Love a good savory pancake? This Korean Pancake (Pajeon 파전) recipe with scallion and shrimp is absolutely delicious! Enjoy it with my spicy soy dipping sauce.
When we go out to Korean restaurants, my family always fights over the last piece of our favorite Korean Pancake or Pajeon.
At home, I sometimes make these pancakes for the kids after school before we head out to their after-school activities. They love hanging out in the kitchen with me and seeing how I make these pancakes. As soon as the pancakes are done, everyone dips them in the sauce and enjoys small bites of crispy pancakes.
Ingredients for Korean Pancake
Scallions are important for this recipe, and you can easily make it into vegetarian by omitting prawns. If you love seafood, you can add squid (Haemul Pajeon – seafood pancake). Prefer meat instead? You can substitute with thinly-sliced pork belly slices. It’s so flavorful and delicious! Whatever flavor you decide to go with, I’m sure your pancakes will turn out great! These crispy pancakes are seriously quite addicting!
Unique Texture of Korean Pancake
For this recipe, I used cake flour (薄力粉) instead of all-purpose flour. Cake flour is wheat flour that has a lower viscosity and protein content. My Korean friend suggested using it instead of regular flour, and the result was like the restaurants’. By using cake flour, the texture is crispier and lighter than using all-purpose flour.
Cake flour is available in the bakery section of supermarkets. If you can’t find it or want to make it yourself at home, please see my note in the recipe (below). I explained how to make cake flour by mixing 2 ingredients: all-purpose flour and cornstarch (super easy!). Of course, you can use all-purpose flour as well but it’ll be less crispy.
My mom recently shared another recipe with me that uses all-purpose flour and rice flour, and she said it’s pretty amazing. I’ll be testing out her recipe next time.
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Korean Pancake (Pajeon)
Video
Ingredients
For the Spicy Dipping Sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- ½ Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
- 1 tsp green onions/scallions (thinly sliced)
- ¼ tsp gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes)
- ¼ tsp toasted white and black sesame seeds
- ⅛ tsp sugar (optional, to counter the vinegar‘s acidity)
For the Pancake
- 1 bunch green onions/scallions (about 10 stalks; don’t reduce the amount; use enough to fill the pan so that the pancake holds together when flipped)
- ½ large egg (50 g each w/o shell) (beaten; use half an egg per pancake)
- 1½ Tbsp neutral oil
- 4 oz shrimp (cleaned and deveined)
For the Batter
- ½ cup cake flour (weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off; you can make homemade cake flour)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ cup cold water or sparkling water (add slowly as you check the consistency of the batter; you may not need all of it)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
- Combine all the ingredients for the spicy dipping sauce—1 Tbsp soy sauce, ½ Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned), 1 tsp green onions/scallions, ¼ tsp gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes), ¼ tsp toasted white and black sesame seeds, and ⅛ tsp sugar (optional). Set aside.
- Cut off the ends of 1 bunch green onions/scallions. Then, cut the scallions in half crosswise. If you’re worried about flipping a large pancake, cut the scallions shorter and make smaller round pancakes so you can easily flip them.
- Beat ½ large egg (50 g each w/o shell) in a small bowl. Set aside half an egg per pancake for cooking.
- To make the batter, combine ½ cup cake flour and ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt in a medium bowl. Slowly add ½ cup cold water or sparkling water (you may not need all of it!) and whisk until just combined. The batter should be thinner than a Western breakfast pancake batter and thicker than a crepe batter. Do not overmix the batter because it’ll create gluten and the pancake won’t have a good texture.
- Place a nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. When it‘s hot, add 1½ Tbsp neutral oil. Then, spread out the scallions on the bottom of the pan and add 4 oz shrimp on top.
- Drizzle the batter on top to cover the scallions and shrimp. Make sure there is just enough batter between the ingredients so that they will hold together. Take care not to add too much batter, though, or you will end up with doughy pancakes.
- Lightly drizzle the beaten egg (I use half an egg for one pancake) over the batter. Cook for 3 minutes, until the edges of the pancake get crispy and the bottom is golden brown. Flip the pancake using a relatively large spatula or two spatulas, one in each hand. Cook for another 3 minutes, pressing down the pancake with the spatula occasionally, until the pancake is crispy and golden brown. Flip one last time and cook for 30 seconds.
- Transfer the pancake to a cutting board. Cut into small pieces and enjoy with the spicy dipping sauce.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Due to not being able to use prawns could I use very thinly sliced chicken for this dish?
