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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Have made this once and am totally in love with it! I added spinach and next time I am thinking of peppers as well because I am really into loading my food with veggies! The flavour was just so excellent! Thanks!
Going to try tripling for about 20 people? I will be putting it in little lettuce wraps as an appetizer. Hope it works!?
Keribear – how did this come out when tripled? I’m thinking of doing this for a group as well.
Yum! Made this and added a red pepper to it, it was delicious! I’m planning on adding more veggies next time. My boyfriend loved it to! Thank you!
Hey there – this was floating around my FB newsfeed last week, and it sounded tasty. (I’m Korean, but being adopted, I’ve never really been exposed to Korean food – I’ve never had actual bulgogi.) Tried it tonight and really liked it! I even bought sesame seeds to go in it like it shows in the photo, but then I followed the recipe and forgot to put them in. Ah well… I’ll sprinkle them in the leftovers. Thanks again for an easy, yummy, and new-to-me dish. 🙂
Me too! Adopted and not very familiar with korean food. I loved this dish!
I made the beef bowl a couple of weeks ago (so glad Buzzfeed featured it!) and with the addition of extra soy sauce to our taste, it was, as advertised, Damn Delicious. We both liked it so much that I copied the sauce recipe (double the soy) to use as my standard beef stir fry sauce. I’ve been searching for one that didn’t require me to use everything in my pantry, but still delivered great clean flavors. This is it. I briefly marinate sliced beef in a little of the sauce, and use the rest (with cornstarch) to finish the stir fry. So quick and easy, yet so very good!
Saw this on my favorite bloggers site “Hot Mess Mom,” I had already planned on making it, March made in heaven
I have had beef bulgogi many times from H Mart; the flavor in this recipe are spot on!!
Just made this, it really is easy, quick, and just so delish! Thanks for sharing the recipe! 🙂
Made a veggie version of this (with soy crumbles) tonight…was delish and so quick and easy. I think it’ll become a regular part of our rotation, esp. as we love Korean flavors. Thanks for the recipe!
This was great! Sooooo simple, and tasted great! What a great find, thank you!
I love Korean food and tend to always make bulgogi so I’m glad I came across this post to try out something new.
I cooked this for dinner tonight and both husband and I love it! I modified the ingredients based on what we already had at home – used paprika instead of red pepper flakes and I could only find minced beef at my local grocer in London. Adding it on to my meal rotation – so quick and easy! Thank you (and BuzzFeed for sending me here)!
This was fantastic! Thank you for another perfect recipe. I doubled it for my family of 6 and served with sushi rice and a side of stir fry veggies and it was a wonderful, quick meal.
Ita just like korean bulgogi but with gound beef instead of sliced beef
Made this last night and it is DELICIOUS and so easy! Thanks for the recipe!
I used coconut oil instead of sesame oil cause I didn’t have any on hand. Was really good amazing combination of sweet and spicy, husband didn’t like it fully sweet but did like it, I will try sesame next time to see if the sweetness changes. Amazing and fast loved it!
Thanks so much for the recipe!!!My family absolutely loved it!!!We added carrots,almonds,& used organic coconut oil instead of sesame oil..Also topped it off with cilantro..mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmm delicious!!Thanks again!!☺
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!