Gochugaru Substitute: The Right Swap for Each Korean Dish

Pizza-shop red pepper flakes run 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units. Gochugaru, by PepperScale's count, sits at 4,000 to 8,000. That gap is why the jar already in your cupboard is the worst place to start when a recipe calls for gochugaru and the bag is empty. The best gochugaru substitute depends on what the flakes do in that dish: in kimchi they carry color and texture, in kimchi jjigae mostly heat, and in many fried chicken glazes they aren't there at all. Below is a swap for each dish, measured per tablespoon, and where to buy the real thing in the US.

What you're replacing is sun-dried Korean red pepper with the seeds removed, ground anywhere from flakes to fine powder, with what Wikipedia describes as a spicy, sweet and slightly smoky taste. That is four jobs (heat, color, sweetness and, in some dishes, visible flakes), and no single swap does all four. The useful question is which job your dish can drop. If your recipe also lists the paste, our gochujang vs gochugaru guide explains why the two aren't interchangeable.

Which gochugaru substitute each dish needs

Every ratio below replaces 1 tablespoon of gochugaru. The ratios come from the substitution tables at Korean Home Cook and Taste Korean Food; the dish amounts come from our own recipes.

Dish	Best substitute	Per 1 tbsp gochugaru	What you lose
Kimchi	Aleppo pepper	1 tbsp	The bright red: Aleppo turns kimchi deep burgundy. The flakes survive, which is why it beats every powder here.
Kimchi jjigae	Gochujang	1½ tbsp, and cut the salt	Clean heat; the pot turns sweeter and saltier. Our recipe's 2 tsp of flakes become 1 more tbsp of paste.
Tteokbokki	Gochujang; for gireum (oil) tteokbokki, which has no paste, Aleppo	1½ tbsp gochujang, or 1 tbsp Aleppo	Some bite, in a sauce that is already ⅓ cup gochujang and now gets sweeter.
Korean fried chicken sauce	Often nothing; otherwise cayenne	¾ tsp cayenne	The fruity sweetness. Texture doesn't matter in a smooth glaze.
Sprinkle and raw salads (pajeori)	Aleppo pepper; in a pinch, crushed red pepper plus sugar	1 tbsp Aleppo, or 1 tsp crushed red pepper and a pinch of sugar	With crushed red pepper: seeds, sharper heat, no sweetness. Aleppo is hard to find in brick-and-mortar stores.

Why the swap changes by dish. The table splits on one question: does the gochugaru dissolve, or does it show? In a stew or a sauce it dissolves, so only heat and color count, and gochujang covers both. Korean Home Cook's rule is 1 tablespoon of paste for every 2 teaspoons of flakes, with less salt elsewhere, since the paste is sweeter and salty. In kimchi and pajeori the flakes are on show, so only another flake will do. The same logic rules out Kashmiri chili powder for kimchi, even though Korean Home Cook likes it in soups precisely because it dissolves. Fried chicken is the odd row. The yangnyeom glaze in our Korean fried chicken recipe, which follows Maangchi's, is ketchup, rice syrup, gochujang, vinegar and garlic, and Chef Chris Cho's is gochujang, soy sauce, garlic, ketchup, sugar and corn syrup. Neither contains gochugaru. If your recipe adds flakes to the glaze, they are there for heat, and cayenne covers heat.

Big pots need restraint. The seasoning paste in our budae jjigae is 1 tablespoon of gochujang against 2 of gochugaru, so a full swap would add 3 tablespoons of paste to a pot that already holds Spam and kimchi. Add it a tablespoon at a time and taste in between.

Paprika, red pepper flakes or gochujang instead of gochugaru

Paprika. Sweet paprika brings a brilliant red with milder heat, per Greedy Girl Gourmet. Taste Korean Food's fix is ¾ tablespoon of sweet paprika plus ¼ tablespoon of cayenne. Korean Home Cook's verdict on that blend: you miss the fruity, slightly smoky quality, so keep it out of kimchi, where the difference shows most. Smoked paprika adds smoke and a vibrant red, per Sous Chef, but no real heat, so it suits a mild stew and little else.

