Ready in minutes, these Korean Beef Bowls are budget-friendly and seriously delicious. Serve with my quick Kimchi and steamed rice for a quick and easy weeknight meal!
I love food and flavors from around the world, and as soon as I try something new, my mind immediately races as to how I will be able to re-create the fabulous flavors at home. Luckily, many seemingly out-of-reach dishes with their complex flavors are often more relaxed than I ever imagined, especially with the right teacher!
The internet has the distinct honor of having made our vast plant much, much smaller in terms of information. Places and countries we could only ever dream of visiting are now available to us after just a few clicks of the mouse and clacking of the keyboard. Gladly, I was able to find Maangchi on YouTube, who quickly broke down her Korean heritage recipes into easy to follow videos. Much love and admiration to Maangchi for bringing her passion and expertise of Korean cooking into my kitchen. Today I’m making these {10-minute} Korean Beef Bowls with rice and quick kimchi. These can be spicy or mild and start with just a few basic Asian ingredients.
How do I make Korean Beef Bowls?
The first thing to note is that rice is at the center of many Korean meals, with very few exceptions. If you wanted to make a low carb version, you could opt for cauliflower rice instead of white rice. If you prefer noodles, you can easily swap out the rice for thin noodles.
Korean cooking uses a thin wheat noodle found in most Asian grocery stores. If you don’t have a local Asian market you can always find authentic Korean Somen Noodles [paid link] on Amazon but another readily available hack is to substitute angel hair pasta (capellini) noodles in their place. This your dish and this is a judgment-free zone. You do you!
What ingredients are in Korean Beef Bowls?
- Beef Flank Steak
- Soy Sauce
- Sesame Oil
- Garlic
- Gochujang Paste [paid link]
- White Wine, optional
- Sugar
What is Gochujang?
Gochujang paste [paid link] is made from red hot chile peppers. It’s a thick, sticky condiment that’s spicy and very concentrated. The packages are usually marked with a spice level. The package I purchased was a “Medium” spice level of a 3 on the scale of 1-5 where 1 is mild and 5 is hot.
Where Can I Buy Gochujang?
Most Korean ingredients are very easy to get these days. You can find them at Asian stores, Korean stores, or in the international aisle of your regular supermarket. I’ve seen them as mainstream as the big box stores so make sure you check them out. Amazon is a great online option if you cannot find gochujang paste [paid link] locally.
What can I substitute for the Gochujang?
Sriracha sauce us a good alternative to gochujang, depending on the recipe. However, Thai chili paste has a more similar texture to gochujang than sriracha sauce.
What is Kimchi?
Okay, so let’s talk kimchi — also called kimch’i, kimchee or kim chee …
Many people are deathly afraid of trying this Korean staple. Kimchi is eaten at almost every meal in Korea and it is nothing more than a spicy fermented cabbage and vegetable blend. You are already familiar with and have probably eaten another widely popular fermented cabbage called sauerkraut.
That’s right! Americans have been adorning brats, hot dogs, and sandwiches for decades with that “other” tasty fermented cabbage with wild abandon. So, when you think about it, kimch’i is nothing more than sauerkraut’s spicy cousin!
If you’ve been afraid to try kimchi, hopefully, you’ll give it a try. This quick kimchi we made actually uses no fermentation at all and we love that we can adjust the spice level based on the amount of ground chili pepper we add into the mix.
What do I serve with Korean Beef Bowls?
We served these Korean Beef Bowls with grilled green onions, steamed white rice, and a super-easy shortcut kimchi.
That said, if you are absolutely dead-set against trying kimchi, you can simply stir fry shredded cabbage, carrots, scallions and minced garlic with some gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) and still be pretty on point with this recipe.
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Korean Beef Bowls
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine , optional
- 2 large garlic cloves , very finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons gochujang , more or less to taste [See Note 1]
- 1 to 1-1/2 pounds beef flank steak , cut thinly against the grain
Instructions
- In a large, shallow dish, combine the soy sauce with the sugar, white wine, chopped garlic, toasted sesame oil and gochujang, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the sliced flank steak and coat thoroughly in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate the steak for at least 30-minutes or up to overnight.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sear the steak until the slices are richly browned and medium-rare, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer the steak to a serving platter and serve with kimchi and steamed rice.
Notes
- Gochujang is a Korean red pepper paste. An equal amount of crushed red pepper flakes may be substituted. For a mild dish, omit the pepper flakes and/or gochujang completely without substitution.
Added a little sugar but otherwise enjoyed t his dish.
Kicked up Korean beef had great flavor.
I was surprised that bulgogi used so few ingredients. I found gochujang at Walmart of all places. This was good and the gochujang won’t go to waste as I’m gonna try your quick kimchi an Korean chicken kebabs next weekend for a bbq