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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Do you think that I could mix the sauce with the uncooked burger and then freeze? I’d love to be able to make up a bunch at once and be able to pull down to thaw and make!
Lisa, it’s best to freeze after crumbling the ground beef. That way, all the flavors are soaked up within the meat, rather than a slab of uncooked ground beef.
This recipe was so good! I feel like I can’t make it that often, because I love it so much I eat myself sick every time I make it! This is spicy, sweet, and delicious! Thank you for a quick and amazing meal!
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Amazing love this recipe
Just made it tonight and it was soooo good! Will definitely be in the regular rotation and it’s awesome to have on hand for a quick meal on those crazy nights. Thanks for such a great recipe!
This was SO YUMMY!!!!! I’m not a big beef fan but I LOVED this. My husband was stationed in Korea in the Airforce & we’re always looking for a great Korean inspired dish. I was wondering, I see sesame seeds in the picture, did you omit them from the recipe?
Yes, they are sesame seeds but only used as a garnish/photographic purposes.
I have never commented on anything, but I do want to say that this was delicious, easy and a keeper. I cook a lot, but this is easy for me to throw together when I’m not sure what to make or have my teenagers put together on my work days. I used turkey meat and was very tasty and added cooked broccoli to my leftovers for work. Good job.
Making this now because it’s easy ingredients. I’m substituting Braggs Liquid Aminos for soy sauce because it’s significantly lower in sodium. Smells great!
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I just made this tonight. I’m pregnant and at the end of my first trimester- so basically throwing up most of what i eat (unless it’s carbs, meat or cheese) and exhausted. This was delicious!!! I had it over a big bowl of rice and will be making it again soon. 🙂 thanks for the new easy recipe I can actually eat.
I made this last night at the very last minute. Can you say screaming? I had it for lunch today as well. I’m so glad I found your site!!! Keep up the awesome work!!!
Tasted fantastic!! Even better the second time around when we improvised with ground turkey!!! Was just a little bit sweeter and we prefer that version now!! It’s a favorite!
Amazing! Kids love it and it’s super quick. Last time I made it I did add mushrooms, a can of baby corn and bean sprouts. It was delicious.
Just finished eating this….it was amazing! My husband gave it 5 stars. We used Romaine lettuce for wraps. I will be making it again…soon.
Since I don’t usually have any Korean pear hanging around, I added some apple juice to the sauce. The extra flavor lends itself to pushing this even closer to bulgogi. We also let the meat and sauce reduce down a bit and eat wrapped in lettuce from the garden and bap. Served with some kkaennip-kimchi makes for a meal even my Korean mother-in-law would eat.
Thanks for the great recipe. We just made it for dinner and everyone loved it. I used to make something similar, but your recipe turned out much better! The main difference is that I used to marinade everything for about 15 minutes instead of saving the soy sauce mixture for the end).
YUM! Tried this tonight as I needed a REALLY quick dinner – used ground turkey and brown rice but those were the only subs. I always use LS soy sauce, so ours wasn’t too salty at all. VERY quick, easy, tasty and if my husband doesn’t get home from work in the next 5-10 minutes, there may not be any left! 😉 Great recipe, thanks for sharing it
~ gem
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My boyfriend and I regularly eat at a Korean restuarant here in St.Louis, bogogui is by far our favorite dish! We made this tonight and I’m sure our trips to the restuarant will be less frequent! It was delicious and I’m so excited I found your blog.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! I had been looking for something new for a while, and my husband and I love Asian flavors, and this was exactly the right thing! We love it sooo much, we have been eating it at least twice a month! YUM!