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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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.
Just made this and the family LOVED it! Only thing I will do differently next time is double the recipe! We have no leftovers!
I will also try adding some veggies next time. Fantastic flavor!
I’m going to go and check out some of your other recipes!
Thank you!
Super-delicious! Had to restrain myself from eating the whole thing in one sitting. Although a little too salty for me (maybe the brand of soy sauce – it wasn’t a reduced sodium kind) so I will try substituting half of the soy sauce with some low sodium broth or water next time. Great quick recipe that gives the flavors you’re looking for without all the time marinating, slicing and grilling, etc. 🙂 Love your blog and look forward to trying some of your other yummy-looking recipes. Omissions/substitutions: didn’t have any sesame seeds and didn’t really miss them; didn’t have red pepper flakes so added dash of cayenne pepper instead; coconut oil used instead of vegetable.
I don’t know what I’m missing but I found nothing special about this dish. Yes, it was easy to make but it was way too sweet and that’s with way more red pepper flakes and siracha then called for. I will not make this again as it was not worth eating.
I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see from the comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. However, I understand that we all have different taste preferences, and I really appreciate your honest feedback.
Also, if the recipe is too sweet to taste, you can always reduce the amount of sugar as needed. Isn’t that the beauty of home cooking? 🙂
Made this tonight after a long day, and it was SO good! Took virtually no time at all to make, very little clean-up, and was delicious! A big WIN in my book. I will definitely be making this again 🙂 I think next time I’ll add some veggies, too!
I made this for the 2nd time last night and the whole family LOVED it; this includes a 10, 7, and 2 year old boys. I followed the recipe exactly. Everyone wanted seconds so I’ll have to make double next time to so we have leftovers.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! Totally satisfied my Korean bbq cravings 😉 I opted for honey instead of sugar and tahini instead of sesame oil and it turned out perfect. Took the advice from other comments and mixed in some shredded carrot before adding the sauce. Served it with shredded cabbage on top, some nice fresh lettuce leaves (for wrapping) from the garden and sriracha. Yummo!