Red pepper flakes. The pizza kind is cayenne-based and keeps its seeds; gochugaru is typically seedless. PepperScale calls cayenne's flavor relatively neutral next to gochugaru's sweet, slightly smoky one. Use a third as much, 1 teaspoon per tablespoon, add a pinch of sugar, and keep it to broths and cooked sauces. Korean Home Cook's warning is about tteokbokki, where the pepper is front and center and you'll notice the difference.

Chipotle powder. PepperScale puts it at 2,500 to 8,000 SHU, close to gochugaru, with much more smoke, and most supermarkets carry it. Use half the amount.

Gochujang. The best swap in any wet dish and no use in a dry one. It is a paste, so Korean Home Cook rules it out for kimchi and dry rubs.

Where to buy gochugaru in the US

H Mart sells gochugaru as "Coarse Red Pepper Powder", so read the bag for the word coarse. H Mart's own listing says the coarse grind is ideal for kimchi, where larger flakes give texture. Prices below are as listed on September 27, 2026; the per-ounce figures are our math from the listed gram weight.

• H Mart: Greenation Coarse Red Pepper Powder, 1 lb (450 g), $5.99, about $0.38 an ounce. Tae Kyung Coarse Red Pepper Flakes for Kimchi, 1 lb (450 g), $9.99, about $0.63 an ounce, made in China. For a kimchi-making weekend, Tae Kyung Hot Pepper Powder (Coarse), 5 lb (2.26 kg), $44.99, about $0.56 an ounce, also from China.
• Walmart: Walmart.com's gochugaru listings include The Spice Way (8 oz and 32 oz), East and Else (1.1 lb) and Collected Foods (2 oz). No price was visible when we checked on September 27, so none is quoted here. A 2-ounce jar is a sprinkle supply, not a kimchi supply.
• Amazon: 1-pound bags from Wang and Chung Jung One O'Food (1.1 lb) are among the listings. No price showed there either, so compare per ounce against H Mart before you buy.

Daniel's Bite

Only two swaps on this list are good ones: gochujang in a pot, Aleppo in kimchi. Everything else is a patch that gets dinner made tonight, and I'd treat it that way. My one hard no is pizza flakes in tteokbokki. The pepper is the front of that dish, and seeds plus bare heat are what you'd taste first. The bigger mistake is letting a substitute become the habit. H Mart lists a pound of coarse gochugaru at $5.99. Buy a coarse bag, keep most of it in the freezer, and this table becomes something you need once. If you keep one backup on the shelf, make it a tub of gochujang, because it rescues the jjigae and tteokbokki rows outright.

Cooking without gochugaru: FAQ

Can I use paprika instead of gochugaru?

In cooked dishes, as a blend: ¾ tablespoon of sweet paprika plus ¼ tablespoon of cayenne for each tablespoon of gochugaru. Paprika alone gives the color with milder heat. Leave the blend out of kimchi.

Can I use red pepper flakes instead of gochugaru?

Only in broths and cooked sauces, at a third of the amount with a pinch of sugar. PepperScale puts crushed red pepper at 30,000 to 50,000 SHU against gochugaru's 4,000 to 8,000, and it comes with seeds.

Can I use gochujang instead of gochugaru?

In wet dishes, yes: 1 tablespoon of paste for every 2 teaspoons of flakes, with less salt elsewhere. Not in kimchi or dry rubs, since it is a paste.

Can you make kimchi without gochugaru?

Yes, with Aleppo pepper at 1 to 1. Expect deep burgundy kimchi instead of bright red. Skip gochujang and paprika-cayenne blends; Korean Home Cook rules out both for kimchi.

Where can I buy gochugaru in the US?

H Mart, Walmart.com and Amazon all carry it. On September 27, 2026, H Mart listed 1-pound bags from $5.99. Look for "coarse" on the label.

Does gochugaru go bad?

Korean Home Cook says a 1-pound bag lasts for months stored in the freezer, which is where the bulk of it belongs.