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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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!
LOVED this. I have to comment (which I have actually never done on any recipe…) since this is the tenth recipe of yours I’ve made. Great flavor. I added green beans and a red bell pepper plus spicy sesame oil instead of plain… could’ve eaten the whole batch but saved some for lunch tomorrow. Yum.
This dish was awesome & different! Very easy to prepare. The only thing I will do differently the next time I make this is to add a little salt to the ground beef as it’s browning, just to give the meat more flavor… I look forward to trying some of your other recipes!
I had never had Korean Beef until meeting my boyfriend who lived in Korea for two years. Bulgogi was one of his favorites and I love to cook so I decided I needed to learn how to make it. I tried a recipe from scratch and two crockpot sauces before giving up. Neither of us were happy with the results and I was wasting expensive meat. It beat me and I had accepted this and settled for trips to the Korean Restaurant three hours away a couple times a year. I saw this recipe and nothing but positive comments so I tried it. When it was done cooking I asked him if it smelled like Korean Beef and he said, “No, sorry.” Then he tried it and loved it! I just found your slow cooker Korean Beef and since beef was on sale this week I decided to try it tomorrow. He’s disappointed because this one was so perfect but I told him the recipes came from the same place and I trusted you. Here’s to hoping he loves it just as much but if not, we’ll be using this one a lot! Thanks!
Loved it! Amazing!
This recipe is fabulous! It has quickly become a family favorite. I use ground turkey and have been swapping in garlic powder for the minced garlic to save a few more seconds. I love that such a simple and fast meal can be so delicious! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I made this for dinner it was off the chain very very good.
This was great! The husband went back for seconds and said he wanted the rest for his late night snack. I think the red pepper gave it a nice little kick. I personally think it was a bit salty due to the soy sauce so maybe I’d use a tad less or go with low sodium. Next time I’m going to throw a fried egg on top!! Mmmm.. Thanks for the recipe!
Has anyone tried freezing the cooked beef bowl? My family loves it, by the way – thanks!
Did you ever try freezing this? I was thinking it’d work as a freezer meal.
This looks so good. Going to make for dinner tonight. I only have minced ginger on hand, wondering if that would be good to use instead of ground?
Minced ginger would be fine to use. The ratio for fresh to dry spices is typically 3:1.
i wonder if i use ground turkey instead, would the flavor be weird or just as good lol ?
Yes, you can substitute ground turkey.
Delicious! I wanted to do something different with the ground beef and already had the rest of the ingridents on hand so I went for it. This came together in a snap which is always a plus but more importantly the flavor is amazing. A little spicy to go along with the sweet and the fresh crunch of the green onions makes for a tasty dinner. I glad I stumbled across this!
Made this meal the other nite it turned out great! My wife is first generation and she said it was amazing and asked me to make it again, I think that it being 20$ cheaper with ground beef was the kicker! My 3 year old loved it too def an easy goto in our house from now on!!
Thanks,
The Ireland’s