My mother's Korean and I make this dish quite frequently. This is a decent basic recipe but to make it your own consider these alterations as I use! Instead of sugar, use honey or kyro syrup. After the meat cooks for a while the sugar will help thicken the sauce and caramelize nicely. That adds the sweetness you HAVE to have. (Otherwise you're making plain stir fried beef Chinese style!) Definitely leave out the salt as that's what the soy sauce is for! To tenderize the meat so it's not stringy (if using a cheap cut of beef) mince up some Korean/Asian pear or kiwi and add that in there. My mom even uses Pepsi/Coke when we're out of fruit in the house and it works great! Plus it adds some additional sweetness. I'm lazy and use a mini food processor to mince my garlic and fruit together then add them both to the bowl. I never put in the extra vegetables, if I do use any I use sliced green onions for color only. Also, MSG isn't very good for you in large amounts so if you don't feel like using it leave it out. MSG adds a little more depth to the flavors without increasing the saltiness, so feel free to use it at your own discretion.
My father is Korean so I remember having this dish as a kid. We never put carrots in it so I left them out. I also omit the salt--the soy sauce already has plenty of salt and I used reduced sodium soy sauce at that. I added a bit more sugar to taste as I recall it to have a slightly sweet and salty taste. Also topped with fresh scallions when it was done and served it over hot white rice. Yum!
I worked at an authentic Korean restaurant, and this is BY FAR the closest recipe to the Bulgogi we made. At the restaurant, I first fried the beef and some marinade in a fry pan to get it nice and cooked. THEN, I would put it over the flames to give it that little bit of flame kissed goodness. One suggestion, try eating the beef with a little bit of fresh Pineapple. It's an amazing contrast.
Bravo though, this is a great recipe.
Delicious!! I used london broil sliced very thin. Tripled the marinade and used a reviewer suggestion and added seasoned rice vinegar (3 tablespoons 9 if you triple it). I cooked the beef in a large skillet added about a teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with a little warm water to the cooking beef/marinade and it gave a nice consistency. I also threw in Asian style frozen veggies and served over white rice. I've made this twice and I plan on keeping this as part of my 'main' dishes. I think this would also be excellent to try with chicken.
This is good stuff....I used chuck because chuck roasts were on sale that week. This recipe was almost exactly like my friend Son Chan makes but not quite. I asked her what the difference was between what she makes and this recipe and she says she puts vinegar in the marinade so I'll try that next time. My husband loves hers and said mine was pretty good but I couldn't expect to be a 5 star Korean cook right off the bat. I'll definitely be making this again but adding a bit of vinegar next time.
I was so glad to see this recipe... my Korean friend in college used to make this for parties but would never give me the recipe! Her recipe didn't contain veggies but I like the addition. Wonderful flavor and easy to prepare... thanks Paula!
THIS WAS AWESOME!!! I lived in Korea for a year and have been searching for a good Bulgogi recipe. Even my picky husband liked it and he hates "meat that doesn't taste like meat." The only modification I did was adding a bit more sugar and rice vinegar for personal taste. Also I cooked it on the stove because it was raining.
Was super good!!!!!! Didn't change a thing and wouldn't dream of doing so!!
Made this last night it was great. We cooked half the batch that was marinating for 3 hours and then cooked the rest later that had been marinating for 8 hours and the 8 hour batch tasted alot better! Big difference in taste. I also added 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar which is what I had to cut down on the saltiness. Ill be making this again for dinner.
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