Easy Bulgogi
This is my mom’s bulgogi recipe! She usually cooks entirely by taste and instinct, so what you’re seeing here is one of the rare cases she actually wrote something down. Bulgogi is one of the most well known Korean dishes there is.
- 2.2 lb thinly sliced beef for bulgogi
- 1 thinly sliced
- 1/2 carrot (thinly sliced or julienned)
- green onions (cut into pieces)
- shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
- 100 ml soy sauce (adjust to taste)
- 3 tbsp oligo syrup/ corn syrup/ or mulyeot (can replace with more sugar, adjust to taste)
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp garlic (minced)
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
- black pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 onion (grated/blended)
- Prep the beef: Pat the bulgogi beef dry with a kitchen towel to remove any blood. Set aside.
- Make the marinade: In a bowl combine soy sauce, oligo syrup, sugar, minced garlic, mirin, sesame oil, a generous amount of black pepper, and grated or blended onion. Mix well. Taste it — it should taste strong and savory. If it seems bland add a little more soy sauce.
- Marinate: Add the beef to the marinade and massage everything together until every piece is well coated. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes — a few hours is better, overnight is best.
- Prep the vegetables: Thinly slice the onion, carrot, shiitake mushrooms, and green onion. Set aside separately if you're doing it my mom's way, or mix into the beef if you're going the convenient route.
- Cook: Heat a pan or grill pan over medium-high heat. If you're keeping the vegetables separate cook the beef first in batches — don't crowd the pan or it'll steam instead of sear. Once the beef is almost cooked through add the vegetables and cook together until everything is done. If you mixed the vegetables in with the marinade just cook everything together from the start.
- Serve: Serve immediately over steamed white rice, with lettuce wraps and banchan on the side, or however you like it.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- My mom’s recipe — which automatically makes it the best version.
- That marinade — soy sauce, sesame oil, and grated onion create something sweet, savory, and deeply fragrant that soaks into the beef completely.
Bulgogi: Recipe That’s Been a Hit Since Elementary School
Bulgogi is comfort food in the truest sense. The kind of dish that shows up at family dinners, gets packed into lunchboxes, and is the first thing I think about when I’m craving something Korean and homey. The flavor profile is distinctly Korean in the best way: sweet from the syrup and sugar, savory and salty from the soy sauce, nutty and fragrant from the sesame oil, with a subtle warmth from the black pepper and a natural sweetness from the grated onion that also tenderizes the meat. This is the same recipe my mom has been making since I was in elementary school. She would make it for cultural potlucks at school and it was always the dish that disappeared first. I remember being so proud bringing it and watching my classmates go back for more. It’s one of those memories that’s completely tied to the smell and taste of this specific marinade, and every time I make it now it takes me right back.
