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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My kids absolutely love this! We had this a while back and I forgot about it as things got crazy. Well after looking for some different dinner ideas I remembered this one and made it again. My sons, age 11 and 9, went back for seconds. It’s super easy and quick! We paired it with spring rolls and bib lettuce. Perfect dinner.
This is one of my favorite recipes and I just wanted to share that this freezes SO well. I will make the meat in 3 lb batches and then portion it out into individual servings. To reheat you can just dump the frozen meat out into a skillet and thaw it over medium heat (while breaking it up). Don’t add the rice, green onion, or sesame seeds before freezing, add those fresh each time you reheat. I almost always have a batch of this in my freezer!
We really liked this recipe and will make it again. However, we thought it needed a little more sauce so next time I make it I will probably double the sauce
This was amazing and so easy! We used Impossible-brand plant-based meat and fresh ginger (I didn’t have dried ginger) and we tried it with Jasmine rice and lettuce cups. What a hit in my household!!
Love this as a flavorful easy dinner. Was just wondering about using Impossible brand as a substitute. Going to try this next time – thank you!
I add whatever I have: broccoli, spinach, fried egg or sometimes hard boiled depending on my mood, cucumbers, carrots and Gochujang sauce (Target makes a good one) and now we have this weekly! Love it!
Very easy and absolutely delicious. I’ve made this multiple times and it is a staple recipe. I also sauteed chopped vegetables like bell peppers, onions carrots,etc. before adding the beef for added variety and nutrition. Also, if you don’t have chili flakes, sambal oelek works wells as a substitute. I bet this would work well with ground turkey also. Thank you for the recipe!
Made this, spooned over white rice, with a fried egg and sauteed spinach. It’s a keeper!
Amazing! I made this tonight with plant based mince and the family couldnt tell it wasn’t beef mince! They kept going back for more! I served it with some white rice and a side of sauteed shredded cabbage and carrots. Brilliant and so easy!
My daughter found this recipe. We are loving it. My family enjoys Asian foods. I am now needing to be on a low sodium diet so I used Coconut Aminos sauce by Coconut Sectet. It has only 90 mg per serving. I usually served it over rice and sauteed carrots, onion and celeey
Fabulous and super easy. I’ve made it several times, and its a crowd please. I sometimes add broccoli or Asian stir fry vegetables to the meat mixture, and double the sauce, just to make it a little healthier. It’s also good over riced cauliflower instead of regular rice.
A surprise. I refused to pay the cost per pound of desired steak and thought there had to be a better choice. Did a quick search in the grocery store for a suitable substitute and this was my choice. Family wolfed it down and wanted more. Thank you!
My son that doesn’t eat many new things had two helpings of this dish! Thank you.
This meal is super delicious and impossible to mess up. I accidentally overcooked the beef, and was missing sesame oil, green onions and ginger. And it STILL tastes amazing.
I have made this several times now, it’s so good. I have doubled the recipe and added shredded carrots to it and it turns out great for my crowd of teens who we know don’t eat many veggies.
One of our family’s favorite recipes! Love to use fresh ginger when I have it. I go easy on the red pepper flakes for my kids, then my husband and I add them on top or throw some Sriracha on to give it a kick. So easy, so tasty, and a regular at our house!
WHENEVER MY DAD MAKES THIS FOR DINNER…I GET TWO BOWLS AND THEN THE LEFTOVERS THE NEXT DAY HOT DAMN…………….ITS AMAZIN
The easiest Korean beef bowl recipe I’ve tried! Me and my husband loved it so much every time we shop for minced beef we know what we’ll cook. I have tried this in rice bowls and it also works with lettuce wraps. This is a good base recipe and may be customised as desired.Yummy!
I had 5 pounds of ground beef in the fridge so I quintupled the recipe and it was great! I added 2 tbsps of gojuchang for Korean flair and a handful of shredded carrots. Everyone raved!
This was SO good! My family could not stop raving about it while eating it.
My daughter and I are vegetarian, so we used the sauce recipe, thickened with a bit of cornstarch, over grilled vegetables. If we ate meat, we would definitely still love this recipe. We appreciate all of the wonderful flavors that come through, and how simple it is to prepare.
This is absolutely going into our meal rotation.
So easy and very delicious! I’ve made this recipe several times. My husband loves it.
SO good! I can’t even tell you how many times ive made this. its perfect for meal prepping too.
soooo damn delicious! Added shredded carrots and red peppers served over rice with an asian cucumber salad