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Chef Chris Cho and his friend having a bulgogi ssam cheers — Bulgogi ssam cheers!

Beef Bulgogi is one of the most popular Korean dishes! Here I’ll teach you how to make it at home with common pantry ingredients and how to cook and present it like you are in a restaurant!

In Korean language, “Bul” means fire and “Gogi” means meat. When you’re saying bulgogi, it is literally fire meat! If you’ve ever had Korean BBQ, I am sure you’ve tried this out. More so, I am sure that you love how tender, sweet, and savory it is all at the same time.

When you go to Hmart or even big groceries, you can easily buy ready-to-use Bulgogi sauce or packaged beef with Bulgogi marinade. But seldom do people know that it is very easy to make with ingredients you already have at home. Moreover, it’s a true labor of love to make everything from scratch. Let’s go!

Homemade Bulgogi Sauce Recipe

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The bulgogi marinade is made up of simple ingredients such as

Soy Sauce. Amber-colored, filled with umami. This is going to be the base of our sauce. If you’re confused with the variety of soy sauce available in grocery stores, just get the light or regular soy sauce. Some brands that I like are Sempio and Kikkoman.
Sugar. The sweetness will balance the salty flavor of the soy sauce.
Sesame Oil. For a nutty and earthy finish, and always a great complement to soy-based sauce.
Garlic, Onion, and Korean Pear. The aromatics and the pear are natural flavors that will cut through the strong taste of the soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. For the pear, the Korean variant is what I recommend the most. If it’s not available, Asian pears or regular pears would do. The pear will give sweetness and acidity in terms of flavor, and it also stands as a tenderizer for the beef. These are what will make a difference in the bulgogi sauce.

Grating onion, garlic, and pears Korean grater — Grating ingredients in Korean grater

Traditionally (and I saw this from my mom too), the garlic, onion, and pear are grated with a Korean grater to fully extract the flavors and to thoroughly incorporate them into the rest of the sauce ingredients. I’ve tried doing it, and I enjoyed it because it is a labor of love. But you can also use a blender to make the process faster.

TIP: For best results, marinate the beef for 24 hours. If pressed for time, an hour will do. This is also great for meal prep. Make a big batch of sauce and beef to marinate, portion them, and store them in the freezer, so you can have bulgogi anytime!

What Cut of Beef?

The best cut of beef is thinly sliced ribeye or sirloin because these parts have marbling. The balance of meat and fat means they are more tender and juicy when cooked! Nevertheless, you can use the same marinade in beef mince or other cuts of beef that you have left over and want to level up!

How to Cook Bulgogi?

Beef Bulgogi in a hotplate — Beef Bulgogi

It shouldn’t take that long to cook bulgogi and there are two ways you can go about it:

Grilling. As seen in Korean BBQ, you can charcoal grill beef bulgogi directly. The reason why it always turns out so good is that as the marinade drips in the charcoal, the smoke that comes up will add more flavor to the beef.
Pan Frying. Personally, I like pan frying better because the marinade gets reduced, the fat will render from the beef, and it creates a wonderful sauce that I like to put on the rice.

TIP: When pan-frying beef, make sure to not overcook it so it doesn’t get tough. When 95% done, serve on a hot plate to still get that sizzle and grilled vibes.

How to Eat & What to Do with Leftover Bulgogi

Making a Korean BBQ ssam — Korean BBQ Ssam

The best way to serve beef bulgogi is with some freshly cooked rice where you drizzle all that sauce. On the side, you can have kimchi and other banchans, as well as some vegetables such as lettuce and sliced peppers. For the sauce, don’t forget the ssamjang! With these, you can make a ssam or bulgogi lettuce wraps.

Ssam is way of wrapping lettuce with layers of rice, kimchi, pepper, ssamjang, and of course bulgogi. Kinda like a Korean burrito, and you eat it all in one bite! Personally, though, I like pouring all the bulgogi sauce into the rice and just downing it like that.

For leftovers, you can use the remaining beef as a topping to Japchae and Bibimbap, or you can make it a filling for Kimbap or Bulgogi Quesadilla!

Other classic Korean recipes you may like:

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

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