This crispy potato pancake is filled with rich, melty cheese that stretches with every bite. It’s one of the trendy and most popular drinking foods (Anju) in Korea.
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What is Cheese Potato Pancake?
Today’s cheese potato pancake recipe is different from the traditional potato pancake called gamja jeon (감자전). Instead of grating the potatoes, we slice them into thin strips to make them extra crispy. That’s why they’re called gamja-chae-jeon (감자채전), which means “shredded potato pancake” in Korean. This dish is quite similar to Rösti or Latkes — Western-style potato pancakes.
We also add a generous amount of cheese to the inside, creating a pancake with a crispy exterior and a rich, melty cheese filling. This combination of textures makes this Korean pancake truly delicious.
How Is It Different from Traditional Potato Jeon?
Traditional Korean gamja jeon is grated potato pancake. They are made by grating potatoes and pan-frying them in oil, similar to other Korean pancakes. The grated potatoes contain all the natural starch, giving the pancakes a chewy, slightly sticky texture and rich, savory flavor.
Today, we’re making a version called gamja-chae-jeon. This type of pancake is a fried potato pancake made by thinly julienning the potatoes, rinsing out the starch in water, and then pan-frying them until they’re crispy almost like frying. The texture is completely different from that of the traditional kind.
This style has become trendy anju (drinking food) in Korea. If you go to a pocha, a Korean street bar, you’ll see this crispy version more often than the traditional one. That’s because younger people these days love crispy textures.
Extra Crispy Potato Pancake Recipe
- The key to making ultra-crispy gamja jeon (Korean potato pancakes) is how you cut the potatoes. Slice them very thinly. I used a mandoline today for that reason. In the Korean kitchen, we use the mandoline slicer a lot. If you don’t have one, use a regular knife, but make sure to slice them very thinly to achieve the desired texture.
- Next, soak the shredded potatoes in water to remove the starch. This is a crucial step! If you leave the starch in, the texture will be chewy instead of crispy. The principle is the same as for making crispy French fries—soaking removes the starch for a better crunch.
- Also, don’t skimp on the oil. If you use just a little oil to cut calories, the pancakes won’t be crispy. Use plenty of oil and fry the pancakes over medium heat until they’re golden brown and super crunchy. It should almost feel like shallow frying.
- If you’re on a diet, maybe skip this one and follow one of my Korean lunch box (light dosirak) recipes instead. These are the meals I ate while losing 20kg — and yes, I included my weight loss tips in that post too. Healthy meals don’t have to be boring, and if a lazy person like me can lose 20kg, you can do it too!
Why Add Cheese?
The special thing about this potato pancake ingredients is that it includes cheese. Koreans love adding cheese to their food. What started as a trend over a decade ago has become standard fare. When visiting Seoul, you’ll notice that many restaurants offer cheese as a topping for various dishes. The salty, umami-rich flavor of cheese enhances the overall taste of a dish.
Today, we’re adding cheese to our potato pancakes because the combination of crispy potatoes and melted cheese is irresistible — a flavor combination you already know and love. In fact, many Korean restaurants now serve potato pancakes with over 80% mozzarella cheese inside.
Cheese pairs well with spicy food, too. It mellows out the heat while adding creaminess. That’s why you’ll often see cheese toppings on spicy Korean dishes like cheese tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), cheese Buldak ramen (Korean fire noodles), cheese dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken).
If you’re craving authentic Korean cuisine, try my cheese dakgalbi recipe, inspired by a popular restaurant near Gangnam Station. It’s bold, cheesy, spicy, and deeply satisfying, just like the food you’d find in Korea.
What is Anju?
This cheese potato jeon (pancake) is usually served as a side dish for lunch or dinner, though it isn’t typically eaten with rice. So when do Koreans eat it? Usually, it’s served with drinks. In Korean culture, drinking is almost always accompanied by food. This category of food is called “anju,” meaning “drinking food.” Today’s recipe is a trendy and popular anju dish found at Korean pubs and pocha, or street bars.
Different types of drinks are often paired with different drinking food. For instance, Korean jeon like this one pair well with makgeolli (Korean rice wine), a traditional Korean rice wine. The crispy texture of the pancake and the smooth, slightly sweet taste of makgeolli are a perfect match.
