Korean beef recipe
This Korean beef recipe is as simple as dinner can get!
I’m a huge fan of Asian flavors and you won’t be missing that at all in this Korean beef recipe.
The flavors of this dish will be dancing a happy dance all over your taste buds.
I want to say this tastes exactly like Korean bulgogi but with ground beef.
This is a mouth-watering, extremely simple recipe that you must try and get on your dinner table, ASAP!
Korean beef is also a great meal-prep recipe! It makes a decent amount and you can divide it up on a bed of rice for lunch or dinner.
It reheats marvelously!
How to make Korean beef
It is actually really simple to make.
The ingredient list is short and all you have to do is cook the ground beef and break it apart into pieces then mix in the sauce and you’re done!
Seriously, easiest dinner ever.
Can I make this with ground pork?
You sure can!
Can I mix this with noodles instead of rice?
That would be delicious!
I suggest mixing the Korean beef with rice noodles and tossing it all together with the sauce!
How can I make this vegan?
You can make this vegan by substituting the meat for tofu or another plant-based protein.
How long will this keep?
This should keep for at least five days in the refrigerator in an airtight glass container.
Other recipes with Asian flavors:
Everything but the Eggroll Bowl
Air Fryer Asian-Glazed Chicken Thighs
Korean Beef
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes,
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, onion, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes together.
- In a skillet, on medium high, cook your ground beef with the sesame oil until well done.
- Pour in the soy sauce mixture over the meat and combine together. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
- Serve over white rice.
Just made this dish, and it was fantastic! Thank you so very much for sharing!!
Great recipe! Family enjoyed it!
My wife and I will love it
Found this recipe yesterday because I’m tired of having the same old same old… this got my husband’s seal of approval — very yummy!!
Hey Julie,
I’ve cooked many of your recipes, and this one was by far my favorite! So easy and so good. I was in South Korea a few months ago, and it takes me back. Thank you!
Awesome! Great to hear.
I made this and it had a good flavor, but was too salty. I used low sodium soy sauce. I put the onions and garlic in the ground beef while it browned.
After adding the sauce it simmered for about 15 minutes. I also used light brown sugar and 1/4 tsp red pepper. I’m not sure where the salt came from as I did not add any. Next time I’ll try less soy sauce.
This is delicious and easy! I loved it and had seconds. We will definitely make it again! Thank you!
awesome!! thanks for sharing!
OMG, this recipe was not only quick to put together, it was delicious. I used ground turkey and since I did not have low salt soy sauce, I used 2/4 cups and let me tell you I fell in love with the flavor. I will be making this meal again using ground beef to share with my grandchildren. thank you for sharing this recipe.
Very good, my family loved it! Great flavor. I added some shredded carrots next time I will try some broccoli, would be great with ground chicken or turkey as well. Great recipe!
Hi! I would like to know some recipes that are nut free, not high in sugar for my Grandchildren to be able to take to school/playgroup. A couple are fussy eaters. But not to hard for Nanna to make. Please! 🌹🐦
you can search by dietary needs here: https://www.tablefortwoblog.com/recipe-index/
Made this for the second time tonight and I loved it! My roommates kept popping by to see what smelled so good haha. Definitely a go-to for an easy weeknight meal that’s also pretty budget friendly.
Family dubs it FANTASTIC!
I HATE cooking, and am terrible at it…. but this was easy & delicious. Thanks!
Made this tonight for dinner! Super yummy, but next time I will have to double it up. Family ate it all and wanted more
Just made this dish. It was indeed quite simple, well-flavored, and went together quick. I will be using it again. We had a salad with it—otherwise it was a one-dish meal, which thrills me. Thanks!
Curious about how many ca bs in a his recipe my wife on low carb diet
hi, you could plug the ingredient list into a google nutrition calculator to find out!
want to make this dish tonight! is this green onion and sesame seeds also on top? please, i just want everything pictured! thank you!
yep, green onions and sesame seeds on top for garnish! they’re optional
Made the beef. It was great flavoring. Instead of rice, I put it in flour street taco tortillas with grilled red bell peppers and fresh spinach. It worked well as a Korean taco.
That sounds amazing!!
Delicious! I’ve made many of your recipes, but I think this one is my favorite. I served it with Jasmine rice and loved the sweet hot combination of flavors and ease of preparation.
Hi there I am making it now and after adding the sauce I just noticed I forgot to drain the beef…Will this ruin it?
it won’t
This was so good..and super fast & easy. I substituted 1 tbsp of gochujang for the red pepper flakes. Can’t wait to make again. Thank u!!!!
