Korean Beef Bowl
by Chungah
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Tastes like Korean BBQ (bulgogi) and is on your dinner table in 15 min start to finish! Doesn’t get any easier than this!
Featured Comment
Please welcome our favorited Korean beef bowls, one of our most popular recipes on Damn Delicious. This recipe is a special twist on the traditional Korean dish, bulgogi, but as a cheater version, we are swapping out thin slices of sirloin with ground beef. Bulgogi is also marinated overnight to enhance its flavors and tenderness but with this quick ground beef version, you can have the same flavors in lightning speed time.
Why You’ll Love This Korean Beef Bowl
- Weeknight hero. With a short ingredient list, these beef bowls come together incredibly fast. The cooking process itself takes just about 10-15 minutes, and if you have some leftover cooked rice lying around, dinner will be on the table in 20 minutes or less. It’s a budget-friendly alternative to traditional bulgogi while still capturing authentic Korean BBQ flavors.
- Budget-friendly. Using pantry staples, ground beef and rice, this dish can easily feed a family of four without breaking the bank.
- Flexible recipe. Any lingering veggies (ex. chopped bell peppers, carrots or broccoli florets) can be thrown right in for a great clean-out-the-fridge meal.
Tips for the Best Korean Beef Bowl
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- Use your favorite meat. Ground beef, pork, chicken or turkey, tofu or plant based ground beef will all work very well here.
- Add vegetables. Mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers or snow peas can be added for a more heartier meal.
- More protein. In need of more protein? Top your bowls with a fried egg.
- Double the sauce. Need extra sauce for sopping with rice? The sauce portion can easily be doubled or tripled for those saucy folks!
- Serve with your favorite grains. White rice, brown rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa or farro are all great options.
- Meal prep as needed. Perfect for on-the-go, these Korean beef bowls can be conveniently meal prepped for the week ahead.
What to Serve with Korean Beef Bowls
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Korean Beef Bowl: Frequently Asked Questions
Bulgogi uses marinated sliced beef, grilled or pan-fried, while Korean beef bowls use ground beef for a faster, budget-friendly weeknight version.
Not at all! Ground pork, chicken or turkey, tofu or plant based ground beef can be used in place of the ground beef.
Absolutely! Here are detailed instructions on how to meal prep this for the week.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
100%! This is one of our favorite crockpot recipes, perfect for those chilly months.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop (adding a tablespoon of water as needed).
Korean Beef Bowl
Video
Ingredients
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ginger.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in soy sauce mixture and green onions until well combined, allowing to simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.
Equipment
Did you make this recipe?
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Very, very delish.
Surprised at how quickly this came together.
I was looking for a different dish to make with 1pound of ground beef. Didn’t have green onions, used yellow and it was delicious
Easy to prep/cook and a dinner HIT!
I used ground turkey and added a little broccoli, red bell pepper, and asparagus not the pan after incorporating the sauce. I also popped some quick-pickled carrots, red onions, and radishes on top with lots of cilantro. This is a winner which I’ll make again. Thanks!
Really good
One of the easiest recipes I make over and over. To make it more of a meal and to stretch it, I sauté the beef mixture with a bag of coleslaw mix! I’ve also tried it with ground pork and ground turkey and it came out fantastic.
This has been one of our favorites for years. Yummy and easy to find ingredients even in a rural grocery store. Now our kids finally like it though we have to add the red pepper flakes when we plate for the adults. I add frozen green beans when I start to brown the beef and shredded carrots towards the end and serve over rice.
This Korean Beef recipe is BUSSIN BUSSIN! My husband always always forgets his lunch but not KB leftovers. Our family now pokes fun at him because he remembered to take the KB and requests this dish by name. Only subbed fresh grated ginger for the ground ginger. Delish and in rotation. Thank you, Chungah!
Fantastic flavour easy to cook perfect weekday dinner
Wow. Made this for my husband and I and we both loved it. I just subbed the vegetable oil with avocado oil, and the ground ginger with fresh minced and it was amazing. Super easy and quick too. Absolutely delicious
This is my family’s favorite, family my son’s because he asks “Mom can we have the meat and rice?”
Made it for my grandsons. They loved it anggave it a
This is my new favorite weeknight dinner recipe, I probably make it once a week!
I’ve tried it with ground beef and ground turkey, and both are delicious. I love adding some thinly slices bell pepper for some extra veggies.
This is one of 3 things my 4 year old wants for dinner.
So flipping delicious. I doubled the recipe and used Sushi Rice. Very easy to make. I will make this again.
Love this recipe!
This is REALLY good. I doubled the sauce because it’s that good. However, I didn’t double the sugar for the sauce, I use 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup of brown sugar. I also added a teaspoon of rice vinegar, to give the sauce an acidic balance to sweetness of the sugar and the saltiness of the soy sauce. I also added garlic powder to the sauce.
For the beef, I added 1/2 diced white onion and I cook it, before I cook the minced garlic. I also increased the amount of sesame seeds to 1/2 teaspoon. Here are my ingredients.
Sauce
• 1/3 cup (5 tbsp & 1 tsp) brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 4 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar/lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Ground Beef
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 diced white onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
• Optional – Vegetables (chopped peppers, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, etc.).
• Optional – Top with a a fried egg
• Optional – 1tbls cornstarch and 1tbls water (slurry) to thicken the sauce.
just made this recipe for the first time and can’t wait to try this variation on it!
Thank you so much for the double ingredients because I usually play or season by taste
Thx so much for sharing this!
Absolutely delicious!! I made this for a quick dinner yesterday!! Added some corn starch to thicken up the sauce a little. Everyone loved it!! I’ll definitely be making it again! Thank you!!
So good! We have this on a regular rotation at our house, it’s a family favorite!
This was excellent! Quick and easy. We added all sorts of toppings that others have mentioned; cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, avocado. Next time we’ll add an egg on top. thank you!
I made this last night for dinner and I really enjoyed it, I did double the batch of the sauce. But I didn’t have any green onions, also I think if I make this again it will need 2 pounds of ground beef, 1 pound just doesn’t seem like enough of the beef mixture when I made it with rice. I will definitely make this recipe again, thank you for sharing.
10/10 will recommend
This was absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to look around at what else you published.. 🙂