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This easy Korean beef recipe turns a pound of ground beef and a handful of pantry staples into a sweet, savory, garlicky dinner in about 25 minutes. It has all the flavor of Korean bulgogi with none of the slicing, marinating, or fuss. You just need a skillet, a bowl, and some rice.
My Favorite Weeknight Korean Ground Beef Recipe
This Korean beef is one of those dishes I go back to on autopilot when I don’t have the bandwidth to think too hard about dinner. It’s made with ground beef, so there’s no marinating and no fancy cuts of meat to track down, and the whole thing is done in the time it takes my rice to cook. If you’ve made my Korean bulgogi, think of this as its faster, more weeknight-friendly cousin. It’s not traditional, but it’s certainly delicious.
Toasted vs. Regular Sesame Oil
Toasted sesame oil is more flavorful than regular sesame oil, and it’s what I always reach for in this recipe. Look for it near the other Asian condiments at your grocery store. It’s usually in a small bottle, and it’s a bit darker in color. If you can’t find it, regular sesame oil will still give a great flavor.
How to Make Korean Beef
Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Brown the beef in a sesame-oiled skillet set over medium-high heat, breaking it up as it cooks. Pour the sauce over the cooked beef, stir to combine, and let everything simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the beef. Spoon over white rice and dig in!
Can I Make it In a Crockpot?
Yes. Brown the ground beef first in a pan—don’t skip this step; it adds tons of flavor! Transfer it to your slow cooker with the sauce ingredients, and cook on low for 2–3 hours. This is a great option if you want dinner ready and waiting when you walk in the door.
Swaps and Substitutions
Here are a few common ways to change up this dish:
- Protein: Ground pork or turkey both work well in place of beef. Sliced flank steak or sirloin will also work here—slice against the grain, sear, and serve.
- Veggies: Add sliced cremini or shiitake mushrooms alongside the beef for earthy depth.
- Aromatics: I prefer fresh ginger and garlic for the punchiest flavor, but ¼ teaspoon of dried ginger and ½ teaspoon of dried garlic will work in a pinch.
- Spice: Stir in a spoonful of gochujang or a squeeze of sriracha along with the sauce for a little extra kick.
- Make it vegan: Swap the ground beef for crumbled tofu or your favorite plant-based ground “meat.” Press the tofu well first so it browns.
Serving Suggestions
This Korean beef recipe is endlessly versatile. Here’s how I like to serve it:
- Spooned over a bowl of white or brown rice, optionally with a fried egg on top for a quick and easy version of my fav Korean Galbi Bowls
- Wrapped in butter lettuce cups for a lighter, low-carb dinner
- Tossed with cooked rice noodles and a little extra sauce for a quick noodle bowl
- On buns topped with kimchi and extra sauce for a Korean-style sloppy joe
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Store leftover Korean ground beef in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat in a skillet set over medium heat until warmed through, or microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between. This is a fantastic recipe for meal prep!
Korean Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¼ cup (59 ml) low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons (24 g) packed dark brown sugar
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 pound (454 g) lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, onion, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes together.¼ cup (59 ml) low-sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons (24 g) packed dark brown sugar, 1/2 yellow onion, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- In a skillet, on medium high, cook your ground beef with the sesame oil until well done.1 pound (454 g) lean ground beef, 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- Pour in the soy sauce mixture over the meat and combine together. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
- Serve over white rice.
Nutrition
Photographs by Eat Love Eat
Omg way too sweet covered the flavor of the spice
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.
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!
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 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.
Love this!!!
My family loved this dish. So easy and soooo flavorful!
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!
Super easy and super delicious recipe. I made it as a brunch dish over white rice. I’ll be making this again!
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.