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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it is the best korean food I have ever had
Absolutely an amazing dish! Super easy, quick and tastes! And different than meals I am used to cooking! This recipe will soon become your next favorite “lazy night” dish! I made it about 5x now without sesame oil and it still turned out perfect! Tonight will be my first time trying WITH sesame oil! Thank you for this amazing recipe!
Made this as a meal prep for last week and let me just say, this will definitely be a regular. I absolutely loved this recipe. I couldn’t find the sesame seeds at my commissary, sadly, but I did throw in some sauteed mushrooms and cooked my spinach and brown rice a tad longer than the instructions suggested. (It’s almost always good to slightly overcook rice if you’re going to be reheating it.) If you go by the recipe, it makes four perfectly portioned lunches. This meal heats up beautifully in the microwave in about three minutes, and it smells good too! It also doesn’t make your breath smell bad if you frequently deal with people during the day- the touch of ginger really masks the fact that you just ate. (Actually, I know this is gross, but the aftertaste is really good- and I’ve never said that about a food before! Must be the ginger?) Lastly, it does what food is supposed to do, it’s energizing and it makes you feel full until dinner. Wash it down with some hot tea or coffee and you’ll feel fresher than a newborn baby.
This dish really is the *perfect* meal prep for work. Highly recommended.
The best! We have this almost once a week and have served it for family dinners. Everyone asks for the recipe which we gladly share. A keeper for sure!
Love this recipe. Used it with Pork and Veal instead and it tasted delicious! Also didn’t have shallots, so used chives instead. I also added shredded carrot and beans for this for a veggie kick, and it was absolutely amazing. My husband and 3 year old loved this quick and easy meal.
I was looking for something different to do with ground beef (nachos and tacos get pretty boring when they’re your only go to for a quick meal) when I found this recipe. It was pretty good! I had to leave out the sesame and sesame oil because my husband is allergic to it, and didn’t have the green onions on hand, but it still tasted great! Tangy and sweet.
Another alteration I made was use paprika instead of red pepper flakes (I’m not a fan of spicy food and know that paprika is milder) and that still gave it a savory tang.
I added some steamed brocolli on top for a vegatable and gave some extra flavor by cooking my rice in chicken stock with soy sauce and ginger. The entire bowl was flavorful.
I will make this again!
Wow!! This was so good and I already had most of the ingredients. I usually buy a prepared Bulgogi sauce but now I can make it at home and make it G/F by using tamari sauce. I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes.
I doubled-ish the recipe because we have a big family and it was so good! I added some pickled cucumber that I cut into sticks, shredded carrots and a fried egg on top. AND a squirt of sriracha…. just because, sriracha! It was a bi bim bap of sorts, and totally hit the spot! Thank you! This is going into my recipe rotation! ❤
Made it with ground turkey… it was awesome. I have a very picky eater son, and he devoured 3/4 of the pan! just the right amount of sweet and spice. so quick and very easy!! thanks!
I started making this a few months ago. It’s now a family staple. I add different vegs, like sweet red pepper and jalapenos and a lot more red pepper flakes, but otherwise this is an awesome dish. Thank you for sharing it. We just love it!!!
I loved this recipe! It was super easy and delicious to eat. I would definitely make this again.
Very good recipe. We always add whatever fresh vegetables we have on hand. Broccoli, carrots, peppers anything will work.
This is the one meal all 4 members in my family will eat. I put pineapple chunks in to cut the spice some for the kids and a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce some and make it stick to the meat more and everyone in the house cleans their bowl every time and asks for more. Definitely a household staple.
This recipe is a favorite at our house! I add in chopped mushrooms and thinly sliced carrots. You really could add any veggie and it would turn out great!
One of my all time favorite recipes! It’s so easy to make and the flavor is fantastic! Today, I made a couple of substitutes using shredded beef and quinoa. It was AWESOME! Thank you providing such incredible recipes!
This dish has been a regular in our home for the past couple years at least. I love how simple it is to throw together and how I can whip it up without a trip to the grocery store. Thank you for this recipe!
A quick and easy meal and my family loves it!
This is a keeper for my kitchen; excellent and really tasty. Thank you for posting!
Easy to make. Loved by ALL 5 in the family which is maybe done with 4 or 5 recipes. I usually make 4X the amount rice and meat and 6X the sauce because of it’s great taste alone on the JASMINE rice! Thank you for the inspiration!
Hi! I found your recipe on Pinterest and I had to try it. Let me tell you, it’s a HUGE favorite in my house with my teen boys (and me)! I’ve already made it 3 times in about 6 weeks. And when I make it, I have to quadruple the recipe, so that we have plenty of seconds and lunches for the next day!