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    Meat · Recipe · South Korea · Reference page

    Bulgogi

    불고기 (bulgogi)

    Very thin slices of beef marinated in soy sauce, garlic and sugar with puréed nashi pear and onion, then seared quickly on a hot plate. Koreans eat it wrapped in lettuce with rice and kimchi. The recipe is from SBS's Korean Food Safari.

    Bulgogi with thin beef slices,onion,spring onion,sesame and pine nuts on a white plate.
    Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.
    Servings
    4
    Preparation
    20 min
    Cooking
    10 min
    Resting
    30 min
    Total
    1 h
    Difficulty
    Easy

    Equipment

    • Blender or food processor for the pear and onion
    • Heavy frying pan, griddle or hot plate
    Servings4

    Ingredients

    • The beef and marinade

    • To cook and serve

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Mix the beef with the soy sauce, water, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. Purée the pear and chopped onion and stir them into the beef. Marinate for about 30 minutes.

      Why The pear and onion purée sweetens the marinade and helps tenderise the thin slices.

      Timer · 30 min30:00

    2. Just before cooking, stir the sesame oil through the meat.

    3. Heat a heavy pan until very hot and add a little oil. Sear the beef, in batches if needed, for about 3 minutes, adding some of the marinade towards the end so it does not dry out.

      Timer · 3 min3:00

    4. Add the sliced onion and spring onion and cook 1 minute more.

      Timer · 1 min1:00

    5. Scatter with sesame seeds, pine nuts and chilli and serve at once with lettuce leaves, steamed rice and condiments.

    To drink & serve with

    • Wrap a slice in lettuce with a little rice and kimchi. SBS notes it is polite to eat the parcel in one bite.

    Substitutions

    • Nashi pear → A ripe ordinary pear or a grated apple.
    • Soy sauce (gluten-free) → Tamari.

    Common mistakes

    • Slicing the beef thickly: it will not cook in 3 minutes and stays chewy.
    • Marinating for many hours with pear: the meat can turn mushy.

    Storage & reheating

    Best eaten at once. Cooked leftovers: refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days.

    Safety

    Contains soy, gluten (most soy sauces contain wheat) and sesame. The pine-nut garnish is not one of the EU's 14 allergens, but some people react to it.

    Allergens

    Soy · Gluten · Sesame

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Dietary

    dairy-free

    Korea's best-known dish abroad

    The Korean government's website Korea.net reports that bulgogi was the most popular Korean dish among non-Korean tourists in a survey by the Korea Tourism Organization. Thinly sliced marinated beef is usually grilled with vegetables and its juices, though in Gwangyang and Eonyang it is grilled without them. For the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics a "modern bulgogi" of marinated beef patties was chosen as one of ten official dishes; its marinade also uses pear, onion, garlic and soy sauce.

    [1]

    Fruit in the marinade

    The Food Safari recipe purées nashi pear and onion into a soy, garlic and sugar marinade. The fruit sweetens the beef and helps tenderise it; the sesame oil goes in only just before cooking. The slices are so thin that three minutes in a very hot pan is enough, with a splash of marinade at the end to keep them glossy.

    [2]

    How it connects

    Place

    • origin South Korea In preparation

    Cut

    Recipe

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