The other day, I found quite possibly the most luscious watermelon I’ve ever eaten in my life. And to me, good watermelon means one thing: summer is officially here. As much as I gripe about the heat and humidity in Louisiana, I’ve gotta say that I really do love summer–I love how laid-back our days are, I love my kids riding their bikes and jumping through the sprinklers and playing with water guns, swimsuits hanging in the bathroom to dry, and, most of all, summer food. Which for me mostly consists of lots of fruits and vegetables and lots of stuff cooked on the grill.
This traditional recipe for Korean BBQ Beef bears a strong resemblance to Sara’s Orange Thai Beef Skewers. And that’s good because I love the heck out of Sara’s recipe, so if you feel the same way about the orange beef ones, I bet you’ll love these ones as well. I just used a couple of sirloin steaks and made the marinade with stuff I had in the house:
The recipe calls for rice wine, which might be hard to find. You can also substitute pear juice (it’s very mild and neutral, more so than apple juice), but that can also be hard to find. Unless…you get one of those 4 oz. bottles of pear juice from the baby food section of the grocery store. It will cost you about .50 cents and you don’t even have to MEASURE it!
Anyway, you’ll want to slice your steak against the grain into slices that are about 1/4″ thick.
Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a large bowl and then add your steak. Let it stand at room temperature for about 1 hour or you can refrigerate it up to 8 hours.
Preheat your grill to about 400 degrees. Thread the steak pieces onto your skewers (pre-soak bamboo skewers for about 30 minutes before using them). Grill for about 3-4 minutes and then flip them and cook for another 3-4 minutes. You don’t want to burn them or even overcook them because they will taste vaguely like beef jerky.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately–I served mine with jasmine rice tossed with green onions and Kosher salt and some fruit. This serves about 4-6 people.
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Korean BBQ Beef
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6
Description
Traditional, simple sweet and savory Korean beef.
Ingredients
1 1/2 pound sirloin steak, cut against the grain into thin (about 1/4″) slices
1/2 cup rice wine or pear juice (One 4-counce bottle of pear juice from the baby food aisle is perfect and cheap)
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce (regular soy sauce makes it taste vaguely like beef jerky)
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon Sriracha chili sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
Combine wine or pear juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, chili sauce, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add sliced steak. Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator. Preheat the grill. While the grill is heating, thread the steak pieces onto bamboo skewers. Cook over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side, being careful not to let the meat get too cooked. Serve immediately; serves 4-6.
Questions & Reviews
Holy moly these are amazing!!! I don’t like sesame oil so I swapped it out for olive oil. That’s the only change I made. I’d never had sriracha before this recipe, and now I use it all the time. Oh goodness, I can’t say enough good things about this recipe! We even made these for our our Christmas Eve dinner, they are that good!
Amazing! I made these tonight, and they…were…AWESOME! They were treat for my hubby on the menu this week. I don’t usually like Asian food, but I had a second helping of these. 🙂
Thank you for another winner! 🙂
I just made this tonight and it was fantastic! My kids devoured it and they are really picky. Next time I will have to double it. THanks
Okay, so it's the middle of November, but I just found your blog (angels sing) and these were the first things I tried. DELICIOUS! Honestly, they are the best thing I've BBQ'd.
I substituted the rice wine/pear juice with apple juice I had on had. Turned out great!
Thanks for this recipe. It'll be added to our family's tried and true faves….
I was watching Grill It with Bobby Flay this morning and they were working with short ribs. The other person cooking with Bobby Flay did this exact recipe (well, almost exact). Here's her version
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/kalbi-korean-barbequed-beef-short-ribs-recipe/index.html
These were delicious except I wish I would have read the comment about soaking the skewers because I didn't and welp, they were charcoal. But the meat was tasty!
it smelled more korean than it tasted, but the taste was still amazing! even my picky eaters loved it!
MIne is marinating right now. A frugal supply of pear juice is the juice in which "lite" canned fruit is packed. Strained, it works well in marinades.
Made this last night and it was Delicious! The marinade smells heavenly. Thanks!
it looks great.
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Yum! I love Korean food! I actually took my family out (including my 92-year-old grandmother who's never had it) to Korean yesterday and they all loved the barbecue. I can't wait to try this recipe out!
I am so excited to try this one! I have always loved the Asian flavor especially the Korean food. So delicious.
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Wow, does this ever look good!
Oh YUM! I love this stuff! Thanks for the terrific recipe girls!!
HUGS!
gigi sent me over here, and i'm so
glad. yum!!!!!!
I can't wait to try these!! I have a student that is coming over from South Korea – this would help her not miss home so much!! How fun – thanks!!
Oh my gosh! I want these in my belly right now please! Thanks for sharing!
Yum! Thanks for sharing! All that is needed is possibly some sauteed veggies, kimchi, romaine lettuce leaves and some steamed rice. This could be a really easy summer way of recreated bulkogi.
This is perfect!! We just got about 5 lbs. of beef at the store Saturday night [on sale for $8+ from $22+] and were planning on a BBQ tonight and freezing the rest. 🙂
I am so ready for bbq season!
it looks great….a quick tip about wooden skewers, if you soak them in water for about an hour before skewering the meat the sticks won't turn black when you grill them!
Not really authentic, but it has the basic flavors down! I think sriracha really changes the flavor.
Short ribs are the real deal in terms of meat choice for at-home Korean BBQ!
These look so yummy!!!
wonderful,beautiful..