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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I just recently bought an instant pot and haven’t used it much. I’d love to try this recipe using the pressure cook method. Has anyone tried it and how long should I cook it for? 60 minutes?
You can try this recipe instead, Bethany. 🙂
https://damndelicious.net/2018/02/21/instant-pot-korean-beef/
I cooked it for 1hour in my instant pot on pressure cook . Then after 5 minutes I let the steam out. Then I added the water with corn starch and put it for another 30 minutes. Came out really good. So I cooked it for 90 minutes all together.
Damn Delicious recipes are my go to. We haven’t found one yet that we didn’t enjoy. We loved this. So simple and so goooood.
This is so good! I pre-made everything the night before and let it marinate in the fridge so I could just throw it in the crock pot in the morning. I didn’t have fresh ginger so I used 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger. I ended up throwing in some steamed broccoli when it was all said and done to make a Korean beef and broccoli and served it over brown rice with sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, and extra sriracha. AMAZING! My 3 year old is devouring it as we speak 🙂
Incredible. I love to cook and this knocked my socks off. Delicious. This made for an amazing and easy meal with minimal prep time and little effort. The beef was tender and moist. The flavors were amazing.
This recipe is so easy to put together with ingredients in the store cupboard. The taste that develops over the gentle slow cooking period bought me to tears it was so good. Im yet to find out if it freezes and reheats well, it just gets gobbled up so quickly. I am ready to explore some more Korean flavours. David Chang, look out!
were you able to freeze this? there is only two of us
thanks
I made this with a whole chuck roast, rather than cutting it into cubes. We liked the flavor a lot. It was a tiny bit too sweet, so the next time I would reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1/3 instead of 1/2. We will definitely make it again. I used to use a Campbell’s crockpot mix before it was discontinued (or became outrageously expensive). This will be our new go-to recipe for Korean beef. Thanks!
I loved this, but it was definitely missing some veggies. I think next time I’ll add some onions and maybe carrots. The green onions def helped a lot though, I can’t wait to make this again!
Oh, I should add though…
• I didn’t have Sriracha, so I used gochujang.
• Didn’t have low sodium soy sauce, so I used regular.
• Didn’t have beef stock, so I used some chicken stock I had saved from when I poached chicken thighs.
• It seemed like too much sugar, so I used 1/2 to 2/3 of what the recipe called for. Tasted great to me.
• I always have trouble using up my peeled garlic, so I used double what the recipe called for. Good thing I like garlic anyways.
• Was too lazy to grate ginger. Didn’t have sesame seeds, onion powder, or white pepper. Used black pepper instead.
Just wanted to add for anyone who was like me years ago and didn’t ever substitute, add, or omit ingredients in fear of messing it all up. I used to spend so much money buying things for specific recipes and then would end up not knowing what to with the remaining portions besides making more of the same thing. Don’t be afraid to experiment and just make the most of what you have!
I love to experiment with recipes myself, and especially like ones where I can make the same basic recipe idea in different ways. However, I don’t think it’s fair to rate the given recipe unless you make it the specified way. Maybe you would have rated it higher if you had used beef broth and/or fresh ginger and/or onion powder, etc. You are actually rating it with all the changes you made, not the way the author intended. But – keep on tweaking recipes and making them your own! I definitely agree that we shouldn’t be afraid to tweak and experiment, especially as we become more experienced at cooking and taking our own tastes and preferences into account..
Oh, one more thing. Holy crap, this was so easy to make!! Thank you so much
I made this in my instant pot and it was delicious! I just seared my (whole) roast, combined everything else (except the cornstarch, sesame seeds and green onions) and cooked on high pressure for 60 minutes. I allowed a natural release for about 10 min, then removed the meat, turned the instant pot to sauté and added the cornstarch/water and let it boil a few minutes until thickened. I shredded the meat, added it back to the pot and was good to go! We served it with rice and it was more than enough for my family of 4. What a great recipe!
How many lbs was your chuck roast?
I purchased some “beef for stir fry” but I am always concerned about beef being touch which I do not like! So I started looking for recipes to use that beef other than stir fry and ran across this one. I happened to have everything on hand to make it which never happens. I mixed the sauce in less than 5 minutes, tossed it all in the slow cooker and waited. It… was.. delicious AND tender! I have yet to try a single recipe from this site that wasn’t wonderful. It has become my “go-to” website for quick and easy recipes. Thank you so much!
I made this for my beef-loving family and it was a big hit! I can’t wait to make it again – I have visitors coming, and I know they’ll just LOVE it! Thank you so much for sharing, Chungah! I love your recipes.
This came out great! I didn’t have time to slow cook so I just adjusted for sauce pan and seared the meat first.
Thanks!! My boys enjoyed as well!
Excellent! Very flavorful. Didn’t use the cornstarch and water to thicken. Ate it over rice with the juices as is. Squeezed some lime juice on at the end, and garnished with green onions.
Thanks, Ellen!
Very easy, very yummy! My brother made white rice and we each had a serving of rice and beef, and had one serving to put in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.
So good and so easy! Quickly becoming a family favorite!
I tried this recipe (crock pot) two times already and it was a hit with my family. I’m cooking this again for my brother’s birthday. Delicious! Thank you for sharing!
That’s great!
If I decide to sear the beef before putting in the crockpot, will that change the cooking time in the crockpot?
Cooking time should remain the same, but as always, please use your best judgment when making substitutions and modifications.
Just made this—came out great! The beef was so tender. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you!
This is super easy and great flavors ! DO IT ~
Thank you so much for this recipe!
My whole family just loves this.
Used tamari to make it gluten free, and served over rice with steamed broccoli.
Your recipes are spot on, and you have a great thing going here. Thanks!!
Great way to serve it!
Thank you so much for this recipe!
My whole family just loves this.
Used tamari to make it gluten free, and served over rice with steamed broccoli.
Your recipes are spot on, and you have a great thing going here. Thanks!!