Bring bright flavours into your weeknight meals with this fragrant sticky-sweet Korean beef bulgogi – it’s quick, easy and delicious!
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To make the marinade, combine the pear, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, sugar, sesame oil and pepper in a large bowl. Add the beef and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour to marinate.
Preheat an oiled chargrill or barbecue hotplate on high. Cook beef in batches, for 30 seconds on each side or until seared but not cooked through.
Sprinkle beef with spring onions and sesame seeds. Serve with steamed rice, carrot, cucumber and soy sauce.
If you like it spicy, try adding a tsp or 2 of chilli powder or Gochujang (Korean chilli paste) to the marinade.
COOK. STORE. SAVE.
Smart swap: While this recipe traditionally uses beef, you can swap this for chicken, pork or even lamb if you prefer. Just adjust the cooking time based on the thickness of the meat you’re using.
Use it up: Use any leftover fresh ginger and sesame seeds and oil in this ginger-tamari sauce. It’s a fabulous addition or accompaniment to other Asian-style dishes.
Beef bulgogi is a delicious Korean barbecue dish that’s incredibly easy to prepare. Translating literally as ‘fire meat’, bulgogi beef uses thin strips of scotch fillet steak that cook quickly, making it a fantastic recipe for flavour-packed weeknight dinners. This recipe uses many ingredients that you’re likely to already have on hand, so you can whip up the marinade in a matter of minutes, then leave the beef to marinate for one hour or even overnight if you like to prep ahead.
‘Bul’ in Korean translates literally as ‘fire’ and ‘gogi’ means ‘meat’, hence this Korean barbecue dish is traditionally cooked over an open flame. The beef bulgogi marinade uses simple ingredients, including pear, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar and garlic to create a balanced, fragrant sweet sauce for the thin strips of beef. You can play around with the flavours to create the balance of salt and sweet that you like best.
First up, mix your marinade ingredients and thinly slice the beef. Pop the beef in the marinade and cover with plastic wrap, then put in the fridge for at least one hour to marinate. You can leave the beef to marinate for longer as the flavours will continue to permeate the meat. While the beef is marinating, prepare the other ingredients; slice the spring onion, toast some sesame seeds, steam the jasmine rice, shred some carrot and slice the cucumber. These accompaniments add crunch to the bulgogi beef and make this dish a healthy and balanced bowl-style meal. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge and make a delicious packed lunch for the following day.
Now you’ve enjoyed the flavours of Korean cooking in your kitchen, why not try your hand at some more simple Korean dishes? This quick Korean-style fried rice is another great weeknight meal, as is Curtis Stone’s Korean beef bowl. Another popular Korean recipe is bibimbap, and this quick and easy Korean bibimbap or Korean chicken bibimbap are both delicious examples.