Do you love butter? How about spice? If so, gochujang butter is for you!
Gochujang butter is deliciously sweet and spicy and goes amazingly on EVERYTHING. You need it in your life. The sweet-salty-buttery flavor is amazing on noodles, rice, steak, chicken, toast, really, it’s so incredibly good.
What is gochujang butter?
Gochujang butter is a sweet and spicy flavored butter that you can easily make at home. If you know what a compound butter is, think of that, but with gochujang. Compound butters are extra flavorful butters – essentially, butter mixed with other ingredients that add a sweet or savory flavor. In this case, our flavors are going to be sweet, savory, and spicy.
How to make gochujang butter
All you need to do is mix together all the ingredients. Super simple. I like to thin out the gochujang first with the honey and rice vinegar so it blends with the butter more easily.
- Stir. In a bowl, add the gochujang, honey, and rice vinegar. Stir until everything comes together and is smooth.
- Mix. Add room temp butter to the gochujang mix and mix until everything is evenly combined. Taste and adjust the gochujang if you need more spice, honey if you need more sweetness, and rice vinegar if you need more tang.
- Enjoy. Enjoy as desired! The butter gets better with age, so I recommend letting the flavors meld for an hour, but it’s absolutely not necessary!
Gochujang butter ingredients
- gochujang – the key ingredient that will add the spice and all the nice! Use the gochujang you have in your fridge or if you’re going out to buy some, make sure you check the spice level and choose accordingly.
- butter – we’ll need some room-temp butter for this so the gochujang and other ingredients mix in nicely. Go for your favorite unsalted butter. I like European churned butter because of it’s higher fat content. It has a more melty mouthfeel and fuller flavor. Whichever butter you go for, unsalted is what you want because you will be seasoning it.
- honey – adding a bit of honey highlights the spiciness and sweetness of gochujang. Remember the honey butter chip https://amzn.to/3Qwctw2 craze? Imagine adding gochujang to it – genius!
- rice vinegar – a bit of unseasoned rice vinegar is going to give our gochujang butter some tang and acidity. This will balance out the butter and make it even more addictive.
- garlic – usually I say the more garlic the better, but in this case, since we’re using raw garlic, one clove is perfect. Make sure you mince it up extra fine.
Gochujang Butter Noodles
For a quick meal, make some gochujang butter noodles. We love the thickness and chewiness of udon, but this will work well with any noodle, including pasta and instant noodle packs (with the seasoning packet discarded).
Cook the noodles as directed by the package instructions. While the noodles are cooking, melt 2 tbsp of the gochujang butter in a non stick pan over medium heat. Add a 1/4 cup of the noodle cooking water to the pan and use a whisk to vigorously emulsify the butter and cooking water. Turn the heat to low.
Just before the noodles finish cooking (you want them undercooked), use a pair of tongs to transfer them to the pan with the gochujang butter sauce. Turn the heat to medium-high. Toss the noodles in the sauce can continue to cook until the noodles are al dente, coated and glossy. Finish with an extra pat of gochujang butter if desired and enjoy immediately!
What is gochujang?
For the uninitiated, gochujang is a Korean chili paste made with sun-dried chili peppers. The bright, ruby red paste has an earthy, slightly sweet hint, thanks to glutinous rice. Because it’s fermented, and also contains soybeans, it has all the umami flavors. It’s one of those condiments that isn’t single use. You can use it to make dipping sauces, in soups, stews, stir-fries, marinades, rubs, pasta, and even desserts! It’s one of the key ingredients in Korean food and and absolute staple in our fridge.
What does gochujang taste like?
Gochujang is spicy, earthy, and has a tiny hint of sweetness. It’s bright yet has a depth of flavor due to fermentation.
Gochujang paste on its own is a pretty strong punch you in the face flavor. It’s hardly ever used on its own and is more likely to be found in other sauces and dishes.
Is gochujang spicy?
The answer is, yes and no. Gochujang paste comes in a variety of spice levels. In fact, the tubs have convenient spice level chart on them letting you know how spicy the gochujang you’re buying is. It’s measured in GHU (gochujang hot unit). The levels are: mild hot, slight hot, medium hot, very hot, and extreme hot. So, depending on which level you buy, it can be mild or quite spicy!
What is gochujang made of?
Gochujang consists of dried chilis, sticky glutinous rice, soybean flour, and barley malt. All the ingredients mix together and ferment into a mature, sticky, spicy, delicious gorgeous red-hued paste.
Where can you buy gochujang?
You can find gochujang in Asian grocery stores and sometimes even at your local grocery store. It’s sold in little (and giant) rectangular tubs. Sometimes it’s sold in squeeze bottles too. Take a look at the packaging, because sometimes they sell gochujang sauce (gochujang paste mixed with other ingredients) meant for dipping. You can also find it online. Some popular Korean brands are: Daesang, CJ Haechandle, Sempio, and Chung Jung One
How to use gochujang butter
Gochujang butter is the ultimate condiment. Use it on anything and everything, liberally. Try it on:
- steak
- risotto
- buttered noodles
- roasted honeynut squash
- baked potatoes
- mashed potatoes
- Parker House rolls (pictured above)
- cheddar scallion biscuits
- focaccia
Other ways to use gochujang
Gochujang comes in a big tub, so if you’re not making pounds and pounds of gochujang butter (you might) here are some other uses for your gochujang:
- Sweet and Spicy Roast Chicken and Potatoes
- Buldak Ramen
- Rabokki (Ramen and Rice Cakes!)
- Tteokbokki Korean Rice Cakes
- Korean Fried Chicken
- Gochujang Baked Salmon
- Buldak Chicken
- Spicy Bulgogi
- Sweet and Spicy Instant Pot Chicken Breast
Happy buttering friends! May your day be both sweet and spicy!
xoxo steph
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp gochujang
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 clove garlic finely minced
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
Instructions
- In a bowl, whisk together the gochujang, honey, and rice vinegar until smooth.
- Add the garlic and room temp butter and use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine completely. Use as desired, or store in the fridge, in an airtight container.
- Let cool and solidify in the fridge. The flavors will meld and the gochujang butter will become extra delicious if you let it meld least 1 hour before using.
