[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":379},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:pajeon":3,"recipe:country:south-korea":171},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"romanized":7,"pronunciation":8,"countrySlug":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":39,"serveWith":49,"storage":51,"faq":52,"equipment":68,"baseServings":72,"prepMinutes":73,"cookMinutes":74,"difficulty":75,"course":76,"diet":79,"mainIngredients":82,"ingredients":86,"instructions":132,"nutrition":155,"images":160,"keywords":164,"publishedAt":169,"updatedAt":169,"authorSlug":170},"pajeon","Pajeon (Korean Scallion Pancakes)","파전","Pajeon","pah-JUN","south-korea","🧅","Korea's scallion pancake: whole scallions bound in a thin, ice-cold batter and shallow-fried until the edges turn deep golden and lacy, served with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce. Rainy-day food by tradition.","Pajeon is a savory Korean pancake in which the scallions are not a flavoring but the structure: whole lengths of them laid in a hot, well-oiled pan and bound together with just enough thin batter to hold, then fried until the underside crackles deep golden and the edges go lacy and crisp. It tastes of sweet softened scallion, toasty browned batter and the sharp soy-vinegar sauce it is dipped in. The whole trick is restraint and temperature — a cold, lumpy, almost-too-thin batter, generous oil, and the patience not to flip early. From mixing bowl to table takes twenty-five minutes, and it disappears in five.","Pajeon belongs to the jeon family — the broad Korean category of ingredients pan-fried in batter or egg, made everywhere from holiday tables to street stalls. The name is literal: pa means scallion, jeon means pan-fried thing, and in a proper pajeon the scallion carries the dish, laid in whole lengths rather than chopped into the batter. Jeon of many kinds have deep roots in Korean royal and household cooking; pajeon is the everyday, scallion-forward member of the clan that every Korean home and pub knows.\n\nThe most famous regional version is Dongnae pajeon, from the Dongnae district of Busan in the country's southeast — a lush, thick pancake loaded with seafood and finished with egg, associated with the area's old market culture; local tradition holds it was once presented to the king, a claim best filed under proud local lore rather than verified history. The seafood-studded style in general is called haemul pajeon and is what many restaurants serve by default.\n\nPajeon also owns one of Korea's most charming food customs: it is rainy-day food. When it rains, Koreans crave pajeon with makgeolli, the milky rice wine, and pajeon restaurants genuinely expect the bump in business. The popular explanation is sensory — the sound of rain on the roof resembles batter sizzling in oil — and whatever the real psychology, the pairing is a fixture of Korean life, referenced constantly in conversation and pop culture. That is the correct way to serve this: cut into rough squares, communal plate in the middle, dipping sauce within everyone's reach, and ideally something drumming on the window.",[15,16,17,18],"Ice-cold, barely mixed batter — the documented route to crisp, lacy edges instead of bread.","Whole scallion lengths, the way pajeon is actually built, not chopped-scallion pancake batter.","Generous-oil shallow fry with sound cues, so you know when to flip instead of guessing.","The dipping sauce is included — pajeon without it is half a dish.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Keep the batter cold — ice water, and mix it only at the last minute. Cold batter hitting hot oil is what makes the edges shatter instead of turning bready.","Stop stirring while the batter is still a little lumpy. Overmixing develops gluten, and gluten makes a chewy pancake instead of a crisp one.","Use more oil than feels virtuous — 3–4 tablespoons per pancake. Pajeon is shallow-fried, not dry-griddled, and the oil is where the lacy edge comes from.","Do not crowd or thicken: a thin pancake with scallions showing through the batter crisps; a thick one steams itself soft in the middle.","Flip only when the edges are visibly deep golden and the pancake slides loose when you shake the pan — an early flip tears it.","Eat immediately. Pajeon loses its crispness within minutes, which is why it is fried last and served straight from the pan.",[27,31,35],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Potato starch","Cornstarch or rice flour","Any of these lightens the wheat flour and adds crispness; plain flour alone works but the result is noticeably breadier.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Scallions","Garlic chives (buchu)","Makes it buchujeon, an equally traditional pancake — slightly more garlicky, same method.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Korean pancake mix (buchimgaru)","This from-scratch batter","It works the other way too: if you find buchimgaru at a Korean grocery, use it straight with ice water — it is seasoned and pre-blended for exactly this job.",[40,43,46],{"name":41,"description":42},"Haemul pajeon (seafood)","The restaurant favorite: scatter 150 g of chopped squid and shrimp over the scallions before the batter goes on. Richer and heavier — press gently so the seafood anchors into the pancake.",{"name":44,"description":45},"Kimchi jeon","Swap the scallions for well-fermented chopped kimchi and a spoon of its juice stirred into the batter — tangy, reddish, and arguably even better with makgeolli.",{"name":47,"description":48},"Small party jeon","Fry palm-sized pancakes instead of one large one — easier to flip, crisper overall, and better for a table of shared dishes.",[50],"Makgeolli (Korean rice wine) or cold beer, and other banchan if it's part of a bigger Korean spread.","Pajeon is at its best minutes out of the pan. