Traditionally made with thinly sliced sirloin or ribeye, this high protein shortcut version makes bulgogi with ground beef. All it takes is one pan and about 20 minutes to prepare. And the recipe includes an awesome kimchi sauce, low carb rice blend, and other Korean side dishes (banchan) for making awesome bulgogi bowls.
Bulgogi with Ground Beef?
Did you know bulgogi translates to “fire meat” in English? With traditional Korean bulgogi, slices of meat are marinated before grilling or searing in a hot pan. Using ground beef allows you to skip the time in a marinade and cook the sauce right in the pan with the beef.
The bulgogi sauce itself is pretty similar to a traditional bulgogi marinade. There’s a bit of gochujang, soy sauce, garlic and ginger, honey or brown sugar, and rice vinegar.
That covers four out of the five tastes—salty, sweet, sour, and umami. Bitter is the only one missing, in case you’re wondering. And that’s why I like to serve this ground beef bulgogi with roasted Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or a bitter vegetable.
Speaking of sides, let’s talk more about banchan. As a final note before we get to sides, I’ll mention that if you don’t have all the sauce ingredients, you could use a pre-made option like the Kevin’s Korean BBQ sauce in my Korean BBQ rotisserie chicken recipe.
Side Dishes for Bulgogi
The star of the show with these Korean beef bowls, in my opinion, is the creamy kimchi sauce. I recently stumbled upon these crispy brussels sprouts that included a blended kimchi sauce and loved the idea. It reminded me of the Japanese-style yum yum sauce in my reader-favorite teriyaki beef bowls.
It’s super easy to make. All you do is toss some kimchi in a food processor with a bit of light mayo, gochujang, honey, and water. You could get creative with other add-ins and seasoning to taste, but I think this combo gets the job done.
And speaking of a blended sauce, I have a new recipe for high protein gochujang noodles that combine instant knife cut noodles with blended cottage cheese and gochujang. That would be a great base for this beef!
In addition to the kimchi sauce, I’ve included instructions in the recipe card below for making a lower calorie rice option, pickled carrots, a few other sides like the cucumber crunch salad from my Korean turkey bowls and roasted broccoli from my firecracker ground bison bowls.
You could also use the strategy of pan roasting broccoli or cauliflower before cooking the ground beef like in my chili crunch ground beef and cauliflower recipe for a one pan solution.
One of my favorite things about Korean cooking is the creative use of vegetables and produce just hanging out in your refrigerator. Click here to check out 15 more Korean side dish ideas like my gochugaru roasted sweet potatoes.
My recipe makes two pounds of beef with enough kimchi sauce to cover however many bowls you decide to make with all the possible sides. Forgive me for not calculating the nutrition facts of every possible combination. I guess that’s a pro and con of such a versatile recipe.
If you have any questions about nutrition facts, ingredient swaps, sides, or building bowls for meal prep, leave them in the comments at the bottom of this post. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this ground beef bulgogi recipe!
Ground Beef Bulgogi Bowls with Creamy Kimchi Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Extra Lean Ground Beef
- 1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 1 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Oil
- 4 cloves Garlic, crushed or minced
- 2 teaspoons Crushed Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 3-4 Scallion Greens, cut into 2″ pieces
For the Kimchi Sauce
- 1/2 cup 4 oz Kimchi with Juices
- 1/4 cup Light Mayo
- 1 Tablespoon Gochujang
- 1 Tablespoon Honey
- 2 Tablespoons Water
Instructions
- Add all the kimchi ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Refrigerate while preparing the beef.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, brown the ground beef on one side for 4-5 minutes before breaking apart and fully cooking.
- While the beef cooks, mix the bulgogi sauce ingredients together.
- Add the sauce to the cooked beef and stir everything together. Cook for 3-4 minutes, untouched, until the sauce thickens and begins to caramelize on the bottom of the beef. Turn off the heat and fold in the scallion greens.
- Serve the beef over rice or in lettuce wraps with the kimchi sauce, toasted sesame seeds, and other sides (see notes for low carb rice blend, roasted broccoli, cucumber salad, and pickled carrots).
Made this tonight and my family loved it!! A little labor intensive but worth it. Definitely will be making this again and again!
This is one of my go-to meal prep recipes when I am trying to count macros and eat something that tastes really good at the same time! Since it makes 8 servings I store 4 in the fridge for the week and 4 in the freezer to eat sometime later on. Thank you for your recipes