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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This is one of my favorite meals to throw in the slow-cooker in the morning! I’ve made this recipe probably 6 times since I discovered it last fall. I just thought I’d share my experiences. I’ve made the recipe as written but I usually substitute beef bouillon for the beef broth. I’ve substituted canned minced garlic for the fresh, and I’ve even had to substitute dried ground ginger for the fresh (not recommended, but still delicious). I love how fast this is to throw together and the taste is fantastic. Recently, I decided to leave out the beef broth and just double the sauce recipe to try to burst the flavor (I’ve found that the beef tastes amazing but the sauce isn’t quite flavorful enough for me) and it was perfect! Fantastic recipe!
Oh my goodness, this is crazy good! A little heat, a little sweet and all delicious. Will make this again often. Thanks for a great recipe.
This was delicious! We added Chinese broccoli to the dish after cooking, and served it all over rice. I’ll definitely be making this on a regular basis!
Amazing! 🙂
Making this in the crockpot as we speak! Sounds delicious and smells so good right now.
Tried this tonight and it was quite good!. I only had regular soy sauce on hand and it was too salty so definitely follow the advise of the recipe and use low sodium.
Does the Sirachi sauce make it spicy? Sounds like a delicious recipe. I plan to make it for dinner. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.
With only 1 teaspoon Sriracha, it is not very spicy, but as always, please adjust the amount as needed to suit your preferences.
Hi! I am going to tackle this today! Can I use frozen meat and cook it longer?
Also, is it very spicy? I have a toddler who will be eating this:)
Thanks and you’re recipes are awesome!
I also forgot to ask, if you only have 2 pounds of meat vs 3 would you keep the rest of the ingredients the same for extra sauciness:) or adjust accordingly?
Yes, you may need to adjust cooking time as well as the ingredients. And no, it is not very spicy at all.
I am going to make this tomorrow, but am wondering if Rice Vinegar is the same as Rice Wine Vinegar? Thank you!
Jessica, here is a great article discussing the differences between the two. Hope that helps!
Had a family get together the other night and served this. People couldn’t get enough. Outstanding.
OH baby! This meal is the BOMB! In fact, it is so good, I hesitated sharing this meal with my wife and son but, they do live under the same roof, so I had to share. Very anxious to try other “easy recipes” as I am not handy around a kitchen. Thank you for this site and your skills.
Would a 4 quart crock pot be ok for this recipe?
You may need to adjust the recipe accordingly to accommodate a smaller slow cooker.
The recipe looked delicious, and I couldn’t wait to try it, but I was disappointed with the end result. The flavor was okay, but it had a rather strange and unpleasant gritty texture. I followed the recipe almost exactly. The only thing I did differently was to add a little water and some beef bouillon to it. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
Kay, thank you for trying my recipe. However, the addition of the beef bouillon may have completely changed the recipe. I hope you get to try this again without any substitutions – it’s one of my favorite recipes! 🙂
wonderful meal, kids all loved it. I served over bean thread noodles, or cellophane noodles to hold all the good sauce. and I made a broccoli slaw to go with on the side. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Have you ever tried cooking the meat whole and then shredding when finished?
I actually haven’t!
Would it be okay to add in mushrooms and veggies? I would love to incorporate some veggies into this recipe!
Yes, absolutely.
Would it affect the taste if I added in mushrooms and carrots? I need to sneak in my veggies somehow!
Not at all! 🙂
Thanks for this recipe! Overall, mine turned out pretty well. The beef was very tender. The sauce wasn’t quite as flavorful as I expected – I think I will go slightly heavier on the sesame oil and rice wine vinegar next time. My sauce also didn’t thicken up after adding the cornstarch 🙁 But still tàsty and I will make again!
If I cut the ingredients in half in order to only make 4 servings (since I only have a 3 quart slow cooker), will it still take 8 hours to cook or will the cooking time be reduced?
Yes, cooking time may need to be reduced accordingly. As always, please use your best judgment.
Love using the slow cooker. This recipe is good with beef tongue and pork shoulder as well. For a twist I added doenjang and gochujang for that lovely umami depth of flavor. Tongue can be sliced thin and used with pickled carrots and daikon or kimchi for Korean tacos. So many ways to experiment with different flavors using this recipe as a jumping off point. Nice job
Question, do you think it would come out different / bad if I didn’t cut the meat first? Usually I have the butcher do it at the store, but the butcher wasn’t there and i didn’t have time to cut it and just threw it in this morning. I was planning to cut it when i got home, and then let it sit back in the sauce for a little bit.
Thanks for all the delicious recipes! I’ve made a few of yours and have not tried anything we didn’t like. This is actually one of mine and my boyfriends favorites!
It’s actually really hard to say without having tried this myself, but please let me know how it turns out!
Just wanted to come back and let you know that it actually came out great without being cut first!