A truly easy recipe for very tasty Korean beef. There’s no need to marinate the beef! Simply stir fry, add the yummy sauce and serve.
This easy recipe is ready in just 30 minutes, making it perfect for a weeknight dinner.
It’s made with pre-sliced sirloin steak and it does not require marinating the beef. Simply stir-fry the meat, add the sauce, garnish and serve.
This recipe is so easy to make!
I love the flavors of Korean cooking and make this recipe quite often, but not just because it’s so tasty.
This Korean beef recipe is a truly easy recipe, one of the easiest and quickest in my repertoire. (Another good one, and a variation on this recipe, is Korean ground beef).
I have several stir fry recipes on this blog (this beef stir fry is excellent), but most require me to prep vegetables. It’s not that adding veggies to a dish is a bad thing. But when truly pressed for time, I really appreciate how easy this recipe is.
The ingredients used in this recipe
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this tasty Korean beef. The exact amounts are listed in the recipe card below.
Soy sauce: I use reduced-sodium soy sauce in most of my recipes. I find that traditional soy sauce is too salty. Obviously, you can also use a gluten-free alternative.
Honey: Adds just a touch of sweetness. Even with the honey, a serving of this recipe only has 9 grams of carbs. But you can try using a sugar-free alternative.
Cornstarch: Helps to thicken the sauce without adding too many carbs, since I only use 1 tablespoon.
Spices: Crushed red peppers, garlic, and ginger. Make sure they are fresh! A stale spice can easily ruin a dish.
Avocado oil: I like using this neutral-tasting cooking oil that has a high smoke point.
Beef sirloin: You can splurge and use beef tenderloin, which is more tender but also more expensive. But sirloin works just fine.
For garnish: Green onions, sesame seeds, and sesame oil.
What meat to use?
To make this recipe as easy as can be, I like to use pre-sliced sirloin (sold in trays and marked as “beef for stir fry”). Of course, it’s fine to simply buy sirloin steaks and slice them yourself.
Sirloin is appropriate for this recipe because it’s lean, and while it’s not super tender, it’s also not overly tough. So you can get away with not marinating it.
You can splurge with tenderloin, which would be very tender, but also very expensive. I almost always go with sirloin.
How to make Korean beef
As I said, it’s so easy. Here are the basic steps. The detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
1. Start by whisking together a tasty sauce, made with soy sauce and honey.
2. Brown the beef in avocado oil, then add the garlic and ginger.
3. Add the sauce and cook until it thickens.
4. Garnish the dish with green onions, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Then serve!
How to serve this dish
Traditionally, you would serve it o a bed of white rice. But we’re trying to keep it low-carb here. If you serve it on a bed of cauliflower rice, you don’t even need to feel bad about the lack of vegetables in this dish! You can also mix it into cooked shirataki noodles.
How to keep the leftovers?
You can keep leftovers in the fridge, in a sealed container, for 3-4 days. Reheat them gently, covered, in the microwave on 50% power. This is one of those dishes that actually keeps quite well. Just make sure you reheat it gently – you don’t want to dry out the meat.
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Korean Beef
INGREDIENTS
Sauce:
- 1/3 cup reduced sodium soy sauce (or use a gluten-free alternative and add salt as needed)
- 2 tablespoons honey*
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers
Stir-fry:
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 2 lb. beef sirloin cut into strips
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
Topping:
- 1/4 cup green onions green parts only, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, honey, cornstarch and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced beef. Stir-fry the beef until browned, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, 1 more minute.
- Add the soy sauce mixture. Reduce the heat to medium and stir-fry until the beef is well coated and the sauce has thickened, about 2 minutes.
- Turn the heat off. Spoon the Korean beef and the pan juices into plates or bowls. Top with the green onions and sesame seeds, drizzle with the sesame oil, and serve.
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NOTES
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, Reader's Digest, and Better Homes and Gardens.