Korean Ground Beef Skillet is inspired by Bulgogi, a Korean dish featuring grilled steak flavored with sesame, ginger, garlic, sugar, and green onions. Translation: it's irresistible! This simple skillet dinner swaps steak with ground beef for a quick, weeknight-friendly dish.
“This was delicious, fast and easy. … My 13yo daughter especially loved it, will definitely be making this again. Passed the recipe on to a few friends too, thanks!”
Got a pack of ground beef in the fridge or freezer, and aren’t craving spaghetti or burgers? (Relatable).
Give ground beef new life with Korean Ground Beef Skillet – a 15 minute, flavor-packed recipe that can be served in lettuce cups as shown, or as heartier rice bowls.
I cannot emphasize enough how FAST this dish is put together, plus my family devours it!
Korean Bulgogi-Inspired Skillet Dinner
This easy skillet dinner is inspired by Bulgogi, a Korean dish made from sliced, grilled beef flavored with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, sugar, and green onions.
The contrasting, sweet and savory flavors are irresistible.
In this Bulgogi-inspired dish, grilled steak is replaced with ground beef for a more economical approach. Scoop the meat over white rice inside fresh lettuce cups, or over a heartier portion of rice in a bowl. Serve with lots of kimchi and spicy mayo.
Either way you can’t go wrong!
Try Cheeseburger Bombs
How to Make Korean Ground Beef
Step 1: Brown the ground beef.
Start by adding ground beef to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season with pepper then saute until the beef is cooked halfway through.
Next, add chopped green onions then continue to saute until the beef is fully cooked. Drain the meat if necessary then return it to the skillet.
Step 2: Add the sauce.
Next, drizzle in a mixture of:
- Low-sodium gluten-free Tamari (or soy sauce if not GF)
- Sesame oil
- Sugar (either granulated or coconut sugar)
- Garlic
- Rice vinegar
- Chili garlic sauce OR Siracha
- Ground ginger
- Toasted sesame seeds
Saute the ground beef in the sauce until it’s absorbed most of it, 1-2 minutes, then turn off the heat.
Scoop the ground beef over cooked white rice inside fresh lettuce cups or over bowls of white rice. Garnish with Kimchi (I love Cleveland Kitchen brand) and a drizzle of spicy mayo made from mixing mayonnaise and Siracha, if you please.
Doesn’t get simpler!
However you serve it, I hope you love every bite of this incredibly easy and delicious dish. Enjoy!
More Easy Ground Beef Dinner Ideas
- Gluten-Free Cheeseburger Bombs
- Crunchy Taco Hamburger Helper
- Beef and Veggie Enchilada Skillet
- Easy Ground Beef Stroganoff
- American Goulash
- Ground Beef Enchiladas
- Oven-Baked Burgers
- Big Mac Salad
- Cheeseburger Quesadillas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- pepper
- 2 green onions, chopped
For the sauce:
- 1/4 cup gluten-free reduced-sodium Tamari, or soy sauce if not GF
- 2 Tablespoons granulated OR coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Siracha OR Chili Garlic Sauce, or more or less
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
For serving:
- 1 head butter or Boston Bibb lettuce, leaves separated, optional
- Cooked white rice
- Kimchi, Cleveland Kitchen brand recommended
- Spicy mayo, made from mixing mayo with Siracha
Directions
For the sauce:
- Add the ingredients into a small mixing bowl then whisk to combine and set aside.
For the beef:
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat then add the ground beef, season with pepper, and brown until the beef is cooked halfway through. Add the green onions then continue to saute until the beef is fully cooked. Drain if necessary then return to the skillet.
- Pour the sauce into the skillet then stir to combine and cook until the beef has absorbed nearly all the sauce, 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
- Scoop cooked rice into bowls or inside fresh lettuce cups then scoop the beef mixture on top. Serve with kimchi and spicy mayonnaise if desired.
Notes
- Estimated nutritional information is the for the beef only.
- This recipe was updated in May 2026 to simplify the cooking process, and add a splash of rice vinegar to the sauce.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Tried this recipe/dish multiple times and we love it. I try to avoid beef and pork and substituted it with ground turkey and chicken for a healthier option. I just added more chili garlic sauce to give it some more kick since we love spicy food. We also added some ghost pepper oil separately since my husband and I have high threshold for spiciness. Also used Artisan lettuce romaine for crunchiness and texture. But even just following the measurement of this recipe, it is super delicious without alterations!!!
The other thing I like about this dish as well is that it is so fast to prepare! This is definitely our go-to dish for dinner especially on weekdays when we are so tired from work.
I’m so glad you love this dish and are able to make it your own!!
I make these WEEKLY! So good! I double the sauce recipe and use 1lb ground beef, fresh ginger, about 3 cups shredded cabbage and carrots. I skip the whole “wrapping” part and just do bowls with shredded lettuce, jasmine rice and filling. My kids and husband love them!
I made these with turkey and they were outstanding.
What a fantastic dish; I’ll be trying it out this weekend.
Very tasty and easy! The family loved.
About how many people does this serve?
This will serve 4. :)
Flavors are great! Only issue I had was the lack of sauce.
Turned out pretty dry.
DEEEELICIOUS! entire family gobbled it up. chopped up some carrots, cucs and cabbage to add to the wraps. Thanks for yet another winner dinner :-)
These were so good and easy to make. I used fresh ginger and topped it with diced avocado.
This recipe is AMAZING, I have made it at least 10 times since first finding it. I have tweaked it slightly by adding sriracha to the sauce and on top of the final product. If you like a good kick, definitely try that!
I have enjoyed a few recipes from Iowa Girl. This one fell short. I followed the recipe exactly and while it was okay, it was missing the depth of flavor that I expected. I think it needs some doctoring!
This was delicious! I doubled the garlic chili sauce amount because our family prefers some heat. Great flavor, easy to make. This will become a part of our dinner rotation – great for the soccer, baseball, busy practice nights!
I had a dinner to make for the most picky bunch of eaters I have ever encountered; I chose this recipe under the assumption that they couldn’t compare it to anything else they’d had (the dreaded “that’s not how my mom makes it!”) Lol The looks I got about dinner being wrapped in lettuce…. (“eewww… it’s not like cabbage rolls is it?!?”) were not encouraging, and I wasn’t sure they’d even try it. But miracles do happen, they all tried it, and for the FIRST TIME EVER, we all immensely enjoyed our meal – so much so, that I was specifically asked to save the recipe!! Totally awesome! Thank you SO much!
Cannot tell you how happy it makes me to hear this, Honesty!! Thank you so much for sharing, and for your recipe rating and review! I really appreciate it!