Recipe · Mains and snacks
Kimchi fried rice with a runny egg
김치볶음밥 kimchi bokkeumbap: day-old rice fried hot with ripe kimchi and a pinch of gochugaru, then topped with a runny egg. Dinner in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
Rice
- 2 cups cooked rice, a day old
- 1 cup ripe napa kimchi, chopped, plus 2 tbsp of its juice
- 4 oz bacon, ham or pork, diced (optional)
- ½ onion, diced
- 1 tbsp butter or neutral oil
- 1 to 2 tsp Taekyung gochugaru, flake
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
To finish
- 2 eggs
- 1 scallion, sliced
- Roasted seaweed (gim), crumbled, and toasted sesame seeds
Taekyung gochugaru, flake4.7 out of 5 stars, 15,029 ratings on Amazon
Buy Flake 1 lb on AmazonFlake 1 lb: $12.95 on Amazon.com on Oct 30, 2026. All sizes, flake or fine
Method
Cook the bacon
Fry the bacon in a large pan over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until the fat runs. Without bacon, just heat the pan.
Fry the kimchi
Add the butter, onion and kimchi and fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the gochugaru for the last 30 seconds.
Add the rice
Turn the heat to high. Add the rice, kimchi juice, soy sauce and sugar, then stir and press it into the pan for 3 to 4 minutes, until every grain is red and a little crisp.
Finish
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the sesame oil.
Fry the eggs
Fry the eggs in another pan until the whites are set and the yolks still run, or fry them in chili oil.
Serve
Top each bowl with an egg, the scallion, the seaweed and sesame seeds. Break the yolk into the rice as you eat.
Why day-old rice?
It's drier, so it fries instead of steaming. Just-cooked rice works if you spread it on a plate to cool first.
Ripe kimchi
Kimchi that's a week or two old and a little sour gives the rice its flavor. Make your own, and use the jar as it ripens.
New to gochugaru? Read the guide
Ready to cook?
This recipe uses the flake cut. You check out on Amazon.
Buy Flake 1 lb on AmazonFlake 1 lb: $12.95 on Amazon.com on Oct 30, 2026.