Korean Beef Bowl
by Chungah
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Tastes like Korean BBQ (bulgogi) and is on your dinner table in just 15 min! Quick, easy, budget-friendly, and a hit with the entire family!
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.
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. Throw in any lingering veggies (ex. chopped bell peppers, carrots or broccoli florets) for an easy clean-out-the-fridge meal.
What is the difference between bulgogi and Korean beef bowls?
Bulgogi uses marinated sliced beef, grilled or pan-fried, while Korean beef bowls use ground beef for a faster, budget-friendly weeknight version. 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.
How to make korean beef bowls
- Prep the sauce. Combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and ginger. To make the bowls more spicy, swap out the red pepper flakes for gochujang (Korean red chili paste).
- Crumble the ground beef. Sauté the garlic first in a large cast iron skillet, then crumble the ground beef (or desired meat), draining the excess fat.
- Add the sauce and simmer. Add the sauce, simmering until heated through, about 2 minutes. This would be a great time to add in any leafy greens (baby spinach or kale) for those picky eaters!
- Serve. Serve warm over rice, topped with a fried egg for additional protein.
What to Serve with Korean Beef Bowls
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Korean Beef Bowl: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Use ground pork, chicken or turkey, tofu or plant based ground beef in place of the ground beef.
Add a fried egg on top (sunny side or over easy), breaking the runny yolk into a rich, velvety sauce to mix with the rice.
Yes! Swap out the soy sauce for gluten-free tamari.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Absolutely! Here are detailed instructions on how to meal prep this for the week.
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
Notes
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- Pick your favorite protein. Ground beef, pork, chicken or turkey, tofu or plant based ground beef will all work very well here. In need of more protein? Top your bowl with a sunny side up fried egg.
- Add vegetables. Mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers or snow peas can be added for a more heartier meal, perfect for picky eaters and grown ups!
- 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 solid options.
- Meal prep as needed. Perfect for on-the-go, these Korean beef bowls can be conveniently meal prepped for the week ahead.
Did you make this recipe?
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I love this recipe it’s so easy, I use it all the time. I like to add a bag of shredded cabbage and then i consider it a healthy dinner.
Don’t you love this recipe from Six Sisters! I was thinking this one looked familiar, then saw you listed it as adapted from theirs, and I knew it would taste out of this world. SO good! It’s essentially the same, with some slight variations in how much of certain ingredients. I am not an intuitive cook, and it never occurred to me to add -more- or -less- of anything. I will definitely be trying this with your adjustments!
I love this recipe and make it very regularly! Has one one tried making ahead and freezing? Currently making meals for a trip and would love to be able to bring this one along!
we add veggies to the bowl to round it out. julienned carrots, shredded purple cabbage, cucumber salad, steamed broccoli. so easy and delicious!
Love this recipe. Have made it numerous times. I add veggies cut in match stick size such as carrots and zucchini. I double the recipe and freeze it. It freezes well. So good
Absolutely delicious! It’s like a sweet beef and i’m obsessed with it.
This is such a fast easy dish to prepare and so delectable!
I make this frequently and serve over rice and sauteed peppers! Love it!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was DELICIOUS! I’m pinning in Family Favorites on Pinterest! I made rice, glazed carrots and vegetable egg rolls to serve with it. Next time I think I’ll double the sauce since we put it over rice even though it was fantastic as is!
This is flat out awesome!
AMAZING! My one year old and the whole family loved this recipe. It’s also great because it takes no more than 15 minutes to make. Definitely saving this one!
So easy and delicious !
Love this recipe, my kids love it so much they made me double the sauce. i also put broccoli at the end with the cover on it. A new staple in our house!
Wow! This was absolutely delicious! So simple, yet oh, so good! My mom came back twice to compliment how good it was and asked for the recipe. Thank you! I used ground turkey and used liquid amino instead if soy sauce (as I always do). I also sauteed a bunch of veggies separately and then tossed them in at the end, mixing in to coat them with the sauce, too.
Delicious!
Seriously, I could just eat the beef mixture with a spoon. I just totally stole this recipe and turned it into a zucchini boat. I made the beef (added a 8oz can of water chestnuts-diced, and it fish sauce) and then took one of those “ready” sticky rice bowls (7.4oz) and mixed it in. Then stuffed that into some gone-wild zucchini’s from my garden. Once baked, I served some Hoisin and Sriracha sauces on the side. (Who’s kidding, I just put the bottles on the table, LOL). I could totally see this working for a Korean Lettuce Wrap as well. Thank you for such a well balanced recipe. It’s fantastic.
The Korean beef was not as sweet as many are which is good for those with diabetes. We halfed on the hot peppers which made it out level of spicey. We added ginger and butter to the rice. Because we loooovvvvvve veggies we add sauteed thin sliced carrots and pickled onions celery and chopped spring mix (lettuce). I guess we left the country of Korea after that. But it was sooooo good. Great flavors. Good recipe. This one is definitely a printer
Loved how easy it was!
Weve made this a few times. Tonight we added a couple cups 9f broccoli from the garden. I increased the sauce by half so it would coat the broccoli nicely. This recipe is a keeper.
Last year, I tasted bulgogi for the first time through the Mr. Bulgogi food truck in Pittsburgh, PA. I scanned the internet to find a similar recipe and was a bit disappointed in the lack recipes that were so easy that my 7 year old nephew could make it. I just stumbled upon this recipe this past week and actually made it for dinner tonight. I almost cried happy tears when my mind took me back to that bulgogi. We need an easy button for this! I did do a couple things a bit differently out of necessity though because I don’t like super close to a store that would have sesame seeds.PF Chang’s Sesame sauce, which already has sesame oil and sesame seeds in it. I also doubled the recipe and only had enough for half of the soy sauce necessary so I used Worchestershire sauce in addition to half the soy sauce called for in the recipe. I thought it was out of this world DELICIOUS!
I made this over ramen with some thin diced onion and red pepper for some added texture & crunch– used the remaining sauce to lubricate the noodles. Very delicious
This recipe was pretty great!! I added half an onion, 1/4 of a large bell pepper, and a few baby carrots chopped to the pan first to add some veggies. I also wound up adding quite a bit more soy sauce, about 1 1/2 tsp of low sodium soy and then 1/2 tsp of dark soy, and then a whole load more red pepper flakes. It was a bit too sweet and needed some more savory. But apart from that, this recipe was so good. I am going to have to double it next time because I know my parents are going to complain about the lack of leftovers.