Easiest One Pot Japchae 잡채

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Easiest Cooking Method

The Easiest One Pot Japchae Recipe is adapted from Maangchi. She created a layering method where you cook the vegetables and noodles together in one pot, ready-to–eat in 10 minutes! Same delicious taste and it cooks to perfection! No soggy vegetables, or mushy or under-cooked noodles here. She makes it clear this method is for serving size 4-6. For larger portions, she recommends cooking the traditional way. I can testify it cooks perfectly for my family of 6. I will never cook Japchae the traditional way again.

Tradition

Japchae is a popular traditional Korean dish. It is stir-fried sweet potato noodle (dangmyeon) with vegetables and meat. The traditional method of cooking Japchae can take hours. No exaggeration, each ingredient is cooked individually to keep the vegetables’ color vibrant, flavorful and texture intact.

Versatility

Japchae is a versatile dish, without meat, it is naturally vegan. If you are interested in a vegan version, click here for the Easy Vegan Purple Japchae made with purple sweet potato noodles. Check out the color below, the purple ones are beautiful! At the time of this post, I am not able to find the purple ones online, however the regular sweet potato noodles can be found online below.

Easiest One Pot Japchae

Easy one pot Korean Glass Noodles Stir-fried with vegetables.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Soak Noodles 40 minutes mins

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine Korean

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Meat

• 8 ounce Ribeye Thinly sliced ribeye can be found in the freezer section of Asian grocery stores. Chop into bite size pieces
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic Minced

Sauce

• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 5-8 cloves garlic Minced

Noodles and Vegetables

• 8 ounces sweet potato starch noodles Soak in cold water for 40 mins. Drain and cut to 6" length
• 8 ounces king oyster mushrooms Sliced into long thin strips
• 1 large onion Thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot 2" length Julienne cut
• 8 ounces spinach
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¼ cup water
• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil

Instructions

 

Marinate Meat

• Combine Meat and, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil in a bowl and mix. Cover and let it marinate for 5-10 mins.
  
• Medium high heat, fry the marinated meat and set aside.
  

Sauce

• Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ground black pepper, and garlic in a bowl. Mix well. Cover and set aside.
  

5-6 quart pot: Important steps- Layer ingredients in pot in the following order (method created by Maangchi)

• Add 1st layer: the king oyster mushrooms, carrot, and onions (bottom of pot)
• Add ¼ cup vegetable oil and ¼ cup water to the pot, mix and make sure the mushrooms, carrots and onions are well coated. *Japchae is know for its colorfulness, this will prevent the veggies from turning brown.
• Add 2nd Layer: evenly spread out the spinach
• Add 3rd Layer: Drain the sweet potato noodles and place on top of the spinach
• Pour sauce on top of the noodles
  
• Cover and cook on medium high heat cook for 7-8 minutes
• Uncover and stir all the ingredients together for 2-3 minutes until the liquid has evaporated, then remove from heat.
• Add cooked Ribeye on top
• Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil and 1 tablespoon sesame seeds and mix all the ingredients well.
  

Notes

This recipe and its layer method in this recipe is for 4-6 serving size. For larger serving sizes, it is recommended to use the traditional method of cooking ingredients individually.

Feel free to add other vegetables to the first layer, such as bell peppers thinly sliced, wood ear mushrooms, sliced shiitake mushrooms, etc. And substitute any kind of preferred meat or protein using the same marinade. 

Can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Keyword Easy Korean Glass Noodles, Glass noodles, Korean Japchae, Korean Stir Fry