Scroll through enough Korean street food videos and one sound shows up constantly: the sizzle of skewers rotating in a flat pan, sauce bubbling and thickening with every turn. That's sotteok sotteok, and the appeal isn't complicated. Chewy rice cake, savory sausage, and a glaze that's sweet, spicy, and slightly sticky all at once.
It's also one of the easier street foods to recreate at home, since it only needs a pan and a handful of pantry staples most people already keep around for tteokbokki.
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| Sotteok Sotteok, Korea's favorite street food skewer. |
This makes 4 skewers, takes about 20 minutes start to finish, and needs nothing more specialized than a nonstick pan and some wooden skewers.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cylindrical Korean rice cakes (tteok), found in the refrigerated or frozen section of Korean grocery stores
- 2 large sausages (hot dogs or Vienna-style sausages work well), sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 4 wooden skewers
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp gochujang (Korean red chili paste)
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp honey or corn syrup
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
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| Everything here is skewered before it ever touches the pan. |
How to Make It
- If the rice cakes are hard or frozen, soak them in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes until soft and pliable, then drain well.
- Thread the rice cake pieces and sausage slices onto the skewers, alternating between the two so each skewer has a repeating pattern.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick pan over medium heat.
- Lay the skewers flat in the pan and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, turning occasionally, until the rice cake softens fully and both the rice cake and sausage develop light golden color.
- While the skewers cook, whisk together the gochujang, ketchup, honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, and sesame oil in a small bowl to make the glaze.
- Lower the heat slightly and pour the glaze directly into the pan, turning the skewers frequently so the sauce coats every side evenly.
- Continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes, letting the sauce thicken and cling to the skewers rather than pooling loosely in the pan.
- Remove from the pan, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, and serve while still hot.
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| Alternating the pieces evenly is what gives every bite the same balance. |
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| The rice cake needs real color before the glaze goes on. |
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| The last brush of glaze is what makes the surface shine like this. |
The Korean Insider Tip
Street vendors rarely add the sauce at the very start, and there's a reason worth copying. Cooking the rice cake and sausage in plain oil first lets them develop real color and a slightly crisp edge before the glaze goes on. Add the sauce too early and the sugar in it burns before the rice cake has softened properly, leaving you with a bitter glaze over an undercooked center.
Why This Recipe Works
- Cooking the skewers in oil before saucing gives the rice cake a light crisp edge that holds up against the glaze instead of turning mushy.
- The gochujang and ketchup combination balances heat with a rounder, slightly tangy sweetness that mimics the street cart version closely.
- Alternating rice cake and sausage on each skewer means every bite gets a mix of chewy and savory instead of long stretches of just one or the other.
Pro Tips
A common misstep is boiling the rice cake before pan-frying it, which strips away the slight chew that makes tteok distinctive in the first place. Soaking in warm water is enough to soften it without losing that texture.
Why does the glaze sometimes turn out thin and watery instead of clinging to the skewer? Usually the pan was too hot when the sauce went in, which causes the liquid to evaporate unevenly before the sugars have a chance to thicken properly. Medium-low heat during this step matters more than it seems.
If the sausage pieces keep spinning loosely on the skewer while cooking, try slicing a shallow notch into each piece before threading it. That small groove gives the skewer something to grip and keeps everything in place.
Leftover glaze can be refrigerated for up to a week and reused on grilled meats or roasted vegetables, since the flavor holds up well beyond just rice cake skewers.
Plating Like a Local
Lean the finished skewers against each other on a small plate or in a paper cone, the way street vendors serve them, rather than laying them flat side by side. A final scatter of sesame seeds right after plating, while the glaze is still glossy and warm, catches the light and keeps the surface looking fresh rather than dull. A few extra drops of glaze drizzled across the plate underneath the skewers rounds out the presentation without needing anything else.
How to Serve and Variations
These are best eaten immediately while the rice cake is still warm and soft, since it firms up and loses its chew as it cools. For a cheesier version, sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the skewers in the last minute of cooking and cover the pan briefly so it melts into the glaze. Pickled radish cubes (danmuji) on the side make a nice contrast to the sweetness of the sauce.
Can I use rice cake ovals instead of the cylindrical kind?
Cylindrical tteok holds up best for skewering, but if only the thin oval slices used in tteokbokki are available, they work in a pinch, though the texture will be slightly different and cooking time should be shortened by a minute or two.
What sausages work best for Sotteok Sotteok?
Classic hot dogs or Vienna-style cocktail sausages are the most common choice and hold their shape well on a skewer. Any pre-cooked sausage with a similar diameter to the rice cake pieces will work fine.
Can I bake these instead of pan-frying?
Yes, though the texture won't be quite as crisp. Bake at 425°F for about 15 minutes, brushing with the glaze during the last 5 minutes, and broil briefly at the end if a bit more color is wanted.
With the glaze still warm and glossy on the skewer, this one rarely makes it past a first taste before someone's reaching for a second.
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