Hi Jenny! Thank you for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
Sure. You can use thinly sliced chicken.🤗
We hope you enjoy the dish!
Was a review of her mother’s rice flour pancake ever posted? I was very intrigued!
Hello, MuMo! Thank you for taking the time to read Nami’s post!
Here’s the recipe for those pancakes!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/gluten-free-korean-veggie-pancake/
We hope you enjoy it!
We love your recipe for this and even copied a Korean restaurant to make a bacon and cheese version of it!
Hi Pinmanee, Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
We are glad to hear you enjoyed Korean Pancake.🙂
Hi, great recipe as always! Quick question, can I use this batter recipe for kimchi jeon?
Hi Steven! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
Sure, you can use this batter recipe for Kimchi jeon. However, the kimchi will add moisture to the batter, and it would make the pancake soft, so you might want to reduce about 1 Tablespoon of water from the recipe. You can also try replacing the 2~3 tablespoon of water with Kimchi juice for more flavor.
We hope this helps!
Silly question perhaps, but would garlic chives be good too? I have lots of garlic chives, but the slugs ate my spring onions :O
Hi Fauziah! Sure, you can add garlic chives to this recipe! It will add more garlic flavor.🙂
Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe! Happy Cooking!
Hiya 🙂 They were delicious and I had to make seconds for my friend! Thank you so very much for your reply, Ireally enjpy your site 🙂
Hi Fauziah! We are glad to hear it came out delicious!
Thank you very much for your kind feedback.🥰
I was able to make this vegan by using mock shrimp and JUST Egg. Came out very nice! I didn’t love the dipping sauce though…too vinegary for me.
Hi Cat! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your feedback!
Hi, thanks for this recipe. I’d like to know how best these are reheated, and if one can get back the original texture on reheating. Thanks!
Hi Jojo, Thank you for trying this recipe!
Reheat in the oven or toaster oven till crisp is the best way. We hope this helps!
Great wee recipe,thank you. Even my wee girl loved it and she hates eggs! She’s now converted 😊We added wild garlic,spring greens and furikake for a veggie version. Definitely will make again.
Hi Laura, Thank you very much for trying this recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us.
We are so happy to hear you will make it again.😁
Has anyone had troubles with it sticking? I used a nonstick Pan and thick coat of oil and cooked till the edges could be easily released (about 4 minutes) but could not get it unstuck to flip it! If anyone has any tips, would appreciate it!
Hi Mari, have you considered restoring your non-stick pan?
Non-stick pans begin to lose their non-stick function after repeated use and need to be restored from time to time.
We hope this helps!
That’s a good thought. Thank you so much for the advice!! Love your website; the recipes are delicious and I’ve learned so much. ❤️
We are welcome, Mari! Thank you for your kind feedback.🙂
Thank you Nami for your delicious recipes. Can I mix the egg into the Korean pancake batter? Instead of pouring the beaten egg over the batter.
Hi Rosamaria! You can, but it will be more liquid so you may want to adjust the dry ingredients. 🙂
Can I use cornstarch instead of cake flour?
Hi MDinh! No, you can’t replace cake flour with cornstarch; however, if you have cornstarch and all-purpose flour, you can make cake flour. Please follow the method here:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/cake-flour/
Do i need a non stick pan for this dish? I tried with stainless steel and it doesnt turn out well. It’s lumpy and breaks
Hi Sylvia! Although I try my best to avoid non-stick coating, certain recipes just work great with non-stick pan. I’d say this recipe works better with non-stick pan. If you use stainless steel, you need to make sure you use plenty of oil and the pan is well-heated before adding the batter. The batter should be almost like “deep fried” in the pan to get the crispy texture, which will allow you to flip etc without breaking.
Hope this helps!
All the recipes I had tried so far are GREAT!!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Alba! 🙂
Thank you for the secret to making Korean pancakes. I tried to make them before and they came out mushy. Following your instructions, they were fabulous. Thank you once again for another delicious recipe.
Hi Nanette! I’m so happy to hear yours came out well! Thank you very much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hi Nami — I made these with Korean Vegetable Pancake Batter and they were very tasty, but not exactly crispy. Perhaps too much batter? What can I do to increase crispness? Thinner batter? I cook them until quite golden brown.
Hi Ben! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! If the batter consistency is good, the other factor can be the heat and oil (don’t be shy, especially if you want crisp). Not necessarily “thinner” batter will make it crispy but if yours is somehow a bit too doughy, then thinning the batter may be necessary. My first instinct is not enough oil for the crispness. 🙂