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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I found this recipe maybe 2 or 3 months ago and it has been in our regular rotation ever since. It is so good even my kids ask for seconds! We love it!
I’ve never left a recipe review again (all seem to exclaim how they hated a recipe—then list 1,000 changes they made, rendering what they made nothing even resembling the published recipe!) This one, though, deserves kudos. Today is Saturday. I made it for dinner on Thursday, and my son loved it so much he asked for it again the next night–in sufficient quantity to have it around all the time for lunches, etc. He’s got a good palate, and is well-versed in different cuisines, and cannot get ENOUGH of this stuff. (Right now, there’s a big Tupperware with four pounds of it—I won’t even venture to guess how quickly it will be devoured.)
My daughter, who verges precariously close to a picky eater, loves it, too.
But it was my son’s first reaction that got me: “This is the most delightful thing you’ve added for as long as I can remember. Please make it a staple. ” (I’m not kidding. Those were his exact words. Not that he’s a toddler or anything–but it was high praise, indeed.) And every single serving he’s had since then? It’s been punctuated with similar accolades, attempts to extract promises from me to always have ingredients on hand, and lots of, “Mmmmm—this is SO GOOD. You’ve gotta keep this stuff around!”
I’m a chef. It’s not like my family is starving or does not get good food. Seriously! This is really, really good. It’s rare I use a recipe or more than an idea to use as a springboard, but I made this as written—the only exception being that I had a knob of fresh ginger I wanted to use up, and subbed it for the dried. This is DAMN DELICIOUS just as written. THANK YOU!
Thank you for this amazing recipe!!! This has become a staple for our family, and I make it about every other week. The whole family LOVES it. I usually reduce the sugar by about 1/2 and I add some fish sauce. So quick and delicious.
I’m pretty amazed to see so many positive comments on a single recipe! I’m making this tonight as it fits in with my diet, and I’m hoping that it’s as delicious as it sounds. It looks too easy haha.
We love this recipe at our home and I actually make this at least once a week, my kids LOVE it, I add broccoli to it and it’s delicious!
Hi,
Just wanna let you know the link to your video is broken. Tried refreshing the page to see if it would help, but it didn’t.
Thanks for letting me know, Gen. I apologize that it was not working for you – I just checked the video and it seems to be working right now! 🙂
I was really happy with this recipe, instead of putting it over rice I topped it over your everyday ramen, and instead of sesame oil I opted to substitute it with olive oil and toast sesame seeds to extract the flavor out of them
I used sriracha instead of garlic and pepper flakes, and fresh ginger in the sauce with a little extra water. I also garnish with fresh jalapeno and cilantro, and serve it with steamed broccoli and carrots. It’s a family favorite!
Just made the Korean Beef bowl for my family of 5 and LOVED it. Easy and FULL of flavor. First recipe I have used off your blog, but we will definitely be back!
FYI, we are also the proud owners of 2 Corgies. Have to be the best dogs on earth!
Hilary
I’m making this again today. It is easy. All recipes should be this easy AND this good. Nothing I hate more than bland salt and pepper recipes. This is amazing. I bought a medium spice jar of toasted sesame seeds to keep in my pantry and just got a jar of ground ginger. Not a ginger fan but it works here nicely. I’ll cook up some jasmine rice in my rice cooker (20 year old one from my mom…LOL). Dinner time. I’m making three pounds of ground meat for the savages, I mean kids. And omgosh, I can’t wait to buy your cookbook. I keep checking every week and I know it’s not til September but I keep hoping the gods would grant me one wish.
So thrilled to have found this recipe! Wanted something new and not so heavy. My only regret was there weren’t any leftovers for me to take to work the next day. It was worth the jaunt to the grocery store, I was out of soy sauce. But it fed everyone and put a smile on their face. This will definitely become a part of my go to recipes! Thanks for sharing!
This recipe is great! Simple but wonderful. Thank you very much.
I made this for my Fiance who was stationed in Korea. He loved it! I doubled the sauce and added some cornstarch. I also used Chili Garlic Paste in the sauce. It’s a winner!
I have made this a few times and I have to remember to make a double batch or my husband and two boys will complain.
This meal is fantastic! I subbed ground turkey but followed everything else. Super delicious. Tonight I’m going to add in some shredded cabbage for crunch and serve it atop cauliflower rice. Would you by chance have the nutritional info on this? I’d love a calorie count if possible. Thanks for the great recipes!
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, I recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information.
435 calories a serving to be exact.
I have tried many recipes from your blog and have loved them all! I thought I’d write a note that I love this recipe- but 10x more now than my sister told me about how she makes it. In addition to the beef mixture (which she also adds sauteed zucchini and mushrooms to), she serves it over vermicelli noodles, and tops it all with grated carrots and cucumbers, and a drizzle of peanut sauce. Incredible!
I have a daughter who is allergic to sesame so I’m going to try this with another oil. What would be a good substitute? Sesame oil has such a distinct flavor, is it even possible to substitute for flavor?
You can substitute vegetable or canola oil.
Made this for my family of 5 so I doubled the recipe. 1/2 cup of brown sugar would have been too much so I stuck with 1/4 and then just doubled everything else. Still was a bit too sweet, but good. Added red pepper, onions and broccoli. Sprinkled the top with some cilantro and avocado slices. Yum!
The flavor was so much better than any other Asian recipe I have tried, they are always more work than reward is worth but not this one. Super easy and tastes great. I was a little short on soy sauce that day so I topped off the measure with Worcestershire but had everything else on hand for a last minute supper. We served the beef over a bag of mixed veggies with noodles picked up from the local grocery and it was a hit.
POWDERED Ginger?!?!? C’mon use the real deal. Completely different flavor.
No comparison between powedered and fresh.
Ground ginger and fresh ginger can be used interchangeably depending on what you have on hand.