Slow Cooker Korean Beef
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Amazingly tender, melt-in-your-mouth Korean beef easily made right in the crockpot – 10 min prep! So easy, so good.
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reasons to make slow cooker Korean beef
- Set and forget. This is one of those convenient dump-and-go slow cooker recipes where the crockpot is doing all the heavy lifting for you. Simply throw all your ingredients into the slow cooker and let it work its magic.
- Flavorful, fall-apart tender beef. Thanks to the slow cooker, the chuck roast is transformed into the juiciest, most tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef.
- Serve in so many different ways. Korean beef can be served in a myriad of ways – over rice or as sandwiches, tacos or quesadillas.
- Freezer-meal. This is a great recipe to freeze leftovers or meal prep so it is readily available for quick and easy dinners throughout the week.
what is korean beef
Korean beef is typically made with a marinade that consists of soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil and ginger, commonly served with white rice.
tips and tricks for success
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- The right cut of meat is key here. Chuck roast is ideal for a slow cooker recipe like this due to its high connective tissue and fat – this will yield tender, juicy meat, allowing the flavors to fully develop during its long cook time.
- Add vegetables. Mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers or snow peas can be added during the last 30 min – 1 hour of cook time for a more heartier meal.
- Serve with your favorite grains. White rice, brown rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa or farro are all great options to sop up every last drop. A side of kimchi and cucumbers is also a very nice-to-have.
- Add garnishes. Garnishes are always optional but a fresh sprinkle of green onions or sesame seeds will certainly take your dish to the next level, adding more flavor, texture and contrast.
more favorited korean recipes
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt slow cooker
Slow Cooker Korean Beef: Frequently Asked Questions
This stovetop Korean beef bulgogi is another reader favorite!
Yes! We have a recipe for that here.
You can serve this with white rice or our favorite no-fuss sheet pan fried rice.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes, Korean beef freezes very well! Let cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Lay the bags flat in a single layer in the freezer (this will help them freeze quickly). Label, date and freeze up to 2 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Slow Cooker Korean Beef
Ingredients
- 1 cup beef broth
- ½ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- 3 pound boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, Sriracha, onion powder and white pepper.
- Place chuck roast into a 6-qt slow cooker. Stir in beef broth mixture until well combined.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or high heat for 3-4 hours.
- In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 1/4 cup water. Stir in mixture into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat for an additional 30 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
- Serve immediately, garnished with green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.
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Hello! Thank you for sharing this recipe, it was a big hit at my house. We had leftovers — yay!: I shredded the meat before freezing it. Next step: tacos à la korean. Simply delicious.
This sounds wonderful!!
I have made this many times. It’s THE MOST succulent, flavorful Korean Beef! I serve it with Basmati rice, steamed broccoli & carrot.
Can I replace steaks for the chuck roast? Love your recipes!
Can I halve the soy sauce or something? I found this delicious but extremely salty!! Anything I can do to fix that?
Did you use low-sodium soy sauce?
Try using coconut aminos next time instead of soy sauce. That’s what I plan to do.
Do you have to cut the beef into cubes?
Is there a substitute for sugar?
I’m planning on trying this in the next few days and will probably just omit sweetener entirely. If I do add any sweetener, it would probably just be a teaspoon or two of coconut palm sugar, honey, or maple syrup. I’m just going to taste test it at the end and see if I would want to add any sweet to it. We don’t eat much sweet, and it’s amazing how much taste buds change to where something like 1/2 a cup of sugar with a roast that will shrink down to about a pound really is way too much sugar. That much sugar is actually pretty unnecessary.
Hi! I’m diabetic so I use Swerve……..they have Baking Sugar, Brown Sugar and Confectioner’s Sugar. I found that it work’s really well for baking and crock pot meals. I have tried others but found that Swerve doesn’t bother my stomach. Hope this helps!
Swerve brown sugar replacement
Brown sugar is nothing but white granulated sugar and molasses. When I make this, I plan to use just molasses for that dark, smokey flavor it gives and only a little white sugar or maybe no white sugar at all.
Would love to make it
Is sriracha necessary or can we just add at the end
What brand and exact type of rice wine vinegar do you use? There are so many to choose from, it can be confusing.
This recipe was outstanding, and very easy. We decided to kick it up a notch by turning this into a Korean Beef taco, which we served to rave reviews at a recent party! We shredded the beef (simple to do!) and then for taco assembly, began with a layer of kimchi, added the beef, then topped with the green onions and sesame seeds as outlined in the recipe, then added a bit of gochujang. Voila! Thank you for such a wonderful, versatile, crowd-pleasing recipe!
Very good recipe!
Great flavor and tender beef.
I was wondering if I used la choy soy sauce would it make my meat salty?
Ok as a foody and lover of all Asian food, this recipe is the bomb! Used for tacos with Kimchi, avocado, and Korean soybean paste (Doenjang).
This is a keeper!!! My family loves it! I cooked it in the Instant Pot for 30 minutes. The meat was so tender! I also doubled the sauce. I added the cornstarch after I pressure cooked the meat. I didn’t have rice wine vinegar and ginger. Still came out delicious!! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
What temperature did you set the Instant Pot?
I know your comment is a year old now but that’s what I did tonight. I did 25 minutes and high pressure with a natural release. Came out perfectly
OMG!! This is absolutely amazing!! Loved it!! Will definitely make again!! So tender and flavorful!!
Help I doubled the sauce recipe can it be fixed? It’s texture is more like a stew I’m devo!!!
Spectacular and easy! Whole family raves about it and requests it. I have family members with inability to process both gluten (celiac disease) and dairy and finding workable recipes is a challenge. I used the San-J tamari sauce instead of the soy sauce (which has wheat) and everyone was thrilled with the results!
Making this for the second time – family couldn’t wait to have it again. But first time, my slow cooker wouldn’t work so ended up cooking it is the oven. Still amazing! I did brown the meet first. Served with rice and and grilled zucchini. Forgot the sesame seeds at the end ( even though I took the jar out of the pantry). Will definitely add this time !
So good! I’ve made this twice in Instapot. High pressure, sealed, for 30 minutes. Natural release 6 minutes. Then removed the beef, added cornstarch to liquid, and sautéed the liquid-cornstarch mixture until thickened, stirring frequently. Delicious!