Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji," the Best Variation on Vinegar Pickles

Savory, tangy, and just barely sweet pickles are an absolute must for a well-stocked kitchen and this easy recipe for Korean Pickles with Soy Sauce with only a few ingredients will make it easy to keep your fridge full all season. Even better, the universal, all-purpose soy-vinegar brine can be customized to your taste and used with just about any vegetables! Shall we?

Jump to:

• So What are Korean Pickles aka "Jang-ajji?"
• Are Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" Healthy?
• What Ingredients You Need for Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji"
• What are the Best Vegetables for Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji?"
• How to Make Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji
• Pro Tips, Tricks, and Technique FAQs
• Best Vegetables to Pickle
• Korean Pickles with Soy "Jang-ajji"

In case you haven't figured it out by now, vinegar-based "refrigerator" pickles are an essential part of almost every Asian cuisine. In this house, they are an addition to almost every meal. Sometimes, straight out of the jar, the pickles ARE the meal.

So What are Korean Pickles aka "Jang-ajji?"

Korean Pickles, known as "jang-ajji" or 장아찌, are a type of quick pickled vegetables. The pickling brine is a basic salt-and-vinegar brine similar to the one used for pickled radishes, carrots, and onions. However this jang-ajji version replaces plain salt and then some with tamari or soy sauce for that added salty, savory, umami-richness.

Though the most common vegetables are radishes and cucumbers with onions and garlic for added flavor, you can use just about any crispy, crunchy vegetables that are available or in season. To be honest, the vegetables don't even have to be all that sturdy. Softer, leafy vegetables like perilla/shiso leaves, scallions, ramps, and garlic scapes all work as well in the same vinergary brine. Add jalapeño or other fresh chile pepper for some heat.

I make these Korean Pickles and eat them with just about everything. They are a perfect stand-in for some of the vegetables on bibimbap, or even just a bowl of steamed brown rice/quinoa. I also eat these Korean Pickles straight out of the jar with chopsticks. You know, like a salad.

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" vs Pickled Daikon Radish vs Pickled Korean Radish vs Spicy Radish Salad vs Kkakdugi...What's What

All of these dishes are made from crisp, refreshing radish and served as little side dishes known as banchan. However, kkakdugi, mu-saeng-chae, pickled radish, and mu namul are all distinct from one another in the way the radishes are cut, prepped, and seasoned.

Pickled Korean Radish aka Chicken Mu 치킨무 is a type of vinegar pickled radish made from Korean radish that is cut into small cubes and pickled directly in a vinegar brine. Chicken Mu gets its name because it almost always accompanies Korean Fried Chicken!

Pickled Daikon Radish and Carrots aka Do Chua is a Vietnamese preparation of julienned daikon radish, sometimes carrots, pickled in a sweet and sour vinegar brine similar to Korean Pickled Radish.

Spicy Radish Salad aka Mu-saeng-chae 무생채 is a type of vinegar pickled radish. However, unlike Chicken Mu, this version is seasoned with salt, sugar, and sometimes a little bit of red pepper. Since it's not fermented, you can also call it a salad. I LOVE this and used to buy giant pre-packed plastic containers of it from the Korean grocery store. And yes, I did eat it straight from the container.

Kkakdugi 깍두기 is a type of radish kimchi, seasoned with spices and then fermented, which gives it its natural tartness. Korean radishes are almost always cut into small cubes similar to Chicken Mu, but spicy and fermented. There are a few different types of kimchi made from different radishes; kkakdugi is this one shaped like cubes!

Are Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" Healthy?

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" can be healthy! Depending on your health needs and dietary considerations of course. To be honest, I can't really think of a case in which Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" would not be healthy, unless maybe the gentle acid in the vinegar brine causes heartburn or other gastric issue for you, or you are sensitive to the sodium in tamari/soy sauce.

Though they are a root vegetables, Korean radishes are considered non-starchy vegetables so they are appropriate for low-sugar/low-carb lifestyles. And did you know that radishes are part of the Brassica family, the same family as broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale!

Radishes provide vitamin C, which along with a few other compunds, give radishes anti-cancer and anti-diabetes properties. Studies have shown that radishes also support healthy liver function and can improve cardiovascular health.

