Korean Beef Bulgogi
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Korean Beef Bulgogi that’s incredibly easy to make right in the comfort of your home. Made with a flavorful marinade, this flank steak is quickly cooked to perfection resulting in the most tender beef, making for a super easy take-out style dish, right at home!
Easy Korean Beef Bulgogi Recipe
Korean beef bulgogi is such a popular Korean dish but the great thing about it is that it’s super easy to make. With just a handful of tasty ingredients and quick prep time, it’s a sure way to ease your weekly cooking plans with this incredibly tender beef bulgogi. Truly a dish your whole family will enjoy.
There’s nothing more satisfying than a perfectly marinated piece of cooked beef that just melts in your mouth and incites your taste buds. That’s exactly the experience you get from this recipe. Having just a few easy steps to prep and cook makes it even more tempting, since it takes away the worry around how much time or difficulty the recipe could bring.
Why We Love Korean Beef Bulgogi
- Quick and Easy! With this simple recipe, it only takes 3 steps, 10 ingredients, and 20 minutes to cook the steak to make a Korean beef bulgogi bowl!
- Incredibly Tender Beef! Kiwi is used in the marinade as a natural tenderizer that works like magic to help break down the proteins and make the meat super tender.
- Healthy Protein! Flank steak is one of the healthiest lean cuts of beef that is lower in both fat and calories, but like all beef really it’s high in protein.
- Steak – Thinly sliced flank steak. You can use rib eye, sirloin or even tenderloin.
- Soy Sauce – I like to use low-sodium to be able to control the sodium level of a dish.
- Sugar and Honey – Brown sugar and a bit of honey for a little bit of added sweetness.
- Mirin – If you don’t have mirin or can’t find it, rice vinegar or a dry white wine will work as well.
- Garlic – 6 cloves of minced garlic to boost the flavor of the marinade. You can also add some minced ginger as well.
- Green Onion – Cut on the diagonal, this is used in both the marinade and as garnish.
- Kiwi – Or Asian Pear to help tenderize the meat.
- Sesame Oil and Sesame Seeds – To add a bit of nutty flavor and to fry our beef in.
This bulgogi recipe is really super simple, but so delicious! Kiwi pulp is used in the marinade as a special tenderizing agent. It’s a little-known secret trick that makes all the difference in the world. Then once marinated, the beef is quickly cooked and ready to eat in just a matter of minutes!
Make The Marinade
To start, you need to get your Korean beef marinade made! So combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, mirin, garlic, green onion, kiwi, black pepper, and sesame seeds in a medium bowl until the brown sugar has fully dissolved. Also, make sure that the kiwi is really mashed up well. And if you don’t have a kiwi you can use a grated Asian pear instead. However, whichever fruit you choose to use must be mashed or grated for the enzyme actinidain in the fruit to tenderize the meat.
Marinate The Beef
Next, add the thinly sliced meat to the marinade and massage it into the beef using your hands. This is a necessary step that helps to infuse the meat with all the flavors of the marinade and tenderizing agent. It’s essential that the beef be thinly sliced because the marinade can’t penetrate thicker sliced meat in the same way.
Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the marinating Korean bulgogi beef in the fridge for 30 minutes. This too is an important step as the marinade needs time to do its job. So don’t remove the meat from the marinade until the full 30 minutes have passed.
Cook The Beef
Once your meat is done soaking in the yummy bulgogi marinade it’s time to cook! To begin, heat the sesame oil over high heat in a nonstick skillet until it’s nice and hot. Then cook the meat in batches while stirring constantly until it’s slightly brown on both sides. This will take about 3 to 5 minutes per batch. And do cook it in batches! If you crowd the skillet the meat will not cook as evenly or be quite as tasty.
Garnish And Serve
Now that your steak has been cooked to perfection, you’ll want to eat it right away. Korean Beef Bulgogi is typically garnished with sliced green onions and served over rice along with a side of kimchi.
What Is Beef Bulgogi?
Bulgogi means “fire meat” and it’s basically marinated thin slices of beef or pork and then grilled on a barbecue or stove-top griddle.
What Is The Best Cut Of Beef For Beef Bulgogi?
Usually bulgogi is made with ribeye steak thinly cut, but other cuts that can be used are flank steak, skirt steak, brisket, or sirloin.
What Does Beef Bulgogi Taste Like?
While this dish isn’t really a saucy kind of beef, the beef is marinated in a blend of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, sesame oil, among a couple other ingredients, giving our beef a salty, sweet and nutty savory flavor.
What Is The Role Of The Kiwi In The Marinade?
