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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Tried this recipe tonight and wanted to add some veggies to it round it out. I tripled the sauce and added shredded cabbage, broccoli slaw, carrots, mushrooms and a frozen veggie mix. My husband loved it! I didn’t take into account that the veggies would make it a little sweeter than usual. Overall it was good! It was the first meal that I have made in 2 weeks that my husband has enjoyed, so I thank you!
I absolutely love your recipes. And this? Oh my delicious! Just made this for dinner, and I don’t think I have ever been so excited for left overs. Not that I left much…
I made this last night and it was fantastic. I did a quick pickling (sugar and vinegar) of shallots, cucumbers and red cabbage which I let sit while I cooked the rice and the ground turkey. We topped the bowl with shredded carrots, the pickled vegetables, this fantastic recipe and a soft fried egg. We drizzled sriracha over the entire bowl and LOVED EVERY BITE. Thanks so much for the great recipe, Chung-Ah!
Delicious! My husband and I love Asian food and recently moved to an area that is sorely lacking in any Asian restaurants! So sad! But, I now will be making things like this delicious Korean Beef Bowl to help satisfy our cravings! Thank you for the recipe.
This was delicious, thank you!
Just whipped this up. AND IT WAS AMAZING! I was inspired by the comment above to add broccoli, which I roasted with peanuts in my cast iron skillet while frying this up. SO GOOD! I used a pretty unhealthy but flavorful ground beef – 85/15 but I had bought it on a great sale – it was the Dakota grass fed organic – which I NEVER buy but I think my market was trying to make it move. Needed a good recipe for it and found you. Next time I’ll try it with ground turkey – and i could definitely see this inside a lettuce leaf! THANK YOU! Just discovered your Damn Delicious blog and you ain’t kiddin!
I’m so glad you had a chance to make this. I actually just made this tonight too – we have this at least once a week!
I made this last night and couldnt believe how good it was. I was out of sesame oil so i subsituted with sesame tahini and didn’t notice a different. It is my new go-to comfort food.
Just made this tonight and WOW, it was so good and a perfect match to my bulgogi craving! The only change I made was using Bragg’s Liquid Aminos instead of soy. I was able to pull it together, and make burnt chili garlic cauliflower in under 40 min. I will definitely be making this again, thanks!
Thus was amazingly yummy. I feed 5 boys plus my husband and I at least 6 nights a week. This was quick, different and fairly cheap. Also the cat liked it too (we have a cat who eats some of the meat portion of our dinner everynight).
I’m so glad! Quick and easy is a must, especially when you have 6 boys and a cat to feed!
Fabulous!! My kids devoured this! Served with a side of Japanese cucumber salad
I just made this (with the addition of sliced orange pepper) and my daughter loved it!
Amazing! Was looking for something quick and easy and found your blog on Pinterest. We love Korean food and it gives us a break from our daily Chinese food that we cook. The husband was skeptical and thought it would be too salty when he saw the soy, but ended up loving it. I used the red pepper paste I had on hand from the Korean grocery instead of the flakes. It was great. This will be a staple in our house from now on! Thank you for an awesome recipe!
Thanks for this recipe! I found it today on Pinterest, realized that I had all the ingredients and made it for dinner. It was as quick and easy as you said it would be. Note: My little boy likes the bulgogi sauce a LOT. So, I doubled the sauce and it was perfection. 😉 Thanks again!
This dish is a keeper. Easy and exactly what I have been looking for in flavors. I added some shredded carrot for color and topped the serving with fresh cilantro. Delicious.
I made this last night for dinner and you’re right! It is damn delicious! And so easy and quick. I made my rice in a pressure cooker so this dinner took all of about 15 minutes to make! I will certainly be making this often! Hmmmm…. now I’m wondering if I can make a big batches of this and portion it out into freezer meals!
I would love to turn this into a freezer meal too! If I ever try it out, I’ll let you know how it turns out!
One of my kids’ favorite meals! I usually triple this and put half in the freezer- no issues at all.
Made this last night and it turned out fantastic! I am making again tonight, but a double batch so that there is lots for leftovers! I added some steamed broccoli on the side and it was perfect!
Delicious! It will be in the regular rotation from here on out! I used sriracha as Jocelynne did. I think the sauce will be my go to for all kinds of things – from chicken to meatballs. Thanks for the great recipe!
Fast, flavorful, and fantastic!! Added some crushed peanuts and a squirt of lime, so good!
SOOOO DELICIOUS! I used Sriracha instead of the red pepper flakes since I didn’t have any on hand. I will definitely be making this again!
WHY WAS THIS SO GOOD, I am actually upset that I never found this before… gotta love google Superb recipe. Instagram loves you also.
Tbh, I went into this thinking it probably wouldn’t be very good becuase of how little effort is needed. After I tried it though, I was genuinely shocked! For something so simple and easy, it’s really yummy. I definitely wouldn’t mind making this again. xD
Sometimes simple is best! So glad you had a chance to try it out!