Health and Dietary Considerations of Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji"

As published, this recipe for Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" is:

• 100% plant-based, suitable for vegans
• vegetarian
• dairy-free
• gluten-free
• wheat-free
• grain-free

This recipe is keto-, Whole30-, and low-carb adaptable with non-nutritive sugar substitutes.

What Ingredients You Need for Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji"

The traditional pickling brine for Korean Pickles has a foundation of vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. However, I use apple cider vinegar for the fermentation benefit, gluten-free tamari instead of soy sauce, and maple syrup as an unrefined sweetener, which adds a level of flavor beyond just sweetness of plain sugar.

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" fresh/refrigerator ingredients:

• daikon radish or Korean radish
• white onion
• jalapeño pepper
• garlic

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" dry/pantry ingredients:

• tamari
• apple cider or rice vinegar
• maple syrup

Optional crunchy vegetables to add: any other type of radish, cucumbers obviously, celery, kohlrabi, chayote squash, turnips, and garlic scapes.

What are the Best Vegetables for Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji?"

The recipe is called "Korean Pickles" not only because it's a Korean dish, but because one of the most common ingredients is Korean radish, called "mu" or "moo." In addition to Korean radish, there are garlic, onions, and jalapeño peppers, which provide much of the flavor and heat.

After that, you can add just about any seasonal vegetable to the mix, though my preference is usually for crunchy, sturdy vegetables like cucumber, celery, a small pale green squash called chayote, kohlrabi, and turnips. Because the soy sauce-based brine is already dark, you don't have to worry about the color of the vegetables. Everything will turn some shade of beige-ish brown.

But don't feel limited to crumch vegetables. Korean pickling brine is regularly used on garlic scapes, ramps, and perilla leaves.

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

Tamari is a Japanese soy-based sauce, and generally fermented without wheat, so it is gluten-free. If you can tolerate gluten, you can use regular soy sauce. This is the organic brand of tamari I use, available at Whole Foods and online

Rice Vinegar. I use this brand organic brown rice vinegar. If you don't have rice vinegar, use any other light/mild vinegar like apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.

Maple Syrup. Normally, I use plain white sugar or none at all when making vinegar pickles to keep the color of the vegetables. But since a soy sauce pickling brine is brown, I use my generally preferred sweetener maple syrup, though still in afairly conservative amount. I use an organic maple syrup. You can substitute with other sweetener of choice.

Any other fresh herbs and produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday, or Whole Foods Market when I can't find what I need at the farmers' market.

How to Make Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji

Allow the vegetables to pickle for at least 2 hours before serving/eating. After 2 hours, the Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" will taste lightly pickled. After 1 day, it will taste even better. Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" taste better and better each day.

Pro Tips, Tricks, and Technique FAQs

• Quart-size mason jar fits this recipe. A quart-sized mason jar (32 ounces) is the exact size for this recipe, or two pint-size jars. If you use the smaller jars, get the wide mouth version because they are easier to fill AND the lids are the same size as the quart so you don't have to try and keep track of matching lids.
• Save your kimchi jars! If you buy kimchi in glass jars, wash and save the larger jars once you finish the kimchi and MAKE A VOW to yourself that you will indeed use them for making your own pickles and kimchi and not just let the empty jar sit at the back of your storage drawer with all the other random odd sized jars and plastic tubs you've hoarded through the last 10 years. Yup, there, I said it.
• If this is your first time making Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji," make this recipe exactly as is so you can get a feel for the technique and what you like in terms of flavor. I have always found store-bought or restaurant versions of Pickled Daikon Radish with Soy a little too sweet, so this recipe has less sweetener and more vinegar!

Tools and Equipment

As I say for just about any recipe, there isn't any special tool or piece of equipment required to make Korean Pickles with Soy Sauce. You can make it using a sharp chef's knife on a sturdy cutting board to cut the radish! However, that isn't to say there are a few tools that might make it slightly easier to get the Korean Pickles with Soy Sauce from the farmers market to your fork (or chopsticks)!

• Chef's knife, my personal workhorse
• Wooden cutting board, oversized for all those radish cubes
• Vegetable peeler once I switched to this from the old-school swivel style, I never looked back
• Glass mixing bowls 
• Mini ¼-cup liquid measuring cup
• Glass storage containers with airtight lids
• Quart Glass mason Jars
• Glass 1-pint mason jars, wide mouth because they're easier to use and wash
• Mason jar lids that are better than those horrible 2-piece metal lids, these fit all jars labeled "wide-mouth"

How Far in Advance Should You Make Pickled Vegetables?

