Delicious Korean Ground Beef is made with basic pantry ingredients and served over rice, for and easy 30 minute meal everyone loves!
Ya’ll know I’m all about easy, family-friendly dinners and this Korean Ground Beef is always a winner! I love that it uses simple ingredints I always have on hand.
If you want some more great dinner ideas, check my list of 30-minute meals or one pan meals!
How to make Korean Ground Beef:
Start by browning your ground beef in a sauce pan. I season it with salt and pepper as it cooks. Remove grease. This is totally optional, but once it’s browned I like to put the meat in my food processor. I pulse it 2-3 times into very small pieces, and then return it to the pan. I love the way the sauce and flavor soaks into the meat when it’s finely ground like this.
Next add the sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Stir in brown sugar, soy sauce, and sriracha (or crushed red pepper of chili sauce).
Add half of the chopped green onions, reserving the rest for garnish.
Serve over hot cooked rice, garnished with chopped green onion. I like to serve sliced cucumber on the side. It adds a wonderful fresh crunch and flavor that really compliments everything.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
This is a great meal to make a few hours or day ahead of time–it reheats well on the stove!
To Freeze, allow the mixture to cool, then place in a freezer-safe bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then rewarm on the stove.
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Recipe
Korean Ground Beef Bowls
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 5 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger *
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce , crushed red pepper flakes, or chili garlic sauce
- 1 bunch green onion , chopped
- hot cooked brown or white rice , for serving
- Fresh cucumber , sliced, for serving
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Season beef with black pepper and add to skillet. Cook, stirring and crumbling into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until browned. Drain excess grease. (Optional: put beef in a food processor. Pulse it 2-3 times into very small pieces, and then return it to the pan.)
- Add sesame oil, garlic and ginger. Stir in brown sugar, soy sauce, and sriracha (or crushed red pepper of chili sauce). Cook for a few minutes, allowing some of the sauce to absorb into the meat.
- Add half of the chopped green onions, reserving the rest for garnish. Serve over hot cooked rice, garnished with chopped green onion.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe February 2018. Updated May 2021 with process photos and a video.
I just made this with veggie meat, and it was yum. I agree on cutting soy sauce to maybe 1/3 cup.
Way too much soy sauce! I followed the recipe exactly. It was tasty, but to salty for my taste
I love this recipe! But only because I tweaked it a lot, so I’m removing one star for that reason.
First off- I probably only use about 1/2 the soy sauce, 1/2 the ginger (just for personal tastes) and maybe 1/4 of the sugar IF THAT. Otherwise, as others have stated, this recipe would be wayyyy too sweet.
Instead of the sriracha, I use gochujang (which you can find in most asian supermarkets, its a type of Korean chili paste) and I enjoy the depth of flavor a lot more. I also add just a splash of rice vinegar to cut through some of the salt/sweet. I also enjoy sesame seeds on top of this dish, but that is entirely optional I feel.
I also beef this dish up with additional vegetables. Last time I did carrots, jalapenos, savoy cabbage, baby bok choy, and some large green onion (the big one! not regular sized) and it made it a LOT more filling and I feel it really stretches your meat (which, if you live in Canada like me where grocery prices are at an all time high, is really nice). I also make home made pickled daikon radish, carrots and jalapenos the night before to serve with this dish (the recipe I use is by MyKoreanKitchen.com) and I feel it really adds some refreshment to cut through the heavy flavors of the soy sauce and gochujang.
I also like to season my rice first with some rice vinegar and “sushi seasoning” (the liquid, comes in a bottle) to taste.
I know it’s a lot of changes, but I feel this recipe is better to build upon than just doing what it says on the tin!
This sounded so good! Made it– followed recipe exactly as printed. BUT–oh my– it was soooooo sweet! Way too sweet!!!
Very good I will make this again!
I used a little less than 3/4 cup brown sugar and it was way too sweet. Even my 12 year old thought it was too sweet. It was meat candy. Anyways, good flavors but please use like 1/4 cup of brown sugar.
This was very sweet. I actually did not add the whole 2/3 brown sugar and it was still too sweet.
1 cup of soy sauce has to be a mistake. And the sugar is waay too much. We make a similar recipe that uses 1/4 C of each and that’s still sweet.
So easy and so delicious! The whole family loved it!