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Korean Rice Cakes with Honey is the simplest dish ever with only three ingredients. In this version, the chewy rice cakes are seared with butter until the outsides are crisp before drizzling them with honey.

If you love rice cakes, you will love this recipe. It is so tasty I had to stop myself from gobbling down the whole plate before I even took the photos. And while the sesame seeds topping is optional, I recommend sprinkling some to give extra crunchiness and nuttiness.

Ingredients

Korean rice cakes. Korean rice cake or known as tteok (떡) is a much-loved traditional dish in Korea. It is usually made with steamed glutinous rice flour, then pounded, shaped, or pan-fried to make rice cake. Normal rice flour can also be used for some kinds of tteok.
Butter or oil. To make the rice cakes crispy. Use butter if you want to make this dish richer.
Honey. Since the rice cakes taste plain, you need to add sauce or flavoring to add extra flavor.
Sesame seeds. To add nuttiness and crunch.

Choosing the Type of Rice Cake for This Recipe

There are various kinds of rice cakes and each has a special meaning, so people make different rice cakes for different events. The rice cakes I used for this recipe is called garaetteok. It is the most common shape and is mainly used for making tteokbokki.

Garaetteok (가래떡) is a long and cylindrical white rice cake made with non-glutinous rice. You can find them in different sizes in Korean grocery stores. Though all rice cakes taste the same, the size and shape dramatically affect the texture and flavor. I use the thin and short type for an easy bite. You can also use the thick ones if preferred, they will be chewier though.

You can find garraetteok sold freshly made, refrigerated, or frozen at Korean grocery stores. I really recommend using freshly made rice cakes because the frozen one tends to be dry, easy to crack, and not chewy.

How to Prepare Rice Cakes

Fresh rice cakes are very pliable, soft, sticky, and chewy because they are mainly made from rice flour. They should be eaten on the same day it was made or the next day at the latest because they have a tendency to harden very quickly and when left out, they become dry and hard.

If the rice cakes are truly freshly made, you can just toss them to cook immediately. However, you need to soak them in warm water for 20-30 minutes if you use the refrigerated rice cakes. The soaking will make them soft and chewy again.

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4.6 from 63 votes