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; revive them in a dry hot skillet or air fryer until the surface re-crisps — a microwave turns them limp. You can freeze cooked pancakes between parchment for a month and reheat from frozen in a pan, accepting some loss of crispness. The dipping sauce keeps a week refrigerated.",[53,56,59,62,65],{"question":54,"answer":55},"What is pajeon?","Pajeon is a Korean savory pancake — pa means scallion and jeon means pan-fried — in which whole lengths of scallion are bound with a thin wheat-flour batter and shallow-fried until golden and crisp at the edges. It is served cut into pieces with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce, as an appetizer, a shared snack, or a companion to drinks.",{"question":57,"answer":58},"Why do Koreans eat pajeon when it rains?","It is a genuine and much-loved custom: rainy weather in Korea means pajeon and makgeolli, the milky rice wine, and pancake houses see real spikes in business when it pours. The popular explanation is that rain hitting the roof sounds like batter sizzling in hot oil. Whatever the true origin, the pairing is a fixture of Korean food culture.",{"question":60,"answer":61},"How do I make pajeon crispy instead of soggy?","Four levers: use ice-cold water in the batter and mix it minimally (lumps are fine); lighten the wheat flour with potato starch or cornstarch; keep the batter layer thin enough that scallions show through; and shallow-fry in a properly generous amount of hot oil, flipping only once the edges are deep golden. Thick batter and timid oil are the two usual causes of soft pajeon.",{"question":63,"answer":64},"What is the difference between pajeon and haemul pajeon?","Haemul means seafood — haemul pajeon is the same scallion pancake with squid, shrimp or other shellfish scattered in before the batter sets, and it is the default version in many Korean restaurants. The most famous regional take, Dongnae pajeon from Busan, is a particularly rich seafood-and-egg style. Plain pajeon, as written here, is the simpler home version.",{"question":66,"answer":67},"What goes in the dipping sauce for pajeon?","The base is soy sauce sharpened with vinegar, usually with sesame oil, a little sugar, sliced scallion and toasted sesame seeds, plus gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) if you want gentle heat. It is mixed in a minute and matters more than it looks — the salty-sour dip cuts the fried richness, and pajeon feels incomplete without it.",[69,70,71],"Wide nonstick or cast-iron skillet","Mixing bowl","Wide spatula (or two, for flipping)",2,15,12,"easy",[77,78],"appetizer","snack",[80,81],"vegetarian","dairy-free",[83,84,85],"scallions","flour","eggs",[87,92,96,99,103,106,110,115,120,123,126,128,130],{"ref":83,"qty":88,"unit":89,"name":90,"group":91},10,"piece","scallions, trimmed, halved lengthwise if thick","For the pancake",{"ref":84,"qty":93,"unit":94,"name":95,"group":91},100,"g","plain flour",{"qty":97,"unit":94,"name":98,"group":91},40,"potato starch or cornstarch",{"qty":100,"unit":101,"name":102,"group":91},180,"ml","ice-cold water",{"ref":85,"qty":104,"unit":89,"name":105,"group":91},1,"egg, lightly beaten",{"qty":107,"unit":108,"name":109,"group":91},0.5,"tsp","fine salt",{"qty":111,"unit":112,"name":113,"noScale":114,"group":91},4,"tbsp","neutral oil, for frying",true,{"ref":116,"qty":117,"unit":112,"name":118,"group":119},"soy-sauce",3,"soy sauce","For the dipping sauce",{"ref":121,"qty":104,"unit":112,"name":122,"group":119},"vinegar","rice vinegar or white vinegar",{"ref":124,"qty":104,"unit":108,"name":125,"group":119},"sesame-oil","toasted sesame oil",{"qty":107,"unit":108,"name":127,"group":119},"sugar",{"qty":107,"unit":108,"name":129,"optional":114,"group":119},"gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)",{"qty":104,"unit":108,"name":131,"optional":114,"group":119},"toasted sesame seeds",[133,136,140,143,147,152],{"title":134,"text":135},"Mix the dipping sauce","Stir together the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, gochugaru and sesame seeds until the sugar dissolves. Set aside — it improves as it sits while you cook.",{"title":137,"text":138,"tip":139},"Make the cold batter","Whisk the {qty:flour} of flour, the starch and salt together, then stir in the ice water briefly — stop while the batter is still slightly lumpy and pours like thin cream. Cold and undermixed is exactly right.","Mix the batter only once the pan is already heating; the less time it sits warm, the crisper the pancake.",{"title":141,"text":142},"Lay the scallions, pour the batter","Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in the skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Lay the scallions in a single tight layer, alternating white and green ends, and pour the batter thinly over