Korean Beef Bulgogi Rice Bowls – the easy way!

Straight to the top of my favourite quick way to use beef mince – Korean Beef Bulgogi Rice Bowls! Made with ground beef rather than pricey steaks but still using an authentic Bulgogi marinade, this has all the flavour at a fraction of the cost and effort. I’ve made rice bowls, but you can also do noodles, wraps, burritos or tacos (so trendy!).

Korean Bulgogi – the easy way!

I pride myself on finding interesting-crazy-tasty-but-quick ways to use mince. It’s just such a shopping trolley staple – economical and versatile, but sometimes the most appealing thing to me is that there is no meat slicing. Is it shameful for someone who makes a living sharing recipes to admit that? 😅

Bulgogi, for those new to it, is one of Korea’s most famous food exports, a marinated BBQ beef dish grilled over charcoal or tabletop BBQ until caramelised and smoky. The traditional BBQ way it’s served is with rice and banchan on the side (side dishes like kimchi, pickles, spinach) or in lettuce wrap form.

Meat that tasty is delicious any way it’s served. With this mince version, you get all the flavour and fun of Bulgogi without the hassle of slicing pricey steaks into paper thin strips and no marinating time, with many ways to serve it.

I AM OBSESSED!

Ingredients

Here’s what you need to make this. Don’t skip the apple and onion, it is what sets Bulgogi apart from any other generic Asian soy-sugar-garlic sauce!!

Other than the marinade, you can basically ignore my ingredients list. 😀 There’s so many options, substitutions and different ways to serve this Bulgogi beef!

1. Bulgogi marinade

Here’s what you need to make the Bulgogi marinade.

Beef – I’m using beef mince today, because Bulgogi is made with beef. But this marinade would be brilliant with any ground meat (chicken, turkey, pork, lamb).
Onion and apple – As loudly stated above, grated onion and apple (or nashi pear) is what makes this a Bulgogi sauce rather than a generic Asian sauce. The grated onion adds flavour in a way that diced onion never will. And the apple adds sweetness that’s so much more interesting than plain sugary-ness of regular sugar. Apple also has secret meat tenderising qualities so beef strips in traditional Bulgogi stay tender even if you overcook it, but that’s not relevant to us today as we’re using mince.
Garlic – Koreans love garlic! use 3 big cloves.
Ginger – Koreans also love ginger! We only use 1 teaspoon but it comes through quite nicely.
Soy sauce – Use either light or regular / all-purpose soy sauce. Don’t use dark soy (too dark, too intense, it will ruin your dish) or kecap manis (too sweet).
Sesame oil, toasted – Toasted sesame oil is brown and has more flavour than untoasted (which is yellow). Default sesame oil sold in Australia is toasted, untoasted is harder to find.
Mirin (extra ingredient, optional) – This is a sweet cooking wine used in Japanese cooking. It’s not traditionally used in Bulgogi but as with all alcohol used in cooking, it adds extra depth of flavour to this 20 minute dinner that elevates this slightly and compensates for the absence of smokiness from grilling over a charcoal BBQ and marinating a $50/kg scotch fillet steaks for 24 hours. 🙂
Sugar – Just 1 tablespoon which helps get some lovely caramelisation on the beef. We don’t need too much as there’s plenty of natural sweetness from the apple.
Pinch of black pepper – or white pepper.

2. QUICK KOREAN DRIZZLE SAUCE

When I jumbled up the bowl to eat it, I just felt it would be nice to have a little extra sauce to pour over everything because all the vegetables are plain. So I made a quick little drizzle sauce – I really felt like it completed the dish. Here’s all you need – it’s just a repeat of ingredients above!

As noted, these are all just the same ingredients above, so I won’t repeat descriptions!

3. FOR THE RICE BOWL

This is where you get to use whatever you want! Excellent fridge raid – just chop/grate/julienne/tear/dice into shapes that are suitable for jumbling up into the rice bowl so it can be eaten with a spoon.

