Korean Beef Bowl
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Tastes like Korean BBQ and is on your dinner table in just 15 min start to finish! It 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 i love this recipe
- 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.
- 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 and tricks for success
- 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 bowl
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Korean Beef Bowl: Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop (adding a tablespoon of water as needed).
100%! This is one of our favorite crockpot recipes, perfect for those chilly months.
Korean Beef Bowl
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
Equipment
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.
Video
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I struggle with money so things like this are great. I often make a savoury mince and mix it with rice, but I wanted something different. I made a couple of changes to mine. I used mixed porn and beef mince so it had the beefy flavour but the pork added tenderness. I also wanted to make it a little more nutritious so I slightly reduced the sugar content and added a small onion and a couple of finely sliced bell peppers which also added a fresh and fruity layer to the incredibly savoury sesame.
For the love of God! That’s meant to say “pork”!!! I can’t edit it.
Omg, that’s too funny though! Gotta love autocorrect!
Not sure what to replace the sugar with (seeing honey is a good alternative), but I will definitely try some things and get back to you. The recipe looks amazing and I plan on trying it out tonight!
Let’s see how this baby goes!
I love your blog and have discovered so many delicious recipes here. It is seriously one of my top go-to places for yummy dishes. 🙂 For that reason, I wondered if you could adjust some of your ads and videos? In recent months, your recipe pages have become so much harder to load and scroll through. Thanks for all of your work developing these awesome meals.
I made this last night and it was really good! The only thing I did differently was use more sauce. I also don’t drain my ground beef, because there’s usually not a lot to drain, but this does make it a little more oily.
Since I live alone, I had a little left over today and decided to make a little snack with it. The snack was not healthy, but it was so delicious that I highly recommend. I made a crepe batter and mixed in a little gojuchang before creating a really thin crepe. I then heated the beef with a bit of water and butter until all the water evaporated (extra browning/caramelizing on the beef) and mixed up a bit of sriracha mayo. I placed the beef, sriracha mayo, and green onions on the crepe and folded up like a burrito. Then I garnished my plate with a few drops of chili sesame oil and a tiny sprinkle of Chinese five spice (on the side only). It was truly amazing. If you’re not afraid to eat a little rich here and there, I highly recommend you try.
Thanks so much for the delicious recipe. My little snack invention wouldn’t have been possible without it! 🙂
I’m usually good with checking my spelling on things, but apparently *gochujang is incorrectly spelled so often that the incorrect spelling pops in Google’s predictive search! This is my excuse for the misspelling above. 😉
Super tasty recipe! I added a half of a bag of shredded carrots at the same time as the sauce and let it simmer the last couple minutes. Gave it a nice crunch and added a veggie to make it a complete meal.
Just came across your site tonight and so happy I found you, Chungah! This dish was so incredibly simple to make and my family loved it. There were no leftovers whatsoever, and my kids want it for dinner again tomorrow night! I stuck to the recipe as written and it was perfect. The only thing I did different was to add some steamed broccoli along with the green onions and sesame seeds at the end. Thank you for a great recipe!
This is so delicious and easy! I love to top my bowl with lots of cilantro, either peanuts or cashews, Sriracha, and a squeeze of lime. Really good over brown rice, or cauliflower rice.
Sounds amazing!
You SAVED me the other night! Now it’s going to be a school lunch!! My son is on a three-day food rotation diet for subclinical allergies and I needed something FAST 3 days ago. This was SUCH a hit. My child is a bit picky and protein is hard to get him to eat. He loves traditional bulgogi (which I had time to make over the last weekend.), but did;t have the time or beef to make on a weeknight. I have NEVER seen my child eat like this… What a hit! A million thank yous!
Sounds delicious. Can I add Korean chili paste (gochujang) instead of the red pepper flakes?
Yes, absolutely!
Made it, loved it. Thank you for sharing.
I totally did that too! I adjusted the amount a but up when I swapped in the gochujang
Do you think it would taste as good with ground turkey?
Yes, absolutely.
I made this for my son’s basketball team and it was a huge hit. I’ve actually made it 3 times in 2 days since so many others wanted to ty it too. Everyone loved it and three people asked for the recipe. I doubled the sauce and used Sriracha instead of the red pepper flakes, but those are the only changes I made. We’ll be making this often!
Just made this and my family of 4 LOVED it! My kids are 14 and 11 and we all probably could have had bigger portions or gone back for seconds but there wasn’t enough so next time I will need to make more. Also, I thought I had ground beef on hand but it was actually pork so I just used that and it was really good. I’ll try it with ground beef next time though. Thanks for a delicious, quick recipe. This will definitely be one of my go-to weeknight dinners.
Chungah,
I just wanted to write a general ‘thank you’ for sharing your talent! I cannot wait to make this tonight because I have yet to make a recipe of yours I didn’t love. This may sound silly but your recipes have really helped teach me many basics of cooking and as a new mom that’s been invaluable! My toddler (and husband) thank you!
I look forward to gifting your cookbook some day to all new moms looking for decious, healthy and beautifully simply meals to feed their families!
Many thanks again!
Made this tonight. Delicious and easy!
Hi. Making this for dinner tonight and dang it! I have no brown sugar. Will white sugar work? Also, has anyone tried freezing this?
Yes and yes!
I made this tonight (and am still eating this as I’m writing) and wow! Easy and delicious!! My family love it too, which is great! Thanks so much for such a wonderful recipe!
Looks amazing! Just wondering if there is a sub for the brown sugar? Thanks!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
We substitute honey for the brown sugar and we really like how it turns out.
Made it and loved it! I made something like this a few times but never really had a strict recipe so it would always come out a bit different since the last. (I never write anything down-I keep telling myself to write it down but..) I do use garlic/ginger paste (use it last-do not cook) and I use red curry paste..(cook it with the meat.
This has become a go-to meal for us. We loved it from the first time we tried it and it is so easy and quick to make and really tastes great! The only thing we have changed is that we add broccoli. Thank you so much for posting this!
This was a wonderful dish. My whole family enjoyed this. May add some extra vegies next time, but otherwise a perfect recipe. Thank you. Will be a regular in our house now.