Korean Beef Bowl
by Chungah
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Tastes like Korean BBQ (bulgogi) and is on your dinner table in 15 min start to finish! 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 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. 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 for the Best Korean Beef Bowl
- 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 Bowls
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Korean Beef Bowl: Frequently Asked Questions
Bulgogi uses marinated sliced beef, grilled or pan-fried, while Korean beef bowls use ground beef for a faster, budget-friendly weeknight version.
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.
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
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I love the flavor and simplicity of this dish! I tweaked it a bit:
I cooked the meat through and drained excess fat before adding finely chopped 4 garlic and 4 shiitake mushrooms! added the same sauce mix
I cooked grilled onions, broccoli, and carrots separately from the meat and used as toppings.
I also added a poached egg! it was heavenly!
I just made this today and it was delicious!!! I will definitely be making it again.
This recipe was a hit with the family at dinner tonight! I was looking for something that combined the ingredients I wanted to use up in my refrigerator- 1 lb. ground elk, fresh ginger root, green onion, and garlic. I was thinking of some kind of teriyaki-like concoction with a lot of sauce using those ingredients, but I’m so glad I came across you recipe instead! It was great with ground elk, which I have a ton of after hunting season and always need new and interesting ways to prepare. This is a winner to add to my pinterest recipe box. Thanks!
Made this twice – first time same as your recipe. Tonight I used sirloin steak and added an orange pepper. Delicious both times but better tonight. I feel like it needs the pepper and maybe I’ll add mushrooms next time too. But really, really delicious!!
I made this and added 1 Red Bell pepper chopped into square chunks, 1 head of baby bok choy (I will add 2 baby bok choy heads next time), whole white mushrooms cut into slices, and 1/2 lb of beef as well as all of the other ingredients and green onions. It was delicious. You could probably use the whole pound of beef, but I would make some extra sauce so that you have some for the rice. It was so good, my husband has been waiting for me to make a good asian dish, the others were sub par…this one was Excellent! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Just finished making this and it is the best thing I have ever made. Thank you!!! Yummmm.
I have tried various Korean restaurants since my deployment to Korea and they have not hit the mark. This recipe flooded my taste buds with the EXACT flavor I had been craving since I left Korea. Thank you so much for sharing this will definitely become a staple in my household.
I have made this several times already. My husband actually texts me from work and asks me to make it for dinner. 😀 We love it. Thanks for sharing. I have also used 7% lean ground turkey in place of beef when I didn’t have any, and it turned out great!
really easy and really yummy! the only change i made was to use fresh ginger instead of powdered. i served it over brown rice and steamed broccoli. my hubby LOVED it, he even ate it TWO nights in a row!!!! (which is actually saying a lot cuz i typically can’t get him to eat leftovers ever) next time i am going to try it with ground turkey since i am not a big beef fan, but this recipe is definitley going into the regular dinner rotation 🙂
I just made this recipe. Wow, came together so fast and tastes delish, too!
I made this for dinner for my family and all my kids ate it, even the toddler who is a very picky eater.
I made this last night, and it was DELICIOUS. Somehow I had all the ingredients, go figure. I just cut the red pepper and ginger down a little to make it less spicy for my kids. I ate the leftovers for lunch, definitely going to make it again!
I made this with ground pork and this was awesome!
This recipe is so good! I made it for my family the other night and everyone enjoyed it. I use brown rice and it was perfect with your recipe! I didn’t have the green onions at home so couldn’t use them but my husband and I added Sriracha to ours. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes. 🙂
made this recipe for my family tonight. I couldn’t believe how easy this was to make! the longest part was cooking the rice; I used brown rice, so it took about 45 minutes. it was a huge hit! not a bit left over. the only change I made was subbing Sriracha for the red pepper flakes. while everyone found it super delicious, my dad even went back for seconds (he is notorious for hating anything remotely of asian descent), I found it a bit too sweet. so I think next time I’ll cut back on the brown sugar a bit.
overall, an amazing recipe. as always, thank you for taking the time to share this recipe and making it accessible for self-taught cooks, like myself!
I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t very optimistic when I bookmarked this recipe, and thought it’d be something to use up some ground meat and call it dinner. But oh my goodness. This was surprisingly flavorful and easy. I made a couple small changes and made it with some Chinese egg noodles. This is something I can just push into my weekly menu plan when I’m drawing a blank. And I can already tell it’s going to be so versatile for any bit of ground meat and veggies in the fridge. I think I may even teach the fiance to make it for nights when I’m not up to cooking.
I made this for lunch today. It was really good. I followed the recipe exactly except I used low sodium soy sauce instead of regular. I also doubled the sauce because we like it saucy. This will be going in the rotation. Yummy!
I made this this evening and it was so good! I’m sorry to say there are no leftovers 🙁
The only change I made was to use fresh ginger, because for once I actually have fresh in the house, and not the dry spice version. Next time I think I’ll make a double batch so we have some leftovers. Oh yes…I cheated even more by using frozen jasmine rice from Trader Joe’s.
This is insanely good! I’ve started making it with chicken when we don’t have ground turkey/beef and it is still really yummy!
This recipe is great! Quick and easy and tastes really good. I used ground turkey instead and did it once with white rice and then a couple times with brown – all times were great! I also doubled the sauce and it was even better! Thank you for sharing!