Haemul Pajeon (Seafood and Green Onion Pancake)

Name: Haemul Pajeon (Seafood and Green Onion Pancake)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 200 g Slender green onions (jjokpa) or scallions; 100 g Squid; 100 g Shrimp; 80 g Clam meat or shucked oysters; 100 g All-purpose flour; 30 g Rice flour; 200 ml Cold water or chilled anchovy-kelp broth; ¼ tsp Salt; 2 large Eggs; 1 Red or green chili; 4 tbsp Neutral cooking oil; 2 tbsp Soy sauce; 1 tbsp Rice vinegar; ½ tsp Gochugaru

해물파전

Romanization: haemul-pajeon

Whole green onions bound in a light batter with squid, shrimp and clams, pan-fried until crisp — a generous jeon for sharing, closely tied to Busan's Dongnae.

Serves: 4
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 20 min

RegionBusan · Gyeongsang

Jump to recipe

Recipe

Ingredients · Serves 4

200 gSlender green onions (jjokpa) or scallionsabout 2 bunches, trimmed
100 gSquidcleaned body, cut into thin strips
100 gShrimppeeled and deveined, roughly chopped
80 gClam meat or shucked oystersrinsed and drained
100 gAll-purpose flourabout ¾ cup
30 gRice flourabout 3 tbsp; adds crispness
200 mlCold water or chilled anchovy-kelp brothuse unsalted broth
¼ tspSalt
2 largeEggsbeaten
1 Red or green chilithinly sliced, optional
4 tbspNeutral cooking oilfor frying, divided
2 tbspSoy saucefor the dipping sauce
1 tbspRice vinegarfor the dipping sauce
½ tspGochugarufor the dipping sauce, optional

Method

Technique: Jeon: Pan-Frying in Flour and Egg

Step 1: Cut the green onions into lengths that fit your skillet (about 20 cm for a 26 cm pan); halve any thick white ends lengthwise. Pat the squid, shrimp and clams dry with paper towels.
Step 2: Whisk the flour, rice flour and salt with the cold water or broth until smooth. The batter should be thin and pourable, like heavy cream.
Step 3: Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Spoon a thin layer of batter into the pan, lay half the green onions over it side by side, then scatter half the seafood and chili on top. Drizzle a few more spoonfuls of batter over everything, just enough to bind it.
Step 4: Cook for 3–4 minutes, pressing gently with a spatula, until the underside is golden. Pour half the beaten egg evenly over the top.
Step 5: Flip the pancake, add a little more oil around the edge, and cook for another 3–4 minutes, pressing down, until the seafood is cooked through and the egg has set. Flip once more for 30 seconds to re-crisp the first side.
Step 6: Slide onto a board and repeat with the remaining ingredients.
Step 7: Mix the soy sauce, vinegar and gochugaru for dipping. Cut the pancakes into wedges or squares and serve hot.

Origin & History

Pajeon is jeon built on green onions (pa), and haemul-pajeon adds seafood (haemul). It belongs to the batter branch of the jeon family: rather than dusting each piece in flour and dipping it in egg, as for classic jeon, the cook pours a loose batter of wheat or rice flour over a layer of whole onions so that the starch glues them into a single round. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that pajeon does not appear in Joseon-era cookbooks; the earliest written recipes are in 20th-century books such as Joseon yori jebeop.

The Korean Food Promotion Institute describes haemul-pajeon as a more lavish version of plain pajeon, enriched with squid, clams, shrimp and other shellfish. Shellfish, oysters and mussels are also the additions the encyclopedia considers best suited to the dish, and its pajeon recipe lays seasoned beef or shellfish between the onions before covering them with a second ladle of batter.

The most famous version comes from Dongnae, an old walled town that is now a district of Busan. The encyclopedia attributes Dongnae's reputation to its location: close to Miryang, known for green onions, and Eonyang, known for water dropwort (minari), and next to a sea rich in shellfish. Local tradition, as told by the Dongnae district office, says a Dongnae magistrate once sent pajeon to the king for the spring festival of Samjinnal, or that it fed laborers building an inner wall of the nearby mountain fortress in 1707. The office itself treats these as oral legends and places the dish's rise as a commercial specialty in the late Joseon period, when it was served in the Dongnae market and in gisaeng houses as a delicacy for honored guests. A local-culture writer adds that the trade grew in the 1930s, after a new railway let women from Gijang bring their prized slender green onions to sell at Dongnae station.

Today haemul-pajeon is a staple of home cooking and of pubs serving makgeolli or dongdongju, and the Korean Food Promotion Institute notes that pajeon is especially craved on rainy days. See also jeon pan-frying.

Key Ingredients

Nutrition

Estimated, per serving (¼ of recipe, about half a large pancake)
Calories	~350 kcal
Protein	~19 g
Fat	~17 g
Carbohydrates	~31 g
Fiber	~2.2 g
Sodium	~350 mg

Notable forProtein · Selenium · Vitamin B12 · Vitamin K

Estimated by summing USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) values for raw scallions (FDC 170005), raw squid (FDC 174223), raw shrimp (FDC 175179), raw clams (FDC 174214), enriched all-purpose flour (FDC 168894), white rice flour (FDC 169714), raw whole egg (FDC 171287), raw chili, table salt and soybean oil, divided by 4. Assumes all the oil is absorbed and water rather than broth. Excludes the dipping sauce, which adds roughly 440 mg sodium per serving if all of it is used. Most of the vitamin B12 comes from the clams and much of the vitamin K from the green onions and soybean oil. Actual values vary with ingredients, portion size and preparation.

Health Benefits

Seafood protein: squid, shrimp and clams make this one of the more protein-rich jeon, and shellfish are a source of selenium and vitamin B12 (clams especially).
Green onions: a generous layer of onions contributes vitamin K, vitamin C and folate along with color and aroma.
A shared meal: a large pancake is usually divided among several people, so it can sit alongside vegetables and kimchi as part of a varied table.

Regional Variations

Dongnae pajeon (Busan): made with slender jjokpa green onions and minari, topped with several kinds of shellfish and sometimes beef. The batter is rice flour and glutinous rice flour (or, in the encyclopedia's version, wheat and rice flour) mixed with anchovy broth; an egg is poured over near the end and the pancake is finished under a lid, then served with vinegared red chili paste (cho-gochujang).
Everyday haemul-pajeon: a wheat-flour or ready-mixed buchim-garu batter with squid, shrimp, clams or oysters, served with soy sauce sharpened with vinegar.
Plain pajeon: green onions alone in batter, the simplest and cheapest form.
Crisp or soft: pubs often fry thin, oil-crisped pancakes, while the Dongnae style is thick, soft and moist, with onions that pull apart easily.

Pairings

Sources

Last updated October 13, 2026