30-Minute Korean Beef

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One of my favorite meals was slow cooked Korean Beef Short Ribs.  They are delicious, fall off the bone tender, but they take close to 10 hours to cook in the crock pot and beef short ribs can get pricey.  I knew there had to be another way to capture those flavors for less money and in a lot less time.  Armed with 2lbs of ground beef and a frying pan, I created this amazingly fast and delicious Korean Beef.

Korean Beef comes together in the amount of time it takes my rice cooker to cook the rice – a total of about 20-30 minutes!  Its perfect for those busy scout nights, or nights where my husband gets home late from work and we don’t feel like ordering takeout.

Korean Beef

Start your Jasmine rice in the rice cooker.

Heat a large frying pan, and then brown off two pounds of ground beef.  Use a large wooden spoon to make sure the beef crumbles and gets browned, not just cooked through.

Drain the beef, and remove it from the frying pan.  I like to put it in a colander so as much of the fat as possible drains off while I am building the sauce.

Put your frying pan back on low heat.  Add the brown sugar, ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, red pepper flake, and low sodium soy sauce to the pan.  Stir until the brown sugar is dissolved, and the sauce begins to thicken slightly.  Reintroduce the beef crumbles to the pan, and stir to coat.  Cover the pan, and allow to cook on low until your rice is finished, about 3-5 minutes.

Serve your Korean Beef over Jasmine rice, and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.  

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Korean Beef

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 4-6 cloves finely minced garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp red pepper flake
• sesame seeds & green onion - garnish
• 6 servings Jasmine rice

Instructions

1. Start your Jasmine rice in the rice cooker.
2. Heat a large frying pan, and then brown off two pounds of ground beef. Use a large wooden spoon to make sure the beef crumbles and gets browned, not just cooked through.
3. Drain the beef, and remove it from the frying pan. I like to put it in a colander so as much of the fat as possible drains off while I am building the sauce.
4. Put your frying pan back on low heat. Add the brown sugar, ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, red pepper flake, and low sodium soy sauce to the pan. Stir until the brown sugar is dissolved, and the sauce begins to thicken slightly. Reintroduce the beef crumbles to the pan, and stir to coat. Cover the pan, and allow to cook on low until your rice is finished, about 3-5 minutes.
5. Serve your Korean Beef over Jasmine rice, and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.