Easy Bulgogi Recipe To Make At Home

Today, we have a very easy bulgogi recipe for you. 

It is always a great experience to order takeout of these beef strips of bulgogi for dinner on busy weeknights. That moment when you open the takeout pack of Korean food and the whole room is filled with the best Korean BBQ smell ever.

Now imagine if you could learn how to make yourself this nice bulgogi at home and fill your kitchen or backyard with this aromatic smell of bulgogi beef.

You need to try this Korean beef bulgogi recipe.

To get the most out of the meat, try to slice it as thin as possible. Freezing the steak helps you to easily cut it into very thin slices.  Also, throw the meat in the freezer for a few hours to allow it to absorb the most intense marinade.

Ingredients for bulgogi 

• 700 grams of boneless ribeye steak
• 1 small pear, peeled and coarsely shredded
• ¼ cup light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 4 cloves of minced garlic 
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon gochujang 
• 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
• 2 sprigs of chopped green onions 
• 1 teaspoon of white toasted sesame seeds

 

Steps to follow for the bulgogi recipe

Wrap the steak in plastic wrap and freeze it for 2 hours. Remove the steak from the plastic wrap and cut it into thin slices like the size of streaky bacon. 

The bulgogi recipe marinade

Firstly, put the pear, ¼ cup light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, and 1 tablespoon gochujang in a big mixing bowl. The pear is used in this bulgogi beef recipe to tenderize the meat. If you were thinking of skipping it in your recipe, please think twice! 

You can use pineapple juice to tenderize the meat but you should use very little of it and you have to be careful with it. This is because pineapple juice or pineapples are a very strong tenderizer compared to the Asian pear that I used in this recipe. 

Then combine the soy sauce mixture and the beef in a large Freezer bag; marinate for 3 hours if you are in a rush or 12 hours for best results, rotating the bag frequently. The longer your marinating period is, the more the spices and flavors flow into your steak. 

However, you shouldn’t marinate your meat for longer than a day because the color of the meat could change in a bad way. 

Cooking the bulgogi

In a grill pan, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, place the meat in a single layer on the grill pan and cook for 2½  minutes on each side, rotating once, until browned and cooked through. With the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and steak, repeat the process.

However, bulgogi can be cooked with veggies on the stove pan or without vegetables on a barbecue grill. As you may expect, the aromas will differ slightly.

Pan-fried bulgogi (with veggies) will produce juices, which you may use to toss with a dish of boiled rice. This technique is used by many chefs. If you’re making bulgogi as a dinner prep, this approach works well.

Char-grilled bulgogi (on a bbq), on the other hand, will not build any juice since it will leak onto the grill plate, but the added flavor of slightly scorched charcoal, juice, and fat makes for an irresistibly pleasurable Korean bbq experience!

Conclusion

Lastly, if you wish, sprinkle with spring onions and sesame seeds before serving. This is quite optional.

Your bulgogi is ready to be served. 

If you loved following this recipe, be sure to check out our bibimbap Recipe.

If you have finished making your bulgogi, please take photos and send them to us. We will post them on our blog for the world to see how great you have become.