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" is best when made at least a few hours in advance, after which it will be lightly pickled.

Even better is two or three days in advance. The longer you let Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" chill out in your refrigerator, the more it will pickle into its tangy, funky glory.

Technically, you can make and eat Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" right away; it will just taste like a fresh, crunchy radish salad.

How to Store Prepped or Leftover Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji"

Refrigerator. You can keep Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for two weeks as long as you use clean utensils every time you remove some of the Pickles from the jar. Technically, pickles can last for weeks because that is the point of pickling, but 1) you will probably finish eating a quart-sized jar in a matter of days, and 2) the "weeks" assumes you don't open the jar and use your own dirty chopsticks to tke two bites out every few hours.

Freezer. Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" does not freeze well. Just let it pickle in the refrigerator.

Ingredients Substitutions and FAQs

The recipe for this Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" is forgiving in terms of ingredients, measurements, and technique because it is not "canning." There is no sterilizing of jars, no precision microbiology, no watchfulness required, just adding vinegar brine and placing the jar in the fridge.

Here are the pro-tips:

• Different Radish? If you do not have access to Korean radish aka "mu," or "moo," you can substitute in Japanese daikon radish, which is a near-exact substitute. Daikon radishes are generally more available in regular grocery stores where I live, Los Angeles. The biggest difference is that you will not cut as many perfect squares from Japanese daikon radish because it's smaller! If you only have smaller round radishes, you can definitely use the same seasoning ingredients, and the final dish will have a similar vibe, but it will be you know, different. To be honest, the brine recipe is a pretty univeral ALL-PURPOSE vinegar brine, and you can use it on just about any vegetable.
• Different Vinegar? If you don't have rice vinegar, you can also use apple cider vinegar, which will add just the slightest fruity vibe if your palate is that acute. You can also use distilled white vinegar, though it has a sharper bite so you might need to add a little more sugar.
• Sugar Substitute? Rather than substituting in a non-nutritive sugar substitute, I generally just reduce the amount of sugar when needed. However, you can substitute in a non-nutritive, natural sweetener like stevia or monkfruit.

What to Serve with Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji"

Oh, you mean you can't just pluck Korean pickles straight out of the jar with a pair of chopsticks standing over the kitchen sink and call that dinner?

Not that I've done that.

Not that I've not done that either.

Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" is considered "banchan," a term for a broad category of side dishes, often marinated, pickled, fermented vegetables, some cooked, and some meats. When the main event is something heart like Galbi Jjim, the crispy crunchy texture of Korean Pickles "Jang-ajji" is the perfect counterbalance.

Pile the Pickles over a bowl of fluffy steamed rice along with some of the tart pickling liquid from the jar and now THAT you can call a dead-easy weeknight dinner. If you really want to get fancy, move it from the kitchen sink to the table and add any of the little dishes in the next section!

Best Vegetables to Pickle

These are the best things to pickle with a vinegary, sometimes citrus-y brine:

• Pickled Korean Radish Cubes aka Chicken Mu
• Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish, aka Do Chua
• Perfect Pickled Onions
• Salsa Criolla, Peruvian Spicy Lime-Pickled Onions

If you want to add some spice to that sour, try these:

• Spicy Korean Cucumbers, Oi Muchim
• Spicy Pickled Radish Salad, aka Mu-Saeng-Chae
• Korean Radish Kimchi aka Kkakdugi
• Spicy Korean Carrot Salad, not technically pickled, but super tart from vinegar!

Food for Afterthoughts

Supposedly, I am allergic to cucumbers, which makes it a curious thing that I'm not-so-secretly obsessing over the pickles at Joan's on Third, which I haven't touched in almost a year because of please-see-first-six-words-of-this-run-on-sentence.

And from the sound of how some food allergies could oh, possibly, say, develop from extraordinary over-consumption of said food, my cucumber allergy could have everything to do with oh, possibly, say, eating an entire container of Joan's on Third pickles.

In one sitting.

On more than one occasion.

In a row.

So basically, I did this to myself. Yay.

On a totally related, but not necessarily flowing, note, are pickles a condiment or a side dish?!