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
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This was so delicious, I am adding to my favorites! We added sauteed green/red pepper, water chestnuts and onion and blanched broccoli. Yum! The red chili flakes was just amount of kick. Thank you!
This is my youngest son’s favorite dish! I’ve been making it for a few years and it’s so simple and delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!
I’ve been using this recipe of yours for years & just thought to leave a review. My husband LOVES and my smallest rates it a million stars. Thanks!
I was desperate for a quick hamburger dish. I was “Hangry!”. I found this and fortunately had all ingredients except gr onions. It took me start to finish 23 minutes. I had to gather ingredients and mince the garlic. OMGoodness!! DELICIOUS!! I was too hungry to cook the rice so I topped my left over mashed potatoes. Still tasty! I will make more sauce and freeze it for future meals.
So freaking yummy!!!!!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have been using it for a long time now, and my family loves it. Since my husband is watching his fat intake, I use ground turkey, but this recipe is perfect as is. The ground turkey is leaner so I end up usually doubling the sauce. I also cut up extra green onions and put them in the turkey at the end of the cooking time. They wilt just a little and give a little more depth of flavor. For an added crunch, I use fresh lettuce. My girls take a spoonful of the rice and meat and add it into a leaf of lettuce (bibb, red leaf, or green leaf-I have tried other types, but they like these the best.), wrap it up, and eat it. I love that this meal is quick, easy, and uses items that most of us have on hand already. I would like to know what the fat content and nutritional information of this meal would be using turkey and not beef. Is there any way to post that?
We are so happy to hear this recipe is a keeper for you, Christina!
Nutritional information, however, is provided only for select recipes at this time. If it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”). Hope that helps!
Very good!!! I added zucchini and cauliflower chopped finely and it was a nice addition.
I made this and used honey for the sweetener instead of brown sugar. Paleo! I added green beans, and mushrooms and served it over cauliflower rice. i also doubled the recipe. A very big hit at my house! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
This is a long overdue review. I have been making this dish for a good year now and it is one of my family’s favorite dishes. When it comes to food all 3 of my kids have different feelings and tastes, but this bowl they all 3 ABSOLUTELY LOVE! Thank you. I am a big essential oil user so I choose to replace the ginger with doterra ginger oil which works very well. We make this dish very often because it’s easy, quick and ALL 5 of us love it. Can dinner be any simpler?! My hubby is a texture person so we add egg rolls on the side for those who need a crunch (me, I’m so satisfied with the dish alone). I can’t thank you enough for this perfect recipe.
So easy to make. My family loves it
Love this recipe! Some where else I picked up a recommendation to add Bulldog Worstchestire (sorry I can not seem to spell it) specifically and I do- a teaspoon or so to taste. I don’t know why that brand was mentioned, because it seems the same as any to me, but I like it in this dish. I love how I can add any vegtables I have on hand to the cooking pot or on the side as toppers. Tonight it’s rather green- soy beans, spinach, celery, green onions, plus mushrooms and a can of diced water chestnuts (which I almost always use because we like them. Other nights I have cold quick pickled cucs and carrots, radishes…peppers, broccoli, squash. Tonight I made three pounds worth to freeze for an easy post-travel meal when we get home late after an up coming trip.
It was super easy and very tasty. Everyone in my family loved it.
That’s the goal! Thanks for sharing, Jill!
Korean Beef. Absolutely incredible. It can be served up with a variety of carbs, good organic rice seems the best.
But this is an outstanding go to option mid week. When you are tired but are like myself determined to cook for the family.
Plated up with peas or broccoli or any other quickly prepared vegetable and a fruit at the end to cleanse your palette. Leftovers from this dish are incredible as well. Might be prudent to cook extra.
Thanks for this awesome recipe. We cook totally organic from start to finish. One of the venefyts is that the family never feels over fool post prandially. Just satisfied. .
We skip the sesame seeds and green onions because i never have them. This is a go-to meal when we need something quick.
Definitely quick -next time I would maybe double the sauce so it really gets sopped up by the rice. A touch less flavorful than I was expecting but that may be because I used a shortcut ginger paste instead of fresh, and ground turkey bc that’s what I had. Everyone still went back for seconds, and my second bowl had a lot more sauce/flavor (hence why I might double it next time). Can’t beat the quick prep with pantry staples, so will make again. My husband called it a “divorced dad” recipe (that’s a compliment-it means quick and easy). My 2 year old had 3 bowls so she’s was definitely a fan!
Made this for dinner and it was so quick, easy and really delicious. Was a hit at the dinner table.
I added cilantro as a garnish and served it with kimchi.
I’m pretty upset that this recipe is not the top search for “ground beef bulgogi” anymore. It looks like another site copied your recipe and slapped on a white person story. Sad to see that Google dropped this page down.
Anyway, the recipe is good. I use less sugar and soy sauce than the recipe.
So easy and delicious! My entire family loves this meal and that is a rarity. I doubled the recipe and it was perfect. I also added a fried egg to the top of each bowl. Such yummy flavors. Great recipe.
this is absolutely delicious !! my favorite 🙂 i was wondering though, what counts as a serving ? like, a cup, 1/2 a cup, etc.
Natalie, you would have to divide the full amount by 4 servings to get the serving size. Hope that helps!
okay, thank you so much !
Does this include the rice? or is it just for the ground beef mixture?
Thank you!
Natalie, I have measured the entire recipe’s weight to be 480 grams, so a 1/4 of the recipe is 120 grams.
Yum! Easy and damn delicious This will now be a new go to recipe! Thank you for another great recipe.