Yukgaejang: Spicy Korean Beef Soup

Yukgaejang is a spicy Korean beef soup loaded with warm earthy vegetables like mushrooms, leeks, and gosari (described below). It should boil for a good two hours to coax out and meld the flavors from the beef and veg. The meat also needs a moment to get tender. It’s worth the time and effort, especially since it’ll make one big batch to reheat over a few meals. Serve it with a bowl of rice, as is traditionally done.  

Important aside: I was smitten by my now-husband over his first bowl of yukgaejang. Something about him crying hot and spicy tears of joy did me in. 

There is no substitute for Gochugaru. 

Gochugaru, ground Korean chili peppers, is what gives yukgaejang a hearty kick and the gleaming red chili oil. It’s essential to a Korean pantry. Gochu means “chili pepper” and garu means “powder”. To make gochugaru, red chili peppers are ripened on the plant, seeded, and sun-dried before ground either into flakes or powder. Either can be used in this recipe. It’s deeply red, barely sweet and smoky, and range from mild to sizzling hot. Other forms of ground chili like crushed red pepper, paprika, or cayenne pepper are too mild, too spicy, too coarse, too bland, or not red enough to be suitable for this recipe.  

Other notable ingredients: 

Gosari are immature fronds of bracken, a wild plant that is foraged along the hills and mountains of Korea. It’s typically served as banchan (a side dish) or in yukgaejang. It has a delicate but distinctly earthy flavor. When shopping for it, try fernbracken, bracken, bracken fiddlehead, or fernbrake. It’s available dried, pre-soaked, or fresh. I prefer them dried because they can live in your freezer forever. It’ll need to soak in a hot water bath to get plump, soft, and edible.  

Dangmyeon are thin round chewy noodles made with sweet potato starch. For this recipe, soak them in hot water first so the noodles don’t clump together in the pot. Glass noodles, cellophane noodles, or rice vermicelli are good substitutes.  Dangmyeon is usually sold in a giant bag, so make japchae next. 

Why soak the beef? 

When making soups, Koreans typically soak the uncooked beef in cool water. This draws out some of the blood. The soaked beef is drained, rinsed, and then simmered in water, resulting in a clearer broth.  

In this recipe I use a pound of beef brisket. It is flavorful and has the perfect texture, but it is also decidedly luxurious. As an alternative, any cut of tough meat that benefits from a long and slow cook works – chuck, rump or round. 

Have you tried this yet? Let us know how it went in the comments below!

Editor's Note: A photo of this soup ran in our September 2022 Easy Soups quarterly that showed the dish styled with parsley. Parsley is not an ingredient traditionally found in Korean cuisine. The online version does not use the ingredient, and we regret the error in print.