STREET FOOD · Easy · 22 min
Mala Tteokbokki Recipe — What It Is and How to Make It
By Tteokbokki Curator
What mala tteokbokki is: Korean spicy rice cakes with Sichuan pepper tingle and chili crisp. How spicy it is, where to buy mala sauce, and a 20-minute pot.
TL;DR
Mala tteokbokki is a gochujang pot plus Sichuan pepper and chili crisp — numbing heat, not a different cake. Build a milder red sauce, add pepper in layers, stir crisp off the boil. Start with half the heat you think you want. Longer method and FAQ: /blog/mala-tteokbokki-recipe/.
Ingredients
- 400 g garae-tteok (wheat-mix or thick rice; soak until the cakes bend)
- 2 cups anchovy-kelp stock (or shiitake-kelp)
- 2 Tbsp gochujang, 1 Tbsp gochugaru, 1 Tbsp soy, 1 Tbsp rice syrup or sugar
- 1/4 tsp toasted Sichuan pepper, finely ground, plus more at the table
- 1–2 Tbsp chili crisp or chili oil (chili and oil first on the label)
- Fish cake, a few cabbage leaves, scallion, optional perilla
Steps
- Soak the cakes. Frozen bags need longer than refrigerated ones. Drain well.
- Simmer stock. Whisk in gochujang, gochugaru, soy, syrup, and the 1/4 tsp pepper off a hard boil.
- Add cakes 8–10 minutes until they puff and the sauce starts to cling. Fish cake, cabbage, and scallion in the last two minutes.
- Off heat, fold in 1 tablespoon chili crisp, taste, add a second spoon only if you still want more burn.
- Finish with a pinch of fresh-ground Sichuan pepper and perilla. Serve rice and a cool side — dongchimi or pickled radish.
Tips
- Half the mala you think; tteok amplifies heat as it sits.
- Do not boil chili crisp for ten minutes — aromatics burn and the oil separates.
- Buy chili crisp plus whole Sichuan peppercorns, not pizza flakes. A premixed mala paste: start with 1 tsp.
- Wheat-mix or thick rice cakes stand the heat without dissolving. Soft thin rice cakes can go to porridge.
What you'll need
Pantry searches on Amazon — we do not invent prices or pick a single “best” brand.
- Gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)Medium-coarse flakes for kimchi color; freeze the bulk bag.
- Gochujang (Korean chili paste)Fermented chili paste for tteokbokki, jjigae, and bibimbap.
- Garae-tteok (cylinder rice cakes)Cylinder rice cakes for tteokbokki and tteokguk. Check rice vs wheat on the label.
- Dried anchovies and kelpThe stock behind tteokbokki and many stews. Gut large anchovies before simmering.
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More Korean food
Relevant pages on the two hub sites — recipes and a BBQ directory on bulgogi.ai, street rice cakes on tteokbokki.ai.
- bulgogi.ai — recipes & BBQ directory →Marinades, cuts, and a USA Korean BBQ map.
- Rice-cake storage (tteok.ai) →Fresh vs refrigerated vs frozen garae — before you set the sauce.