I’ve been wanting to make Korean Braised Potatoes for a while now. This is a popular Korean side dish (banchan) and you may have seen it before in restaurants, although it’s more commonly served in homecooked meals. There are a couple things to take note of when making this dish. Namely, using baby potatoes is better than regular potato and the braising liquid should not contain too much sugar coz that will burn easily.

Referencing some recipes online, I have made this before but it did not turn out well. In my previous attempt, I used regular potatoes which I cut into halves. Unfortunately, that yielded uncooked potatoes while the outside was charred and the sauce was a globby burnt mess. Over the weekend, I found the cutest baby potatoes at the wet market so I decided to try making Korean Braised Potatoes again with them. This time I modified the measurements of the braising sauce and the result exceeded my expectations.

Korean Braised Potatoes

Gamja Jorim 감자조림

400g baby potatoes, skin on
2 Tbs cooking oil
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs rice syrup
1 Tbs mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbs honey
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Wash baby potatoes and pat dry. In a hot pan, heat up cooking oil and pan-fry baby potatoes.
2. Pan-fry baby potatoes for 10 to 15 minutes, continuously stirring until the skin starts to brown and blister.
3. In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, water, rice syrup, mirin, sugar, minced garlic.
4. Add the mixture to the pan and bring to a simmer for 3 minutes or so.
5. Watch the pan carefully to prevent burning and stir all ingredients so that the sauce coats every baby potato.
6. Turn off the heat. Drizzle honey, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.
7. The braising sauce will thicken naturally once it cools down.
8. Serve immediately.

The resulting dish is tender baby potatoes with a roasted exterior glazed with salty-sweet sauce, while the interior is soft and fluffy. I am really pleased with the result of this attempt and I will be enjoying this Korean Braised Potatoes to accompany my meals during the week. Have you checked out my other Korean recipes: Korean Fried Chicken and Korean Pork Bone Soup?

I can’t be more thrilled to find baby potatoes at my neighborhood wet market! And speaking of wet market, it is super duper awesome that all the stalls there accept cashless payments via QR-code scanning. Digital transformation, baby. :)