our Korean-American friends and searched our favorite Korean cookbooks and LA-based restaurants’ menus all to find not one mention of meat jun. Aha!, we proclaimed. We found yet another dish that our Hawai’i friends claimed was authentic when it was really fusion.

That was all fine and dandy until last month we were at a friend’s Korean house and her mother said, “Here, try the jeon!” We looked down to see yukjeon— a more authentic meat take on jeon.

Not quite what we had in Hawai’i but close enough to make us totally embarrassed. We screamed a silent, “argh!” but had to admit it was delicious — as were the veggie jeon, the fish jeon, and the array of other Korean foods on display.

But life is about compromises, no? So, in that vein, we came up with our own jeon. It combines our favorite jeons – kimchi, meat, and scallion – with no intention of being traditional. But you know what? It’s so much better than we ever imagined. We’ve been serving it at a few happy hours on the mainland and even out in Hawaii where our local friends have coined it with the pidgin name of “Our Kine Jeon.”

Go stock up on all your cooking essentials then head into the kitchen, make this, and share it with us by tagging @saltandwind and #swsociety on social!

{Jeon} Korean Meat Pancake Recipe

{Jeon} Korean Meat Pancake Recipe

An easy recipe for a yukjeon aka Korean pancake loaded with scallions, kimchi, and pork chop. 
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Marinating Time 2 hours
Total Time 3 hours
Servings 12 servings
Calories 167 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 6 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce or gluten-free tamari, divided
  • 2 cups cold water divided
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1-inch piece fresh ginger peeled and cut into 3 pieces
  • 8 ounces boneless pork chop or other lean pork cut (not ground), frozen 15 minutes before slicing
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or gluten free flour
  • 1/4 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup kimchi roughly chopped
  • 6 green onions (aka scallions) trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 2 large eggs well beaten
  • Neutral oil (like canola, grapeseed, or peanut oil) for frying
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon {Gochugaru} Korean chile powder

Instructions
 

  • For the marinade: Combine 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce or tamari, 2 tablespoons of the water, the honey, the lemon juice, the ginger, and the garlic cloves in a large shallow nonreactive bowl or dish and stir until well combined. Remove meat from the freezer, trim off any excess fat, and trim across the grain, into paper-thin slices. Add meat to the marinade and marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  • For the batter: When meat is ready, whisk the all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour), the rice flour, and baking soda together in a large bowl. Add eggs and water to flour, and mix until well combined and batter resembles pancake batter (a few lumps may remain). Remove meat from marinade and roughly chop into 1-inch pieces, then add to the batter along with all the kimchi and half the green onions and stir to coat thoroughly.
  • Add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil to a large nonstick frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Make sure the oil is hot before you start cooking, and note that the more oil you use, the crispier the pancake will get on the edges. Spoon one-third (about 1 1/2 cups) of the batter (making sure to get the meat and other goodies) into the pan and cook until the underside is golden brown, about 5 minutes.
  • Using a large spatula, carefully flip the pancake on the plate and cook until the underside is golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Slide pancake onto a cutting board and rest. Repeat with remaining oil and batter to make two more pancakes.
  • For the dipping sauce: Combine the remaining soy sauce or tamari, water, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, chile powder, and remaining scallions in a serving bowl and whisk to combine. Slice pancake into 6 or 8 wedges and serve with dipping sauce.

PERSONAL NOTES

Nutrition

Serving: 1servingCalories: 167kcalCarbohydrates: 23gProtein: 9gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.02gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 383mgPotassium: 176mgFiber: 1gSugar: 0.5gVitamin A: 115IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 28mgIron: 2mg
Keyword Korean pancake
Tried this recipe?Mention @saltandwind or tag #swsociety!

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