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 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!
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…:)