Gochugaru vs Gochujang: Differences and Swaps

What gochugaru is

A shallow bowl of coarse red gochugaru flakes on a dark wooden table, with a dried red chili and garlic beside it — Coarse gochugaru: bright red flakes, the kind used for kimchi.

Korea’s Food Code defines gochugaru (고춧가루) as ripe red chili peppers, dried and then ground. The stems come off. The pepper’s own seeds may stay in, but nothing else may be added: no salt, sugar or starch. So a bag of gochugaru should list one ingredient.

Sun-dried or machine-dried. Taeyangcho (태양초) gochugaru is made from peppers dried in the sun and wind; the rest is dried in hot-air dryers. Sun-dried sells at a premium. Taeyangcho is a drying method, not a type of pepper.
Coarse or fine. Coarse flakes are the everyday gochugaru for kimchi, soups and stews. Fine powder is mainly for making gochujang, and for smooth sauces such as tteokbokki (Maangchi, Beyond Kimchee).
Color. Good gochugaru is bright red. Maangchi says to avoid flakes that look purplish or brownish, and that it turns yellowish-red when it goes bad.

The taste is fruity and slightly sweet, often called smoky, though gochugaru isn’t smoked (Just One Cookbook, Beyond Kimchee).

What gochujang is

Gochujang is a fermented paste of gochugaru, glutinous rice, fermented soybean powder (meju), barley malt powder and salt (Korean Bapsang’s homemade recipe). The malt turns the rice starch into sugar as it ferments, which is why gochujang tastes sweet as well as salty and hot. Many US tubs use wheat, corn syrup or other syrups in place of some of the rice. See how to use gochujang for amounts by dish.

Which is hotter?

It depends on the bag and the tub. Gochugaru is sold mild (deol-maewoon) or hot (maewoon), and Maangchi uses mild for kimchi, so a lot can go in for color. In Korean lab tests, the capsaicin in commercial gochugaru ranged widely, and powders held more than pastes and sauces (2012 study).

Pepper variety matters most. Cheongyang (청양) peppers had the most capsaicin of the varieties tested in one study, and are used for soups and very spicy dishes. Yeongyang powder, preferred for kimchi, had the least (2000 study).

Gochujang tubs carry a heat grade on Korea’s GHU scale, from mild (under 30) to extremely hot (over 100); most are in the middle. The one Scoville figure published for a gochujang is CJ’s: about 1,100 SHU for its medium-hot paste. See how spicy is gochujang.

When to use each

Dish	Use	From
Kimchi	Coarse gochugaru	Maangchi, Beyond Kimchee
Soups and stews	Gochugaru	Just One Cookbook
Homemade gochujang	Fine gochugaru	Maangchi, Beyond Kimchee
Tteokbokki	Gochujang + fine gochugaru	Maangchi, Beyond Kimchee
Bibimbap	Gochujang	Maangchi
Spicy pork	Gochujang + gochugaru	Korean Bapsang

Many cooked Korean dishes use both: in the published recipes we compared for how to use gochujang, most added gochugaru on top of the paste.

Can you substitute one for the other?

Not one for one, because gochujang brings salt and sugar that gochugaru doesn’t.

Gochujang in place of gochugaru: use half as much, and cut back on salt and salty ingredients like fish sauce. Pantry & Larder tested it in a cucumber salad and scored it 5/10.

Gochugaru in place of gochujang: add sweetness and salt with it. Maangchi’s current dakgalbi skips gochujang and uses ⅓ cup (80 ml) gochugaru with soy sauce and rice syrup. In Pantry & Larder’s tteokbokki test, chili powder mixed with miso, swapped 1:1 for gochujang, scored 9/10. More options in gochujang substitutes.

Gochugaru substitutes

Substitute	How much	Score
Cayenne + smoked paprika, half and half	Same amount	9/10
Aleppo pepper	Same amount	8/10
Kashmiri chili powder	Same amount	8/10
Hot paprika	Same amount	7/10
Gochujang	Half the amount	5/10

From Pantry & Larder’s test in a cucumber salad. Cayenne is much hotter than mild gochugaru, so start with less of it in the blend; Aleppo “packs a bit more heat” too. More in gochugaru substitutes.

Storing them

Gochugaru: keep it in the freezer once the bag is open. Maangchi freezes it in a zip-top bag for up to 6 months and keeps a small jar in the fridge; Beyond Kimchee says it lasts up to 3 years frozen. Cold keeps the color: in a 2012 Korean study, red pepper powder stayed red at -4°F (-20°C) and faded badly at 68°F (20°C). Throw it out if it turns brownish or shows mold.

Gochujang: refrigerate after opening. Daesang gives its paste 18 months from manufacture unopened.

How we checked this

We took the definition of gochugaru from Korea’s Food Code, heat from Korean lab studies, swaps from published side-by-side tests, and gochujang facts from labels and our earlier research for the best gochujang.

We said	Now
Made from Cheongyang or Taeyang peppers	Taeyang is sun-dried; Cheongyang is extra hot
Gochugaru is deseeded	Its own seeds may stay in
Gochujang is hotter than sriracha	Medium gochujang is about 1,100 SHU
250–⁠350 mg sodium per tbsp	383–⁠1,314 mg per 20 g

More on Korean chili

To pick a tub, our guide to the best gochujang compares brands by what is on the label. Once you have one, our page on how to use gochujang gives amounts by dish, and our guide on how to make gochujang covers the traditional and quick versions.

Gochugaru vs Gochujang: What's the Difference and Can You Swap Them?