Name: Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon/부추전)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 150g chives, cut into 1-2 inch pieces; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 1/4 cup water; 1/2 tsp salt; Cooking oil for frying (I used canola, approx 2 tbsp per pancake); 2 tbsp soy sauce/tamari; 1 tbsp rice vinegar; (Optional) crushed red pepper flakes, to taste; (Optional) sesame seeds, to taste

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Korean Chive Pancake (buchujeon) – This fragrant 2-ingredient pancake is a perfect crispy sharable appetizer. 2 large pancakes in 45 minutes.

What is a Korean Chive Pancake (Buchujeon/부추전)?

The Korean chive pancake, aka 'buchujeon' (bu-chu-jeon), is a flat flour-based pancake (jeon) with garlic chives (buchu) as the primary ingredient.

Garlic chives differ from regular chives in that the stalks are flat and full (as opposed to hollow for regular). Every part of the garlic chive is edible and it has a slight garlicky/oniony taste when eaten raw. It still retains its fragrance when cooked.

What do you need to make buchujeon?

To make buchujeon, you just need the following 2 main ingredients:

Garlic chives
All-purpose flour

This recipe uses the same batter base as the one I used in my Korean scallion pancake recipe! 4:5 flour to water ratio. This recipe makes 2 large pancakes.

How do you make buchujeon?

Wash and cut chives into 1-2 inch pieces. Place in a large bowl.
In a different bowl, mix the flour with 1 ¼ cup of water until you get a batter.
Take ½ cup of the batter and mix into the cut chives. This will help coat the chives in the batter.
Warm 2 tbsp of cooking oil in a large pan on medium heat. Pour out about ¼ cup of batter onto the pan and then place half of the chives mixture into the pan. Distribute the chives evenly and then add ½ cup of batter into the pan so that the batter fills the gap in between the chives. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat until the edges are crispy. Carefully flip the pancake and cook for additional 10 minutes. Add more oil as necessary.
Repeat step 4 with the remaining chives mixture and batter.

Tips and Tricks for the best Korean chive pancake:

Definitely coat the chives in batter. I used ½ cup of batter to coat the chopped chives (¼ cup per pancake, if you are halving the recipe). If you mix the chives with all of the batter, you may get an uneven distribution of the chives within each pancake in the scooping process. Coating the chives in batter first also helps to prevent burning.
Be generous with cooking oil. Jeon isn't meant to be healthy... they are often greasy and indulgent, often meant for sharing and eating during holidays such as the lunar new year. If you want a crispy pancake, use at least 2 tbsp of cooking oil per pancake. I also recommend that you drizzle a little more oil into the pan after flipping, to make sure the other side gets a chance to crisp up.

This buchujeon is...

Made with just 2 main ingredients!
Crispy with a slight garlic chive fragrance
Great for sharing
Best eaten fresh with a side of dipping sauce.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I make it gluten-free? I have not made this recipe with gluten-free flour. Part of the charm of large korean pancakes is that they are slightly chewy in the middle, which can really only come from wheat based flour. However, if you do decide to make this recipe using gluten-free flour, please let me know how it went in the comments below!
How should I store it? This pancake keeps really well in the fridge for a few days. Plus it is still delicious cold (with a bit of soy sauce)! Of course, it won't be as crispy as when you make it fresh. For easy storage, cut into small slices like in the photos and store in an airtight container. Eat within 5 days.

If your question isn't answered here, be sure to check out the comments section below. You might find the answer to your question down there. Otherwise, please leave a comment on this post so I can get back to you ASAP!

As always, thanks for reading!

Best,