Korean Braised Beef Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim)

Braised Short Ribs or Galbi Jjim is a sweet, savory, healthy, and unhealthy dish all at the same time. It contains tender beef and vegetable chunks—all wholesome ingredients—in an addictive sauce. It’s so good you don’t realize you’ve already gone back for a second or third bowl of rice. Lol!

This stew gets a lot of its flavor profile from ingredients like carrots, radish, garlic, onion, ginger, pear, cinnamon, mushrooms, and chestnuts, so it’s a mix of naturally sweet, refreshing, and aromatic flavors that make it undoubtedly good!

Galbi Jjim is a very special Korean dish. We often serve this during Lunar New Year, Chuseok, or Birthdays mainly because it takes love, time, and effort to make. Every component, from the cleaning of the meat to shaping the veggies to presenting it beautifully, is done meticulously. But don’t let the prep intimidate you; once the hard work is out of the way, the stove does the rest. All that’s left to do is wait for that perfect, fall-off-the-bone tenderness.

The Short Ribs 

The meat used in this dish is bone-in beef short ribs, sliced into 2” x 3” cubes. Usually, this is available prepackaged at H Mart, or you can ask your local butcher for this kind of cut.  Recently, I’ve also seen boneless short rib cuts at Costco that are cheaper and will work too! Get a slab with a good amount of marbling so it remains tender and juicy when cooked. 

To prepare, trim excess fat, but don’t remove the silver skin to help keep the meat intact. Afterwards, the traditional way halmonis and ummas would prep is this is to soak the meat in water for a minimum of an hour. This way, you remove the iron, which can turn into impurities and have a metallic odor when cooked. 

The Galbi Jjim Sauce 

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For the sauce, it will sound like a lot of work because there are several ingredients used. But it is definitely worth it because the outcome is deep in all kinds of flavors! Some of the main things you need are… 

• Soy Sauce. Use regular soy sauce. I personally like Sempio, Kikkoman, or Lee Kum Kee. This will give umami and a beautiful color to the dish. 
• Brown Sugar. Brown sugar is the OG way to do it, but you can also use white sugar or sugar substitutes. It will balance all the saltiness from the soy sauce. 
• Cinnamon Stick. This helps make the broth richer in terms of sweetness and spice. 
• Korean Radish. The radish will add a refreshing taste to the broth. During the winter, Korean radishes are at their peak, so it’s the perfect time to use them. However, if that is not available, you can use regular radish in place of it. You add this to the sauce unchopped, and you can either discard it afterwards or chop and shape it into balls to add to the presentation of the dish.
• Scallions. You’ll throw the whole stalk in the broth to make it aromatic.
• Mirin. Mirin is essentially rice wine, but it can be substituted with any sweet cooking wine. This will help turn the sauce into a beautiful glaze and also help reduce any odor from the meat.
• Sake. Sake is a type of Japanese alcohol. While it is a common drink you pair with sushi and lightly fried dishes, it also goes well as an ingredient in any soy-based dishes. This helps intensify the flavor of the stew, making it richer and more complex. If you do not have sake, you can also use soju. 

Taking It Up A Notch 

One of the secrets to making a good galbi jjim is actually adding a blend of garlic, onion, ginger, and Korean pear. These have many purposes: They help tenderize the meat, eliminate any odor, and overall give deeper flavor to the broth. 

Galbi Jjim, the Asian Beef Stew 

In the West, there are a lot of spices used in making beef stew. By contrast, we personally like adding several things that are more common in Asian cooking. 

• Carrots. This will add natural sweetness to the broth. We like to shape these into spheres to match the shape of the chestnuts and make the dish pretty, but chopping them into chunks will also do.
• Jujubee. These are dried dates, which are commonly used in soup dishes like Samgyetang. It will also add natural sweetness and nutrients to the broth.
• Mushrooms. For this dish, you can actually use either shiitake or shimeji mushrooms. These will give a deeper umami flavor to the dish. Simply slice this into strips to prepare.
• Chestnuts and Other Types of Nuts (Pine, Ginko, etc). Nuts may be unusual in soups, but they actually give underlying sweetness, earthiness, and nuttiness to the dish. 

When you boil all these ingredients together for a whole hour, the flavors will meld, resulting in a sweet, savory, and succulent sauce. Besides that, ingredients like the radish, carrots, jujubee, mushrooms, and chestnuts all soak in that sauce, making it tender, delicious, and super hearty! You can also add some potatoes, they’re also very delicious vessels for the sauce!

Making the Best Korean Braised Short Ribs 

First, you need to prepare the meat by washing and soaking it, then prepare the aromatics and vegetables, and then line up the sauce ingredients.

Once all the prep is out of the way, place the meat in a big pot, then add water, the sauce ingredients, and the blended aromatics. Place this on high heat and bring to a rapid boil. Once boiling, bring the heat to medium to simmer for around 45 minutes. At the 20-minute mark, add the carrots, jujubee, mushrooms, and chestnuts, then continue simmering.

One of the key things I learned when cooking this up is timing. The perfect galbi jjim is when the meat is fork-tender, but at the same time, still intact. That is why I highly recommend you boil it only for an hour (if using boneless) or 1 hour 15 minutes (if using bone-in).

Another one is to make the dish look pretty. Remove any scum that may float on top as it boils to keep the broth clear. Then, once the stew is cooked, drain the sauce into another bowl so you can remove the cinnamon stick, scallions, peppercorns, etc. That way, it’s appealing to the sight, smell, and taste. Perfect!

Once the sauce is drained, you have the option to keep it thin and saucy, or you can boil it a little bit longer to thicken it up and turn it into a shiny glaze. Either way, plate the meat and vegetables, boil the sauce separately until the preferred consistency is reached, and pour it back into the meat before serving. 

Serving Galbi Jjim 

Galbi Jjim is served with rice and napa cabbage kimchi or radish kimchi, hands down. The rice perfectly absorbs the sauce, and the kimchi would cut through all the savor. For any leftovers, this is one of those dishes that tastes better overnight. Just keep it in a clean container in the fridge.

Other Korean stews you might like:

• Spicy Chicken Stew
• Korean Braised Pork Ribs
• Korean Braised Oxtail
• Soft Tofu Stew
• Kimchi Stew

Make sure to leave a rating, a comment, or tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok when you chop them up! Yeobosayo! 

Posted By: Chef Chris Cho · In: Beef, Classic Korean Dishes, Korean Holiday Recipes, Main Dishes, Non-Spicy, Soups and Stews