them so they are bound but still visible through it. Drizzle the beaten egg over the top.",{"title":144,"text":145,"timerSeconds":146},"Fry until the edges lace","Fry without moving it until the underside turns deep golden brown, the edges look lacy and crisp, and the pancake slides loose when you shake the pan, 4–5 minutes. Loosen with a spatula as it fries so the oil runs underneath.",270,{"title":148,"text":149,"timerSeconds":150,"tip":151},"Flip and crisp the second side","Flip in one confident motion (or use two spatulas), add the remaining oil around the edges, and press gently. Fry until the second side is browned and crackles when tapped with the spatula, 3–4 minutes, then flip once more for a final minute if you want extra crunch.",240,"If flipping a full-pan pancake feels risky, slide it onto a plate, invert the pan over it, and turn the whole thing over.",{"title":153,"text":154},"Cut and serve hot","Slide the pajeon onto a board, cut into rough squares while it still crackles, and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. It is best in the first five minutes, straight off the heat.",{"calories":156,"protein":88,"carbs":157,"fat":158,"fiber":117,"sodium":159,"estimated":114},440,54,21,1400,[161],{"src":162,"alt":163},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fpajeon\u002Fhero.svg","A golden Korean scallion pancake with crisp lacy edges, cut into squares beside soy dipping sauce",[4,165,83,166,167,168,77],"korean pancake","jeon","makgeolli","haemul pajeon","2026-08-18","dishroute-kitchen",{"items":172,"total":88,"page":104,"limit":377,"hasMore":378},[173,200,223,246,269,296,315,333,354,361],{"slug":174,"title":175,"nativeName":176,"romanized":174,"countrySlug":9,"region":177,"baseServings":111,"prepMinutes":178,"cookMinutes":178,"difficulty":75,"course":179,"diet":181,"mainIngredients":182,"images":188,"keywords":192,"publishedAt":199,"updatedAt":199,"authorSlug":170},"bibimbap","Bibimbap (Korean Mixed Rice Bowl with Namul and 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beef with scallions and sesame seeds served over rice",[201,218,219,220,221,222],"korean beef","korean barbecue","soy pear marinade","fire meat","ribeye",{"slug":224,"title":225,"nativeName":226,"romanized":224,"countrySlug":9,"region":227,"baseServings":111,"prepMinutes":206,"cookMinutes":206,"restMinutes":228,"difficulty":229,"course":230,"diet":231,"mainIngredients":232,"images":236,"keywords":240,"publishedAt":199,"updatedAt":199,"authorSlug":170},"dakgalbi","Dakgalbi (Chuncheon Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken)","닭갈비","Chuncheon, Gangwon",120,"medium",[180],[81],[233,234,235,212,83],"chicken","cabbage","onion",[237],{"src":238,"alt":239},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fdakgalbi\u002Fhero.svg","Wide griddle of red dakgalbi with glazed chicken thigh pieces, cabbage, sweet potato slices and rice cakes",[224,241,242,194,243,244,245],"spicy chicken","chuncheon","korean stir fry","rice cakes","griddle",{"slug":247,"title":248,"nativeName":249,"romanized":250,"countrySlug":9,"region":251,"baseServings":111,"prepMinutes":97,"cookMinutes":206,"restMinutes":73,"difficulty":229,"course":252,"diet":254,"mainIngredients":255,"images":258,"keywords":262,"publishedAt":199,"updatedAt":199,"authorSlug":170},"gimbap","Gimbap (Korean Seaweed Rice Rolls, Not Sushi)","김밥","Gimbap","Nationwide",[78,253],"street-food",[81],[256,257,124,185,184,85],"short-grain-rice","nori",[259],{"src":260,"alt":261},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fgimbap\u002Fhero.svg","Sliced Korean gimbap rounds showing egg, spinach, carrot, yellow radish and beef inside a seaweed and rice ring",[247,263,264,265,266,267,268],"kimbap","korean seaweed rice roll","danmuji","sesame oil rice","picnic food","not 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Jjigae (Sour Kimchi and Pork Belly Stew)","김치찌개","kimchi jjigae",[339,180],"soup",[81],[342,343,235,83,212],"pork-belly","tofu",[345],{"src":346,"alt":347},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkimchi-jjigae\u002Fhero.svg","Bubbling red kimchi jjigae in an earthenware pot with pork belly slices, tofu slabs and spring onions",[337,349,350,351,343,352,353],"kimchi stew","korean stew","pork belly","fermented","ttukbaegi",{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"romanized":7,"countrySlug":9,"baseServings":72,"prepMinutes":73,"cookMinutes":74,"difficulty":75,"course":355,"diet":356,"mainIngredients":357,"images":358,"keywords":360,"publishedAt":169,"updatedAt":169,"authorSlug":170},[77,78],[80,81],[83,84,85],[359],{"src":162,"alt":163},[4,165,83,166,167,168,77],{"slug":362,"title":363,"nativeName":364,"romanized":362,"countrySlug":9,"baseServings":111,"prepMinutes":88,"cookMinutes":206,"restMinutes":274,"difficulty":75,"course":365,"diet":366,"mainIngredients":367,"images":370,"keywords":374,"publishedAt":199,"updatedAt":199,"authorSlug":170},"tteokbokki","Tteokbokki (Chewy Korean Rice Cakes in Spicy Sauce)","떡볶이",[253,78],[81],[368,369,85,83,212],"anchovies","kombu",[371],{"src":372,"alt":373},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Ftteokbokki\u002Fhero.svg","Pan of tteokbokki with cylinder rice cakes in thick red sauce, fish cake triangles, boiled eggs and spring onions",[362,244,290,194,375,376,78],"spicy","anchovy broth",24,false,1787360063620]