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.
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So delicious!
I use Truvia brown sugar blend to save on some calories. I steam and mix in shredded broccoli and carrots and riced cauliflower. Tried tonight with a fried egg! Makes an already fantastic meal even better!
Love your recipes!
I’ve been using this recipe for over a year. Does not disappoint!
Quico and sooo delicious
Needed to make something with ground beef and my leftover rice and this recipe was the answer! Had all the ingredients on hand, so easy to make and very flavorful! Going to add some veggies next time or maybe throw it in a salad. Thanks for another great recipe!
Love this!
I made it so fas. My modifications were very small: tsp of garlic chili paste instead of chili flakes and i added a dash of fish sauce.
I also served it with a medium fried egg. YUM!
So delicious, quick and easy!
I tried serving in lettuce bibs – even better! Thank you for the recipe – this is going to be a good go-to for a quick dinner with ground beef or turkey.
Soooo gooood! Added a couple of dashes of fish sauce for umami (because no green onion) to the meat at the end. Served with steamed broccoli, rice, chopped peanuts, and spicy mayo coleslaw on the side. Can’t wait for the leftovers tomorrow.
Wowza! Simple and so tasty!
This a great recipe for a week night meal. I Added some quick pickled red onions and quick pickled radishes as a garnish.
So good! Amazing. Tickled all the “Asian” food parts of my brain! Thank you!
Served with grated fresh carrots on the side and steamed green beans.
Easy and flavorful! I topped it off w a runny sunny side up egg!
My family loves this and it’s so quick and easy to make! I didn’t have ground ginger so I substituted Allspice. So good!
This was delicious and it really was quick and easy. I did make 2 substitutions – I used bottled minced ginger (out of powder) and I added a jalapeno that I had on hand. SO good, and my 7 year old liked it too 🙂
I have been failing on everything in quarantine cooking but this. IT WAS SO EASY AND DELICIOUS.
This is what I did different.
maple syrup instead of sugar and less of it.
And frozen ginger because I ran out of fresh.
and ground turkey instead of beef.
Cannot wait to try more of your recipes.
Thank you so much!
How much maple syrup did you sub?
We love this! Thank you. Everyone eats it happily (including kids).
My 15 yo daughter and I recently fell in love with bulgogi and 1 recipe we tried was VERY involved and much spicier than my daughter would eat. This was perfect – so much easier, more affordable, and just the right flavors and spice! Thank you!
Very good and easy to make! will definitely make again. I mixed my own sauce with teriyaki, soy sauce, general tso sauce and brown sugar and water with hot sauce and hot pepper flakes! please make this people.
I’ve been making this since last year and it is my 15 year old daughter’s FAVORITE dish, which I love! Her favorite dish is something I can get on the table in under half an hour! We usually add broccoli and add a bit more sauce in order to get things really saucy with the extra broccoli! Thanks SO MUCH for this recipe!
This was excellent, easy, and used what I had in the pantry and the freezer. I made it last week and I’m going to make it again tonight. A perfect, comforting, delicious meal for these trying times.
What a delicious meal! So easy and cheap – but the taste was the opposite.
Have been trying many recipes while in isolation for the pandemic and came across this gem. We loves spicy food so we went heavy on the red pepper flakes. 10/10. Kids ate every bite!
I added some shredded carrot, romain lettuce and shredded cucumber to make it pretty. Loved that I had everything on hand in the pantry. Am going to save this recipe and put it in our meal plans! Thanks for the delicious recipe!
We love this recipe with snow peas and rice. We often use your child garlic sauce in place of the red pepper and fresh ginger, but good both ways.
So good!!! I used a little less brown sugar but otherwise followed the recipe as is. My husband went for seconds. Adding this recipe to our rotation!