Korean Beef Bulgogi begins with a marinade, and results in tender, juicy, slightly sweet, slightly salty pieces of beef steak. Simple but highly flavorful and made in minutes.
This post will be short because I’m behind this week, and I actually have to eat and run to church here in about 20 minutes. Some really neat things have happened this week (including me discovering audio Bible!), and I can’t wait to tell you more about this week, but it will have to be in another post.
Today, I’d like to share with you one of my quick meals called Beef Bulgogi. It’s great for when you don’t have a lot of time (like me today!). You can make a big batch of it, and eat leftovers for days.
I will often pair this with a side of broccoli or a salad or bok choy. Anything green.
Serves 6
Ingredients for Beef Bulgogi
- 1-2 lbs of beef steak, cut into strips (many cuts will work for this, but I will typically use ribeye, sirloin steak, or cubed steak)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 2 TBSP sesame oil
- 2 TBSP honey (you could use brown sugar, as well)
- 6 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 1 TBSP ginger, finely grated or minced
- Red pepper flakes to taste (I usually like at least 1/4-1/2 tsp, but that’s me.)
- 2 medium red onions, halved and cut lengthwise
- 2 red or green bell peppers, sliced lengthwise
- 4 TBSP avocado oil
Eat with: white rice OR wrapped in lettuce leaves
Garnish with: Scallions/green onion (if you have some)
How to Cook Beef Bulgogi
If you’re making rice, go ahead and start it now. I usually do 1-1/2 cups of rice and 2-1/4 cups of water, and then cook for 22 minutes for white rice and 25 minutes for brown rice. If you start rice now, you should be done cooking everything else by the time the timer goes off.
Begin by making the marinade with the soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Divide the marinade into two bowls.
Cut the beef steak into thin strips and drop the pieces into one bowl of the marinade.
Slice your peppers and onions and add them to the other bowl of marinade.
Heat the avocado oil in a large skillet on medium. Once it’s hot, add the onions and peppers, reserving the marinade. In fact, go ahead and just pour the extra marinade over your steak just to make sure to cover all the meat, and save the bowl. We’re not done with it yet.
Cook the onions and peppers for five minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly soft. The remove from the pan, and set aside in that bowl you just saved.
Okay, now add a little bit more oil to the pan again, and add the meat in a single layer. When cooked on one side, flip and cook on the other side. It usually takes about 2 minutes per side. Remove the finished meat from the pan, and continue cooking the rest of the meat in batches until finished.
When all the meat finishes cooking, add everything back to the pan, including all the extra marinade, and simmer for 3 minutes on low. There was raw meat in the marinade before, so we just want to make sure it’s cooked.
And that’s it! Your rice should be done by now. If you don’t want the heaviness of the rice, then you can wrap this up in some Boston or butter lettuce for a delicious Paleo meal. :)
- 1-2 lbs of beef steak, cut into strips (many cuts will work for this, but I will typically use ribeye, sirloin steak, or cubed steak)
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 2 TBSP sesame oil
- 2 TBSP honey (you could use brown sugar, as well)
- 6 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- 1 TBSP ginger, finely grated or minced
- Red pepper flakes to taste (I usually like at least ¼-1/2 tsp, but that's me.)
- 2 medium red onions, halved and cut lengthwise
- 2 red or green bell peppers, sliced lengthwise
- 4 TBSP avocado oil
- Eat with: white rice OR wrapped in lettuce leaves
- Garnish with: Scallions/green onion (if you have some)
- If you're making rice, go ahead and start it now. I usually do 1-1/2 cups of rice and 2-1/4 cups of water and then cook for 22 minutes for white rice and 25 minutes for brown rice. If you start rice now, you should be done cooking everything else by the time the timer goes off.
- Begin by making the marinade with the soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Divide the marinade into two bowls.
- Cut the beef steak into thin strips and drop the pieces into one bowl of the marinade.
- Slice your peppers and onions and add them to the other bowl of marinade.
- Heat the avocado oil in a large skillet on medium. Once it's hot, add the onions and peppers, reserving the marinade. In fact, go ahead and just pour the extra marinade over your steak just to make sure to cover all the meat, and save the bowl. We're not done with it yet.
- Cook the onions and peppers for five minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly soft. The remove from the pan and set aside in that bowl you just saved.
- Okay, now add a little bit more oil to the pan again, and add the meat in a single layer. When cooked on one side, flip and cook on the other side. It usually takes about 2 minutes per side. Remove the finished meat from the pan, and continue cooking the rest of the meat in batches until finished.
- When all the meat finishes cooking, add everything back to the pan, including all the extra marinade, and simmer for 3 minutes on low. There was raw meat in the marinade before, so we just want to make sure it's cooked.
- And that's it! Your rice should be done, and if you don't want the heaviness of the rice, you can wrap this up in some Boston or butter lettuce for a delicious Paleo meal. :)
