Seven-Eleven Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak [Korean Food]

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Hello! Today’s new lunchbox from Seven-Eleven is the Geureolssahan Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak (“respectable soy-braised chicken lunchbox”), a collaboration with the hit webtoon-based drama about a legendary army mess cook. As the show has grown popular lately, CU, Emart24, GS25, and now Seven-Eleven have all rolled out versions at once. This menu, too, is said to be built on a dish that appeared in the drama, so my hopes are high. So shall we take a look at what it’s like?

Table of Contents

📋 At a Glance

Product: Seven-Eleven Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak (army-cook edition)
Store: Seven-Eleven (collab with the army-cook webtoon drama, by CJ CheilJedang)
Price: 5,500 won (approx. $4.05 USD)
Weight: 386g
Calories: 640 kcal (sodium 66% of daily value)
Main components: Chunjang soy-braised chicken (Brazilian chicken thigh, glass noodles, carrot), meatballs, seasoned fried dumplings, stir-fried kimchi, stir-fried fish cake and sausage
Verdict: ★4.0 — A hearty value lunchbox: jjimdak with a sweet, savory chunjang depth plus generous sides, only slightly short on rice.

Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak: Price and Highlights

This is already my third review in the army-cook drama lunchbox series. It feels like a series concept only CJ — with a foot in both video-content production and the food industry — could pull off (though come to think of it, Lotte’s in that space too). This menu is said to be based on the chunjang jjimdak that appeared in the drama. It’s actually a dish I’d been meaning to make myself. Haha. So I bought it partly to taste it. The price is 5,500 won.

Ganjang jjimdak dosirak full composition

The total volume is 386g, with 640 kcal, which feels like a reasonable amount for the price. Sodium sits at 66% of the daily value, so it’s not as salty as you might expect. The chicken used in the jjimdak is said to be Brazilian chicken thigh.

What’s in the Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak

So let’s check the makeup. You’ve probably already glimpsed it in the thumbnail, but since it’s an army-cook collab, the vessel — deliberately shaped like a mess tray and even printed with a camouflage pattern — catches your eye more than the food itself. After taking the photos, the sides can be a bit hard to tell apart. Haha.

Seven-Eleven ganjang jjimdak lunchbox composition

The Main Jjimdak and Four Sides

First, the main dish: the jjimdak. The base looks like a ready-made seasoned meat — chicken thigh tossed in soy sauce and corn syrup — with chunjang (black bean paste) added on top. Judging by the ingredient list, which notes the seasoned meat and chunjang separately, they seem fairly committed to recreating the original dish. Haha. A few pieces of carrot were tossed in so it wouldn’t feel bare on vegetables, and there are glass noodles underneath.

The remaining sides come to four in total: from the left, three meatballs, two seasoned fried dumplings, stir-fried kimchi, and finally stir-fried fish cake and sausage. All four are things you often see in convenience-store lunchboxes, and come to think of it, they’re also staples served a lot in the military — so it feels like they built the lineup on purpose.

The rice looks a touch small relative to the overall amount of sides, but I guess I’ll find out as I eat. It surely won’t fall short.

Convenience store lunchbox composition intro

How the Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak Tastes

So let’s dig right in. Personally, with the chunjang jjimdak I’d long been itching to make, some solid sides, and good value all together, I’m quietly excited. Since CJ led the collab so ambitiously, this whole series tends to be pretty good on both value and quality.

First I tried a bite of the main dish, the soy-braised jjimdak. Before it cooled after heating, I mixed the glass noodles and the chicken together well. Lifting a piece of chicken along with the noodles, I could tell it had a slightly different flavor from the convenience-store dakgalbi I’m used to. Where those tend to be a soy base with a bit of teriyaki sauce mixed in, this one has, how to put it, a curiously sweet note?

Chunjang added jjimdak flavor differentiation

Chunjang jjimdak doesn’t originally use a heavy dose of chunjang either, so it adds a gentle savory depth rather than the jjajangmyeon flavor you’d think of — and this menu seems to land in a similar direction. You can enjoy it as a bit of a change from the usual menus, and on that front I quite like it.

The Sides and the Rice Portion

The rest of the sides were solid overall. They might feel a bit monotonous since they’re the kind you often see in convenience-store lunchboxes, but their flavors are more assured than clumsily made ones, so you end up eating them anyway once they’re there. Haha. The meatballs were a familiar taste in that sense too.

For the seasoned dumplings, they usually use mini dumplings made by frying boiled ones, but this menu used fairly large dumplings by convenience-store-lunchbox standards, which made them nicer to eat.

The stir-fried kimchi and the fish cake–sausage stir-fry are also the kind you can just eat right away without a second thought, so they’re fine additions. The portions were fairly generous too, so it was a pretty good setup to eat with rice.

Ganjang jjimdak Seven-Eleven recommended menu

Final Verdict

I’d worried the rice might come up quite short, but by my standards it was only slightly so. The nutrition label reads as not that salty, yet eating the sides one by one did leave my mouth feeling a touch salty. Aside from that, it was a satisfying menu overall. The portions are generous too, so it’s pretty solid for a filling meal. If you want a hearty convenience-store lunchbox, this is one I’d strongly recommend. For anyone exploring Korean convenience stores, that camouflage mess-tray packaging alone makes it a fun one to try.

For more on the Seven-Eleven jjimdak lunchbox that CJ CheilJedang built with the buzzy TVING original army-cook drama, you can check the (Korean source) Hankyung report on the Seven-Eleven army-cook jjimdak lunchbox.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How much is the Seven-Eleven Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak?

It’s 5,500 won (about $4.05 USD). At 386g and 640 kcal, the portion is reasonable for the price, and sodium sits at 66% of the daily value.

Q. What exactly is this lunchbox?

It’s a collab lunchbox based on the chunjang jjimdak from a hit webtoon-based drama about a legendary army mess cook. It pairs Brazilian chicken-thigh soy-braised jjimdak with glass noodles and carrot, plus four sides: meatballs, seasoned fried dumplings, stir-fried kimchi, and stir-fried fish cake and sausage.

Q. How does the Ganjang Jjimdak Dosirak taste?

The added chunjang gives it a curiously sweet, savory depth that sets it apart from the usual convenience-store dakgalbi. The glass noodles are chewy and the sides are familiar but assured, making it well-rounded and complete overall.

Q. Would you recommend it?

Yes, I recommend it. The rice is a touch short and the sides run a little salty, but the jjimdak and sides are both generous enough for a filling meal. If you want a hearty convenience-store lunchbox, it’s well worth grabbing.

image sources

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