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Ground Beef Bulgogi Recipe

4.82 from 11 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Yield 6 servings (4 ½ cups beef mixture) about 3 cups carrots
Category Main Dish
Cuisine Korean
Author Lauren Grant

Description

Savory, spicy and slightly sweet, these ground beef bulgogi rice bowls are the perfect weeknight meal. Adaptable, versatile, quick and easy—everything a great weeknight dinner should be!

Ingredients

Pickled Cucumbers (optional)

  • 2 english cucumbers, thinly sliced
  • ¾ cup rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Carrots (optional)

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 (10-ounce) bags shredded carrots

Bulgogi

  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 cup grated onion
  • 1 heaping tablespoon minced fresh garlic
  • 1 heaping tablespoon grated fresh ginger
  • 2 pounds 90% lean ground beef
  • 3–4 tablespoons honey
  • 3–4 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons gochujang
  • 2 tablespoon mirin or rice wine

Serving (optional)

  • white sesame seeds
  • bibb lettuce
  • cooked rice
  • sambal oelek (chili garlic sauce)
  • kimchi

Instructions

Pickled Cucumbers (optional)

  • Whisk together ¾ cup rice vinegar, ½ cup water, 1 tablespoon honey and ¾ teaspoon salt until salt has dissolved. Add 2 sliced cucumbers and set aside. 

Carrots (optional)

  • Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high. Add 2 (10-ounce) bags carrots and ½ teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to brown, about 10–15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. 

Bulgogi

  • Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in now empty skillet over medium. Add 1 cup grated onion, 4 teaspoons garlic, 4 teaspoons ginger and ½ teaspoon black pepper; cook until starting to brown, 3 minutes. 
  • Add 2 pounds ground beef and cook, breaking up into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink; drain beef.
  • Return beef to sauté pan and stir in 3 tablespoons honey, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons gochujang, and 2 tablespoons mirin; cook until thickened, about 3 minutes.
  • Season to taste with additional soy sauce and honey.
  • Serve bulgogi in lettuce cups with pickled cucumbers, carrots, and rice. Top with sambal oelek, if desired.

Equipment

Notes

Make it gluten-free: use tamari in place of the soy sauce and gluten-free gochujang. If you can't find gluten-free gochujang, simply add two to three teaspoons chili garlic sauce to the bulgogi sauce mixture. While tamari is less salty than regular soy sauce, it's much saltier than low-sodium soy sauce. Start with two tablespoons and add more as needed. 
Rice: for six people cook 1½ cups white rice.
Pickled Cucumbers: I don’t like throwing pickling liquid away after making homemade pickles. These cucumbers use a small amount of pickling liquid (to reduce waste). Because if this, the cucumber slices will need to be lightly tossed occasionally to ensure each piece gets pickled. If you don't want to do that—double the pickling liquid. 
Honey & Soy sauce: I list a range on the amount of honey and soy sauce used because both of those are very much about preference. I prefer to use 4 tablespoons (¼ cup) of each—it’s more bold and flavorful. For a lower-sodium and lower-sugar option, use 3 tablespoons of each. 
Cooking the carrots: stir the carrots occasionally, not constantly, to achieve slightly charred carrots (flavor!). You want the carrots to get to the point where they almost start burning. Only do this in a pan you trust can handle it—stainless steel high quality pans are best.
You may need to use a steel wool to clean the pan. If you don’t care about getting char on the carrots—just cook them until tender, 8–10 minutes. 
Cut down the cook time: you can get dinner on the table faster if you pull out a second pan. Cook the carrots in a large skillet while you cook the ground beef in a large sauté pan.
What's the difference between a skillet and sauté pan? Sauté pans have straight vertical sides while skillets have shorter rounder sides. Since this recipe uses 2 pounds of ground beef, it's best to use a sauté pan (keeps things from flying out).

Nutrition

Serving: 1/6 of the recipe (¾ cup beef mixture + carrots and cucumbers)Calories: 333kcalCarbohydrates: 24gProtein: 35gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 93mgSodium: 1075mgFiber: 4gSugar: 14g
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