Korean Beef Tacos
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The most mind-blowing tacos EVER! Filled with everyone’s favorite Korean beef, caramelized kimchi + Sriracha mayo!
I feel like I have been all over the place these last 10 days. I was in Arkansas last weekend, then flew off to Minneapolis for a quick work trip at the General Mills headquarters, then worked at the studio in downtown Los Angeles for two days, and now I’m off to Ecuador tomorrow morning!
I literally have been all over the place. But the only thing keeping me sane right now are these tacos.
These Korean beef tacos that are absolutely to die for.
I don’t know if it’s the Korean beef, the caramelized kimchi or the Sriracha mayo, or the combination of everything neatly tucked in a mini flour tortilla.
It’s just amazing. And I’ve had about 17 of these while packing for my next trip.
Maybe I can pack 3-5 for the flight? The passenger sitting next to me probably won’t mind, right?
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Korean Beef Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground turkey can be used instead of ground beef.
Kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish made with napa cabbage. It is a staple in Korean cuisine, and can be found in most grocery stores such as Whole Foods.
Yes! You can freeze the Korean beef leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop (adding a tablespoon of water as needed).
Korean Beef Tacos
Ingredients
For the Korean beef
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 ounces ground beef
For the kimchi
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 cup chopped kimchi
- 1 teaspoon sugar
For the Sriracha mayonnaise
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
For the tacos
- 12 mini flour tortillas
- ¼ cup diced red onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼ teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
for the korean beef
- 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 until well combined, allowing to simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes; set aside.
for the kimchi
- Heat sesame oil in the skillet over medium high heat. Add kimchi and sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, until caramelized and heated through, about 3-5 minutes; set aside.
for the sriracha mayonnaise
- In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, Sriracha and lime juice; set aside.
for the tacos
- Serve ground beef mixture in tortillas, topped with kimchi, red onion, cilantro and sesame seeds, drizzled with Sriracha mayonnaise.
Did you make this recipe?
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Amazing!!!!!
I may have commented on these before, but they’re so good they’re worth another one! So easy and max flavor. I don’t add sugar or sesame oil to the kimchi and I don’t sauté it, but other than that I follow the recipe exactly. We have a food truck in town that has super popular Korean tacos and we think these could give them a run for their money!
I love these! Load up the tacos with all of the fixings. This might be one of my favorite recipes ever.
DELICIOUS! Like all your recipes – never disappoint!
Very excited to try these ! I just started making my own corn tortillas (game changer ) I was considering making this recipe with my tortillas fried up lightly with sesame oil . Too much ?
Awesome recipe. Soo good
These were a huge hit! Some of us don’t love kimchi so I did some quick pickled vegetables (english cucumber and shredded carrots) to go with.
Seriously, great recipe. But, sriracha mayo whaaaaat? No, no, no. Mince some kimchi fine and mix it with homemade soy yogurt. Can you say “Oh mommy!” (umami). Julienne’d daikon is also a great topping. But NEVER forget the cilantro 🙂
WOW!! It felt like a little bit of the Kogi food truck in my kitchen, these were so good!! We moved away from LA where we were able to go to Roy Choi’s restaurants regularly…and now we miss the Korean taco flavors. This recipe was pretty close to those flavors we miss!! A few subs: Trader Joe’s Gochujang for the sriracha and instead of the cracked red pepper we had Gochugaru on hand. I wonder if regular white sugar could be used and how much. Either way- this is going into the regular recipe rotation for us!! I would even say toddler friendly as quesadilla filling. Thank you!!
These are AMAZING. My husband and I have probably made them at least 20 times, and every time it’s like we’re surprised all over again by just how good they are. We make and/or recommend them to family and friends just about every chance we get. We’re obsessed!
Incredible!
Everyone in my family loves these tacos! They do not take long to make and are absolutely delicious. I think you need to double the recipe to feed 8 people, but maybe we are big eaters. This will be in our regular rotation.
I had this today at a work lunch and loved it so much that I asked for the recipe. I made it tonight for my family since I already had most of the ingrents on hand. It got a thumbs up from everyone. Thank you!
So, so good. Never had kimchi before and we were a little leery, but gave it a try. The combination of flavors is amazing and I have already made this recipe twice for company!
Made the recipe as a bowl meal instead of tacos; served meat over white rice. No siracha available so subbed Franks Hot Sauce for the dressing. Put chopped cilantro into the slaw and topped the bowl with chopped scallions. Delish!
Very good meal. My kids and wife loved it
This was delicious – I multiplied by 4 and just scrapped in on 40 tacos – I used gochujang paste instead of sriracha, added fresh cucumber, tomato & shredded lettuce, pickled red onions instead of raw onion and lime wedges. Everyone loved it – from the 2 yo to the 77 yo.
Just a quick suggestion, please consider adding a widget for weight and temperature metric conversions for your international readers. Thanks!
I made this recipe but doubled the sauce foe the beef and marinated a flank steak in it all day. Everything else I did the same. Grilled the flank steak, grilled the tortillas. These tacos were the BOMB! I will not hesitate to make these again, my husband loved them too!
these were amazing, definitely a keeper recipe!
These Korean Beef Tacos are amazing!! We had them for dinner tonight. Made the recipe as directed. Wouldn’t change a thing. Delicious