Rice – any type. Medium and short grain rice, and jasmine rice work best for bowls I feel because they’re a little stickier rather basmati and long grain rice, but you can honestly use any type. Brown rice, wild rice (cooking directions in this recipe), even cauliflower rice, or quinoa!

Noodles would also be ok, though I’d opt for thin rather than thick ones.
Fresh vegetables – I used wilted baby spinach, lettuce and carrots, because that’s what I had. Thinly sliced cucumber, radish, tomatoes and bean sprouts also spring to mind as obvious choices, as well as edamame (soy beans), even peas! In fact, any vegetable can be used – raw or cooked. Just plain, the beef and sauce add flavour!
Avocado – I use this to add a bit of creaminess.
Garnishes – I use white sesame seeds and green onion. Finely sliced nori (seaweed sheets), crispy shallots, crispy wonton strips, chives or parsley would also be at home here.
Fresh pickle pop – I used pickled ginger because I had it and the pink adds nice colour. I wouldn’t hesitate to use slices of pickles instead, I kid you not! Kimchi would also be an obvious choice, and you would have seen it on my bowl if I had some. 🙂

See below for “How to make it” section for other ways to use this Bulgogi beef other than in rice bowls!

How to make Easy Korean Bulgogi Beef Bowls

The unique step in Bulgogi is that the onion and apple is finely grated into a juicy paste that is mixed into the marinade. A microplane or similar fine grater works best – then you just continue using it to grate the ginger and garlic – though a box grater will work too if that’s all you’ve got (use the shredding side rather than tiny holes).

Serving sauce – Mix the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Bulgogi sauce – Use microplane to grate the apple, onion, garlic and ginger into a bowl (no need to peel the ginger, it peels itself back as you grate!). Add remaining ingredients and mix.

Wilt spinach – Heat the 2 teaspoons of oil in a large non stick pan over high heat. Add half the spinach, toss for 15 seconds or until partially wilted. Then add the rest and toss until just wilted. Remove into bowl.
Cook Bulgogi Beef – Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in the same pan, still on high heat. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up as you go.

Add sauce – Once you no longer see raw beef, pour the sauce in.
Reduce and caramelise – Stir then simmer rapidly, stirring every now and then, until the sauce mostly reduces. Keep cooking, stirring more frequently, until the beef gets a little caramelisation but still has moisture from the sauce.

Assemble – Pile steaming rice into bowls. Top with beef, then place spinach, carrot and lettuce on the side (I sort of tuck the lettuce in so it’s sticking a bit upright). Top with a scoop of mushy avocado and little pile of pickled ginger. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion.
Serve with the Korean Drizzle Sauce on the side for….err…well, drizzling! 😂 To eat, jumble it all up and dig in, like this! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Many ways to eat this Easy Bulgogi Beef!

I can assure you that this Beef Mince Bulgogi is going to make an appearance again in other forms! until then, here is a list of other terrific ways to enjoy it:

Lettuce wraps (ssam-style) – Actually one of the traditional ways that Bulgogi is eaten, think San Choy Bows but with Bulgogi meat with lettuce – sometimes perilla leaves – used as the wrap. Add rice, kimchi and a bit of spicy ssam sauce (see recipe in Pork Bossam). Fold and eat!
Noodle bowls – Instead of rice, use noodles and DIY toss toss toss!
Modern / fusion – Korean fusion became all the rage a couple of decades ago, and though the initial excitement has somewhat settled over the year, it is here to stay and with good reason: because it’s darn tasty (when done right). I’ve seen bulgogi pizzas, sliders (literally just stuff in rolls), pasta, nachos, loaded fries!

My favourite way is in tacos and burritos: Stuff/roll with rice and any of the rice toppings listed. I’d serve with a slightly spicy creamy sauce (mix gochujang or sriracha with mayonnaise) rather than the rice bowl drizzle sauce (which is thin). Here’s what they look like – and yes, they taste as good as they look!