The kiwi has a very important role. It is one of the best meat tenderizers, so this is why we end up with a super tender beef. Another option would be to use an Asian pear.
Expert Tips
- To easily slice the beef thinly, freeze it for about 15 – 20 minutes first, then carefully slice it against the grain.
- Keep in mind to not overcrowd the beef while cooking, so take your time and cook it in 2 – 3 batches until you get through all the meat.
- If you don’t have mirin or can’t find it, rice vinegar or a dry white wine will work as well.
Leftovers
Leftover beef bulgogi, can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.You can also freeze in single portions in airtight containers or freezer bags for up to 3 months. Just reheat in the microwave or oven straight from the freezer.
More Delicious Korean Recipes To Try
Other Delicious Recipes To Try
- Mongolian Beef
- Easy Pepper Steak
- Prime Rib
- Roast Beef
- Beef Mushroom Stir Fry
- Instant Pot Corned Beef
- Asian Steak Bites
- Crispy Sticky Beef
- Instant Pot Beef Brisket
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Korean Beef Bulgogi
Video
Ingredients
Marinade
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 6 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 green onion (cut on the diagonal)
- ½ kiwi (pureed with a fork, or Asian pear)
- ½ teaspoon pepper (freshly ground)
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds (toasted)
Beef Bulgogi
- 1½ pounds flank steak (thinly sliced)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Make the marinade: Combine all the marinade ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.
- Marinate the beef: Add the sliced beef to the marinade and using your clean hands, massage the beef with the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Cook the beef: In a non-stick skillet add the sesame oil over high heat. Cook the meat in batches until slightly brown on both sides, 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Repeat with remaining meat.
- Serve: Serve hot over rice.
Notes
- Nutritional information does not include rice.
- To easily slice the beef thinly, freeze it for about 15 – 20 minutes first, then carefully slice it against the grain.
- Keep in mind to not overcrowd the beef while cooking, so take your time and cook it in 2 – 3 batches until you get through all the meat.
- If you don’t have mirin or can’t find it, rice vinegar or a dry white wine will work as well.
- Leftover beef bulgogi, can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.You can also freeze in single portions in airtight containers or freezer bags for up to 3 months. Just reheat in the microwave or oven straight from the freezer.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Hello! I love this recipe, but am wondering if I can prep and marinade the beef over night and until I’m ready to cook dinner the next day.
Hello! Marinating the beef overnight will infuse even more flavor into your bulgogi. It’s a great idea for a delicious, deep taste. Enjoy your meal!
What can I use instead of mirin, I can’t use alcohol
Great question! If you can’t use mirin due to its alcohol content, you can substitute it with a mixture of water and sugar. For each tablespoon of mirin, you can use 1 tablespoon of water mixed with about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. This will provide some of the sweetness that mirin contributes to the dish. Another option is to use a non-alcoholic rice wine vinegar, but keep in mind that it will be tangier than mirin.
I have my steak marinating. I love korean cuisine and this marinade smells amazing. Can’t wait for the finished product
I followed the instructions….I did go with the Asian pear over the kiwi because that’s what I thought was the original way….the Bulgogi came out amazing! Honestly as good as I’ve had….and I am Korean! I have never made it except for using the pre-made jar marinade (which is pretty bad). I have actually made this twice in the last week. I can’t wait to make it for family. It’s perfect!!
Absolutely delicious – have made 3 times this week!
Looks great, glad you like the recipe!
My husband went back for thirds…and that’s really not his habit. Made it exactly as the recipe instructed, and it was great! Pretty quick and easy too.
Prepared this recipe last week. Instead of a kiwi I used a grated apple. It turned out fantastic!
Beef Bulgogi excellent!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was terrific! The flavors were spot on and so easy to throw together. I let the meat marinate most of the day because it was mostly frozen. By time to start putting together dinner, the meat was thawed enough to slice easily. I put it back into the marinade until I was ready to cook it and it was perfect.
Hi Jo…I am trying the bulgogi tonight….and I have just finished putting it in the fridge to marinate.. I have a quick question…..do I just dispose of the rest of the marinade after cooking the beef?
Thanks!
There shouldn’t be a lot of marinade left over, the beef probably will absorb most of it. However if you have any left just throw it down, I usually just throw it down the garburator.
So you can’t use it as a sauce?
You can if you want, but you’d have to cook it first since it was used with raw meat.
I just made Korean Beef Bulgogi and wow, wow,wow! This recipe is fabulous – easy to prepare and super delicious! I used flank steak and marinated the meat overnight.
I would try this if I could afford some beef.
Hi Mike,
You can always substitute it with some pork like I did here:
https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/bulgogi-pork/
Let us know how it turns out!