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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Wow! This is good! The only thing I might change for next time is reduce the soy sauce and add a bit of water or use reduced sodium soy sauce. Served this with rice and a cabbage, carrot and yellow pepper simple stir fry. I was so very happy with this meal.
After cyber stalking this blog for the past week, I finally made it my purpose in life to make this dish tonight. Used 93 % lean ground beef, sriracha (thank you to the folks above who mentioned that substitution) instead of red pepper flakes, and cut back on the garlic to compensate for what’s already in the sriracha. I totally scorched the garlic before I added the ground beef but it didn’t seem to matter at all. The dish was delish!!! I will probably cut back on the sugar a bit and use olive oil to sauté the garlic (not sure how that will alter the taste but this time I used canola oil). I had to make rice using one of those boil in the bag brands this time but this recipe already has me looking at rice makers/steamers. Just wanted to give a much appreciated “thank you” to Miss Chungah and all of the posting peeps who contributed thoughts/comments. Keep them coming folks, this woman needs to learn how to cook more than a few dishes…
Delish and easy! This one’s a keeper!
I am not sure if someone has suggested this, But I eat rice with almost every meal and for this one i wanted to switch things up so I used vermicelli noodles and the different texture along with some mushrooms and snow peas softened up on top of the beef after it was cooked and the mixture was added was very good.
I was looking for a recipe using ground beef because I hadn’t had a chance to go to the grocery store. I made this for dinner and I didn’t have sesame oil so I used vegetable oil in it’s place. It was delicious! I used brown rice instead of white rice too. My boyfriend who doesn’t care for leftovers boxed it up for later. This us a real easy mean and a real winner!
Thanks for the recipe! Made it tonight with just a few changes. Cut the brown sugar to 1/4 cup, and used 1 tsp. of sambal oelek in place of the dried chili flakes. Next time, I’ll do 1 1/2 times the amount of sauce, and up the sambal just a touch. Really good stuff!
This was VERY good. Thanks!
I made a bit my own version of this yesterday.
Used some olive oil with 6 dried piri-pri peppers in it which I grinded to powder.
Mixed a good amount of sriracha sauce with the ground beef.
All the rest (soy sauce, garlic and such) I mixed a bowl, then added some more sriracha and water till I had 0.5l.
First heated the olive oil with the piri-piri and baked a fair amount of union in it, then added the ground beef while the rice was cooking.
When the beef was ready I added the mixed sauce/rice into the pan and then let it simmer till the rice took in all the juice.
It was so delicious, sweet with a good hot aftertaste
Bingo dinner tonight! You’re a genius and a cutie patootie. Just had a granddaughter whose mom is asian and my son scottish-french. Now I have the cutest granddaughter on 2 continents!
This is soooooooooo delicious. I just made it and its perfect! Thank you!
I can not wait to try to make this tonight! I spent a few years always having dinner with a Korean family that my dad was friends with so I always have a soft spot for nori, squid and all things korean barbeque and I’m always on the hunt for some new recipes to add to my index, so happy this is different but still sounds amazing and traditional! You are one of my new favorite food bloggers!
This was very good & quick. I love bulgogi. I doubled the recipe. The only thing I would do differently next time is cut back on the sugar a bit. It was a little too sweet for me. Thanks!
I pinned this recipe a while ago thinking my husband would like it. I made it this evening and boy was I right. He loved it. I LOVE simple recipes that are delicious as well and this fits the bill. I paired it with Jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk and it was so good. Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve tried your recipe about 5 or 6 times since I’ve pinned it. It was a hit. My teenage daughter always requests this recipe at least once a week. It was so easy to make and very easy to follow recipe. Thanks for sharing this AMAZING recipe. Keep it coming…:)
I’m super late to this flavor party, but I had to comment and thank you for such an amazing recipe. I just whipped this up for a late supper for me and the BF, and OMG. I’m feeling a little territorial over the leftovers. As in, they’re ALL MINE. (I squirted a bunch of sriracha into the sauce, too, because sriracha belongs in everything.) This was just knock-your-socks-off fantastic!
Wow! Made this last week. It was super quick and easy to make and so flavorful!
This was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten, let alone made! And so quick and easy! I doubled the meat and tripled the sauce (though, cut down on the sugar). I added in broccoli and shredded carrots. Topped with sesame seeds and green onions and served over jasmin rice. My (very hard to please) 5 year old son, rated this 500%! This will definitely be a regular! Thank you!!
I recently came across this recipe and decided to give it a try. I made it with ground pork as that is what I had in the freezer. My husband and 4 year old daughter loved it! She asked me to make it again the next night. Thanks for sharing!!
This dish was so yummy and EASY!! Hubby and I both loved it. Next time…I double the recipe!
This looks delicious! Do you think I might be able to do honey or maple syrup in place of the brown sugar? If so, would I use the same measurement? Thanks!:)
You can certainly substitute honey or maple syrup but I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish as further recipe testing is needed. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible.