Author: Susanne at Dish With Me
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These Korean Beef Bowls are super easy to make and bursting with flavor. A definite must try!
Do you remember in my introduction (found in the footer) I told you about the variety of food I grew up eating? This is one of those things. In some places, fast food does NOT have to mean hotdogs and onion rings. Many years ago I was introduced to the best kind of fast food…no, I absolutely do not mean burgers or fries…I mean these bowls of wonderfully flavored beef and onion and a scrummy sauce. REAL FOOD! So yum! This is my kind of fast food.
So, since I no longer have access to these kinds of fast food places, I now make my own. Are these bowls savory? Oh, yes. Are they easy to make? Yes, very simple. Worthy of your time? Absolutely, sooo worthy! This Korean Beef Bowl is a combination of onions and beef in a savory sauce served over jasmine rice. See? Simple!
My Kelsey’s boyfriend, Sanghyun, and his family live in South Korea and I have asked them to check this recipe for me to see if I have left anything out, or if something would make it better. I’ll keep you posted.
HELPFUL HINTS FOR KOREAN BEEF BOWLS
I am lucky enough to find pre-sliced beef at my local Wal-Mart. It’s the only place I can find it, so I will make a special trip just to buy that. It is sometimes also called stir-fry meat.
If you cannot find pre-sliced beef, don’t despair, there is a way to make it easier to slice thinly. Place the beef in the freezer for an hour to an hour and a half. It shouldn’t be frozen, but just starting to freeze, or just very lightly frozen. This process and a very sharp knife makes slicing thin strips much easier. Hint: be sure to set an alarm because it is easy to forget about it and let it freeze. Trust me, I’ve learned this the hard way. Yes, I do forgetful things like this, too!
The recipe calls for two onions, but, by all means, if you prefer more onions, cook as many as you wish. I love lots of onions in this dish.
This dish comes together really quickly after the cooking process is started, so be sure to make the sauce and do all the chopping/preparing prior to starting the cooking process. Pre-chopping and preparing is a good cooking practice anyway.
I like yellow onions in this dish, but white onions would also be a good choice.
I like to make my Easy Asian Cucumber Salad as a side for this dish.
Ingredients
- 2 cups jasmine rice cooked per package directions
- 2 pounds beef (sirloin, New York strip) very thinly sliced
- 2 large yellow onions thinly sliced
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- SAUCE
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil plus more for cooking the onions and beef
- 1 tablespoon Gochuchang sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes more, if you like it spicy
- 1 inch fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon, grated
- 6 garlic cloves grated
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds more for garnish
- 4 green onions (spring, salad onions) chopped, more for garnish
Instructions
- Cook rice per package directions.
- Trim any excess fat from beef. Slice beef very thin, cutting against the grain. For tender meat, ALWAYS cut against the grain. For tough beef (like for beef jerkey) cut with the grain of the meat.
- Cut the thin slices into several pieces. So each slice turns into 4 to 6 pieces of beef. Set aside.
- Cut the onions in half and then into thin slices. Set aside.
- With the remaining ingredients on the list, make the sauce. Set aside.
- In a very large pan, or a wok, on medium high heat, melt butter and heat sesame oil.
- Add the sliced onions to the pan and cook, stirring often, until caramelized. Approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Remove caramelized onions to a bowl.
- To the same pan or wok, add 2 tablespoons sesame oil. then add part of the beef. Depending on pan size and the amount of beef being cooked, I usually cook the beef in 3 separate batches. Once cooked, remove the beef to a plate or bowl.
- Repeat the above step 3 or 4 times. DO NOT OVERCROWD THE BEEF! It will not cook properly. I only cook the beef for about 1 minute. The pieces are small and cook very quickly.
- Once the beef is cooked, turn the heat down to medium and add the beef and onions back to the pan.
- Add the sauce mixture. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring to combing all ingredients.
- Serve over Jasmine rice.
- Garnish with additional sesame seeds and chopped green onions.
I am a Korean and this recipe is perfect.
Everyone should try to cook this way!