Recommended Anju
Since today’s gamja jeon is a perfect anju to enjoy with makgeolli, here are a few more Korean drinking foods that go well with it
Samhap (Pork + Tofu + Kimchi Trio)
Samhap literally means “a combination of 3 foods.” Traditionally, this refers to fermented skate (hongeo), kimchi, and boiled pork belly. However, in Seoul and in most Korean homes, we skip the fermented skate, which has an acquired taste, and serve pork belly, tofu, and kimchi together instead.
Boiled pork (bossam) is a common drinking food for makgeolli, and many restaurants upgrade it with tofu to create Samhap. Perhaps it’s a way to make the meat go a little further—who knows?
Pa Jeon (Korean Green Onion Pancake)
You’ve probably heard of this classic Korean pancake before. The most famous version is pa jeon, which contains squid, shrimp, or mussels.
If you don’t have Korean pancake mix, try using regular flour. It won’t be as crispy, but it will have a chewy texture, just like the pancakes Korean grandmothers used to make without the mix.
Dubu Kimchi (Tofu with Stir-Fried Kimchi)
Think of this as a samhap without the pork. Instead of boiled kimchi, the kimchi is stir-fried, which gives it a deep, savory flavor.
If you love meat, try stir-frying the kimchi with ground pork to take the umami to the next level! It pairs beautifully with makgeolli and soju.
Dipping Sauces
Traditional Korean potato jeon is usually enjoyed by dipping them in soy sauce, just like other types of jeon. However, the texture of this crispy gamja chae jeon (shredded potato pancake) is similar to French fries, so some people like to dip it in ketchup as well.
In restaurants, you might get soy sauce only, or both soy sauce and ketchup might be served together. So, which team are you on—Team Soy Sauce or Team Ketchup? Personally, I love both! I recommend trying them with both sauces to find your favorite flavor combination.
Ingredient Substitutes
No buchim garu (Korean pancake mix)?
- No problem! You can substitute it with potato starch, though it won’t be as crispy.
- For extra crunch, try using tempura flour instead. Many Korean restaurants actually add tempura flour to their pancake batter to make their jeon super crispy — it’s a little trick for getting that restaurant-quality texture at home.
What to Do with Leftovers
Want to enjoy your leftover pancake crispy again the next day?
First, wrap the leftover pancakes in plastic wrap to keep them from drying out, then store them in the fridge.
- Air Fryer Method: Reheat them in the air fryer — they’ll come out crispy just like freshly made!
- No Air Fryer? No worries. Just heat a pan with a little bit of oil and pan-fry the pancakes again. You’ll still get that delicious crispy texture.
Ingredients Guide
- Steel Pan: Using a steel pan helps make your Korean pancake even crispier. It holds heat better than nonstick pans, giving you that golden, crunchy finish.
- Mandoline Vegetable Slicer: You need to slice the potatoes thinly with a mandoline to make extra crispy pancakes.
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Crispy Cheese Potato Pancake
Equipment
- 1 mandline slicer (or use a knife)
- 1 large bowl
- 1 Frying pan
Ingredients
- 4 small potatoes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp Korean pancake mix (buchim garu)
- 50 g shredded mozzarella cheese
- 5 tbsp cooking oil (or more, as needed)
- 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (optional, for garnish)
- 1 pinch dried parsley flakes (optional, for garnish)
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes
- Slice them into very thin strips using a mandoline. If you're using a knife, be sure to cut them as thinly as possible — thin slices are the key to crispiness.
- Soak the sliced potatoes in cold water to remove excess starch. Drain them well and squeeze out any remaining moisture.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the potatoes, salt, and pancake mix. Mix well until evenly coated.
- Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add about 5 tbsp of cooking oil. Add the potato mixture to the pan, spreading it out into a flat pancake shape. Cook until the bottom turns golden brown and crispy, then flip it over.
- Add mozzarella cheese on top of one half of the pancake.
- Fold the pancake in half.
- Transfer to a plate and garnish with Parmesan cheese and parsley flakes if desired.
Cheese Potato Pancake 치즈 감자채전
- Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce between soy sauce and ketchup.
- Are you Team Soy Sauce or Team Ketchup?
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @blondekimchi_ on Instagram and hashtag it #blondekimchi.