Loved this recipe !!! It was super easy and I feel like the meat would be really versatile! My husband wants me to make this again but in taco form … so that’s on the list for next week for sure.
Thanks Julie for a great recipe !
Your receipt is in correct. The receipt calls for 3/4 cup of soy sauce. It should be 1/4 cup. I followed the receipt and it was way to much soy sauce
whatever works for you. the recipe is correct, as written. as you can see, many people made it the way the recipe was written and it turned out fine.
Super easy and super delicious recipe. I made it as a brunch dish over white rice. I’ll be making this again!
This is AMAZING! We found this recipe almost 2 wks ago and have probably made it 7/8 times since. We have even tried different meats. It’s hard to please everyone in my family with one meal but this has done it!
My family loved this dish. So easy and soooo flavorful!
Love this!!!
This recipe was very simple, but my family found it to be way too sweet. I’m going to cut down on the sugar next time. I have a large family, so I doubled the whole recipe but ended up with way too much sauce, so I had to thicken it up with a little bit of cornstarch slurry so that I wasn’t serving soup. I’m not sure if the result would have been the same with a single batch and some people may enjoy the level of sweetness, so I recommend trying the recipe as is to start and making adjustments to suit your own tastes the next time around.
I made this with ground turkey and added veggies and a handful of cashews at the end.. sooooo good! Thank you for this simple and delicious recipe!
This recipe is fantastic. I was looking for a quick recipe to use with a pound of ground beef I’d just thawed and it worked out great. One of my kids is gluten free, so I split the sauce recipe in half. One with regular soy and the other with tamari. I removed half the beef before adding the sauce, then mixed the gf sauce in with the first half, pulled it out of the pan and added the rest of the beef and the sauce into the pan and carried on. Everyone liked it. I substituted cauliflower rice for the regular rice and it worked well. The cauliflower rice took on the sauce flavors perfectly! Thanks so much for this recipe! I’d actually like to try it with cubed beef in the future. Yum!
Is it very spicy with the red pepper flakes ?
hard to say; everyone has different sensitivity to spice..you could start off with a smaller amount and adjust to taste.
Omg way too sweet covered the flavor of the spice
Thank you so much for sharing. We absolutely love this recipe!
My fiance brought home antelope from a hunting trip, I found this recipe and made it one night and it was a HUGE hit for the entire family! Will definitely be making this again. It was SO easy and so flavorful! Thank you a million!
Can I use regular oil instead of sesame oil?
no, sesame oil is what gives a lot of flavor to this dish
Way too much soy sauce. We used the low sodium and it was way to salty. Sorry to say we could not even eat it. We ended up getting carryout for dinner. The picture doesn’t show much liquid, but mine was swimming in the sauce. Was 3/4 cup soy sauce a misprint? My husband said 1/4 cup would have been more like it.
Not at all what I expected. It was super sweet and even my sweet tooth husband had to add a ton of hot sauce to balance out the flavor. I would take the brown sugar down to 1/4 cup.
Great flavor and easy to make, love that. Only 1 problem, it could have used a light less soy sauce. Otherwise I will definitely make this again. Thank you.
Super easy 20 minute meal. I made it over Jasmine rice which only takes 15 min. The only thing is I sautéed onions before adding ground beef and then added garlic half way through cooking meat. And then added sauce. Excellent meal prep. Wish I could add photo
After reading the comments, I cut down the soy sauce a bit and then cut the sugar a bit too. I used ground beef and ground turkey. Since I reduced the soy sauce, I added a bit of water just to ensure enough liquid. The whole family enjoyed it. I could see using any type of meat.
Can I make this with tempeh?
i could see that working, yes!
This was amazing!! My whole family loved it! I cooked MANY dishes… this was their favorite! Thank you.
This was really tasty!!! I used less sugar and it was great!
Way to sweet if I try it again I’ll use 2 thirds less sugar
Can you use dried ground ginger from the spice aisle? if so how much? Thanks Linda
It would be best to use fresh
Loved this recipe. Diduse less soy sauce and less sugar but will make it often. My husband also raved about it and I have told several people about it. I used 1/2 cup of soy sauce and 1/4 cup brown sugar and that suited our taste.
Waaay too salty as written. All I tasted was soy sauce. I re-made it today and sweated the onions/garlic/ginger (more like a tablespoon) before adding the beef to brown. Then I subbed out 1/4 C of the soy sauce for OJ and added a little cornstarch to help thicken up the sauce. It came out AMAZING.