Korean Beef Bowl
by Chungah
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
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
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
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
Pingback: Cooking from the Cabinets: Day 4 | Home With the Chubby Couple
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!
I really did want to love it, and after some changes it was alright. Did no one find it to be extremely salty? Maybe next time i’ll opt for my low sodium soy sauce, or cut it down some.
You can always reduce the amount of soy sauce to taste. Also, you should know that this is generally meant to be eaten with rice to balance out the favors. Hope that helps!
Yes, I made white rice to go along with it. I gave it another go at it this weekend, and adjusted the soy sauce to my preference. It was great
I cut the soy sauce in half and used rice vinegar to do the cutting. I also did’t use any sugar. You can argue that I’m not making something “authentic” but that is the beauty of being the cook. We do what we want. PS I lived two years in Korea, so I have had plenty of authentic bulgogi.
and this is an awesome recipe. thank you.
This was soooo damn delicious! Hubby and I LOVED it! I have tried a few of your recipes already and they are all so amazingly good and simple to follow. Love your site!
I made this tonight and we all loved it!! Thank you!
Our family LOVED this recipe. My husband is Korean and he gobbled it up. Thanks for the great recipe.
I have made this as well. It is awesome. I have used the sauce on chicken, pork and steak strips. Works great. This is a staple in my house now.
A friend shared this recipe and suggested adding a tablespoon of natural peanut butter for a pad thai taste. Delicious!
love this recipe, family loves this recipe, easy to make anymore easy recipes you would like to share?
I tried this recipe over the weekend since I had some ground beef in the fridge. It turned out DELICIOUS!!! My 21 month old son devoured a bowl of it and my husband approved that it’s a “keeper”. I added cubed soft tofu and cilantro at the end, it was great. It was like a “Korean Mapo Tofu”. I put kimchi in my bowl too, yum! Thanks for the great recipe! I’ll definitely make it again.
Made this over the weekend. Both my husband (who spent 2 years in Korea in the Army) and I loved it. My 3-year-old liked it pretty well, but shied away from the spiciness. I think next time, and until he’s a bit older, I’ll dial the red pepper flakes back to 1/4 tsp or so. Once his tastes have matured, we can come back to the 1/2 tsp.
It was probably the ginger that was too spicy. Red pepper flakes do add flavour but not heat.
I forgot to add that I love eating this wilh a little raw cole slaw mix mixed in. It is great!
This recipe is THE BEST…….I mean THE BEST!!!!!! We have it about once a week and everyone loves it….even the pickiest eater loves it.
This dish was absolutely delicious. I used ground turkey instead of beef and Sriracha instead of chili flakes. Thank you for this wonderful recipe, I will definitely be making this again!!!
This recipe was quick, cheap, and delicious!! The holy trinity for a poor college student:}
It’s the holy trinity for busy families too – we make this at least once a week!
Made this again last night as written though I swapped ground chicken breast for the beef. I also roasted cauliflower in my cast iron pan and topped it with the meat. I very nearly ate the whole thing – it was sooo good. And maybe a little healthy? this recipe is becoming a goto, for sure!
This is comfort food at its best! I made it even simpler by replacing the soy sauce, sugar and ginger with Yoshida’s Gourmet Sauce (my go-to sauce for everything from cooking chicken to marinating beef jerky). I’m a garlic fiend so I left that in. I also like the suggestions by others about adding assorted veggies to make it a one pan meal. Thanks for posting this recipe… I’m so glad I found your blog!