Easy Korean Ground beef is such a simple dish, but it bursts with the sweet, savory, and spicy flavors of your favorite Korean BBQ!
There are days when I want to eat lavish meals, and then there are days when all I want is a quick dinner. But you probably know by now that boring food isn’t my thing, so even my quick meals need to have a ton of flavor.
If you’ve made Firecracker Ground Turkey, then you’ll find this recipe pretty familiar. It happens to be the all-time most popular post on this blog! That always surprises me given how simple it is, but maybe that’s the point. So here we are again! I’ve just swapped some ingredients to add more Asian flare.
This one is done start-to-finish in about 15 minutes. While the beef is cooking, I’ll heat up some frozen jasmine rice in the microwave. Add some steamed broccoli to the mix, and you’re good to go!
What Makes this Dish korean?
To be fair, there is nothing traditional about this dish. I love the sweet/savory/spicy combination in a lot of Korean dishes, so I tried to emulate that here.
I love the flavor of bulgogi, which is marinated steak that is usually grilled. So delicious! This is a quick and easy spin on that.
The only problem is that a lot of bulgogi recipes include quite a bit of sugar. In my opinion, there still needs to be quite a bit of sweetness to hit that perfect balance of salty and sweet, so I did a little research.
Some Korean beef recipes include grated Asian pear or apple. I figure most of you have applesauce in your pantry, so that’s a great ingredient to add some sweetness without too much sugar.
The soy sauce, sesame, garlic, ginger, and sriracha round everything out for a flavor punch to the mouth!
how to prep Easy Korean Ground Beef
Because of the minimal cook and prep times, this is obviously a great weeknight dinner dish. Just adding some rice and steamed veggies will do the trick for a complete meal.
But this recipe is also excellent for lunch prep!
I find that the leftovers are great either cold or warmed up, so you have a lot of options.
- Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps
- Korean Beef Salad
- Korean Beef Sloppy Joes
- Korean Beef Tacos
- Korean Beef Quesadillas (use reduced-fat mozzarella)
Let me know if you get creative with other ways to use this recipe!
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Easy Korean Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 1 pound 96% lean ground beef
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 5-6 medium green onions, chopped
- 1/2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
FOR THE SAUCE
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar or honey
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sriracha (optional if you like a little heat)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
OPTIONAL (QUICK PICKLED SALAD)
- 1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrot
- 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
- Heat cooking spray in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Quickly sauté garlic and ginger until fragrant, about a minute. Add in beef, and cook, stirring occasionally, until beef is browned, about 5 minutes.
- While meat is cooking, mix together sauce ingredients and chop green onions. Set aside.
- Add in sauce and half of the green onions to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then simmer until sauce has thickened and coats the meat, about 5 minutes. Add in a splash or two of water if the sauce gets too thick.
- Garnish with remaining green onions and sesame seeds.
FOR THE PICKLED SALAD
- Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for 10 minutes, or up a few days.
This was delicious! I made the pickled salad first and grabbed the rice vinegar. While it was chilling, I panicked and googled if rice wine vinegar is the same as rice vinegar and internet said no. So when I made the sauce, I used a RWV substitute of cooking sherry wine. Not sure if either of those were correct, but the flavors were excellent. Husband said he was pretty sure we were cheating on WW but I showed him the recipe in WW and he was only slightly convinced. I served it in hearts of romaine “boats”. We both loved it!!! Thanks for the excellent recipe.