Korean BBQ Short Ribs
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The most delicious homemade Korean BBQ sauce is tossed with boneless short ribs and either grilled or sous vide for a scrumptious and easy recipe for Korean BBQ Short Ribs.
When you make the best Korean BBQ sauce ever, you then put it on everything from Korean BBQ Chicken Pizza and Korean BBQ Grilled Salmon, to Korean BBQ Meatballs and Korean BBQ Chicken!
Today, I’m so excited to introduce my latest endeavor into the world of Korean BBQ goodness! For this recipe, I tossed boneless short ribs with the aforementioned best Korean BBQ sauce ever, then prepared them in two different ways.
The first preparation is a quick marinade and grill. This quick short rib recipe is easy to make in under 30 minutes.
For the second preparation I used my sous vide to cook the short ribs for four hours. This method takes longer, but is still very easy to prepare and results in a melt-in-your-mouth Korean BBQ Short Ribs recipe that you’re going to fall in love with!
Ingredients
- Brown sugar – the sweet base of the Korean bbq sauce.
- Soy sauce – the salty base of the Korean bbq sauce sauce. To make this recipe gluten free, use tamari instead of soy sauce. To make the recipe without gluten or soy, use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce or tamari.
- Rice vinegar
- Mirin – this is a Japanese cooking rice wine. It’s found in the Asian section of most grocery stores. It adds a slight sweetness, tang and umami flavor to the sauce. If you can’t find mirin, you can use additional rice vinegar in it’s place.
- Chili paste – sambal oelek is a spicy Asian paste made with a mixture of ground chilies. If you’d like to use a Korean chili paste instead, you can replace this chili paste with gochujang paste. This fermented red pepper chili paste is not as spicy as sambal oelek and will add a unique umami flavor to the sauce.
- Sesame oil
- Ground black pepper
- Fresh ginger – I always recommend keeping a knob of fresh ginger in an airtight container in the freezer. It’s so much easier to grate from frozen using a microplane, and you don’t even have to peel the ginger first!
- Fresh garlic cloves
- Cornstarch – to thicken the sauce.
- Beef short ribs – I used boneless ribs in this recipe, but you can also use bone-in if you prefer.
- Salt and black pepper – to season the ribs.
Instructions
Prepare the Korean BBQ Sauce.
- Add brown sugar, soy sauce, mirin, water, rice vinegar, chili paste, sesame oil, black pepper, garlic and ginger to a medium saucepan on the stove. Turn the heat on the stove up to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water to make a cornstarch slurry. Pour this mixture into the boiling sauce after 5 minutes. Whisk this mixture into the sauce until it’s fully combined. Reduce the heat on the stove to medium and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly.
Prepare the short ribs on a grill.
- Heat a grill over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the short ribs with salt and pepper, then toss with ⅓ cup Korean BBQ Sauce. Set the remaining sauce aside for serving.
- Grill the short ribs for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through the cook time. Remove from the grill and rest 5-10 minutes.
- Thinly slice the ribs against the grain and serve with the remaining Korean BBQ Sauce.
Or prepare the short ribs in a sous vide.
- Place each of the short ribs in it’s own airtight sealed plastic bag with about 2 tablespoons of the Korean BBQ Sauce. Toss to coat. Set the remainder of the Korean BBQ aside.
- Fill the sous vide machine with water to the fill line. Set the temperature at 130°F. Once the sous vide water has heated, place the short ribs in the sous vide rack .
- Since I don’t have a fancy vacuum sealer yet, I simply use the “water displacement method” of placing the airtight sealed bag with the short ribs in it, almost all of the way under the water, leaving just about an inch of the top of the bag open, the water will press out all of the air around the food in the bag, you can then seal the bag closed and place it down completely in the water.
- Cook for 4 hours in the sous vide.
- After removing the short ribs from the sous vide. Sear them on each side for 10-15 seconds in a cast iron skillet or grill pan over high heat.
- Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, thinly slice against the grain and serve with the remaining Korean BBQ Sauce.
I served this dish with Kimchi Fried Rice and Roasted Asian Vegetables, which were the perfect accompaniment to these flavorful Korean BBQ Short Ribs!
More Sous Vide recipes
Have you joined the wonderful world of Sous Vide cooking yet? If so, comment below with your favorite sous vide recipes! Be sure to check out these other recipes to make cook sous vide.
Korean BBQ Short Ribs
Ingredients
Korean BBQ Sauce
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups soy sauce, Tamari for gluten-free
- ½ cup mirin
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons chili paste
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon water
Short Ribs
- 4 boneless beef short ribs, 8 ounces each
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Prepare the Korean bbq sauce.
- In a large saucepan combine the first 11 ingredients of the BBQ sauce and bring to a boil on the stove over medium-high heat. Simmer for 5-7 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water. Add this mixture to the boiling sauce.
- Whisk to combine well, reduce heat to medium and cook 3-4 minutes. Turn the heat off and set the sauce aside.
Grill the short ribs.
- Heat a grill over medium-high heat.
- Sprinkle the short ribs with salt and pepper, then toss with 1/3 cup Korean BBQ Sauce. Set the remaining sauce aside for serving.
- Grill the short ribs for 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through the cook time. Remove from the grill and rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Thinly slice the ribs against the grain and serve with the remaining Korean BBQ Sauce.
Or sous vide the short ribs.
- Place each of the short ribs in it’s own airtight sealed plastic bag with about 2 tablespoons of the Korean BBQ Sauce, toss to coat. Set the remainder of the Korean BBQ aside.
- Fill the sous vide machine with water to the fill line. Set the temperature at 130°F.
- Once the sous vide water has heated, place the short ribs in the sous vide rack.
- Since I don’t have a fancy vacuum sealer yet, I simply use the “water displacement method” of placing the airtight sealed bag with the short ribs in it, almost all of the way under the water, leaving just about an inch of the top of the bag open, the water will press out all of the air around the food in the bag, you can then seal the bag closed and place it down completely in the water.
- Cook the short ribs for 4 hours in the sous vide.
- After removing the short ribs from the sous vide, sear them on each side for 10-15 seconds in a cast iron skillet or grill pan over high heat.
- Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, thinly slice against the grain and serve with the remaining Korean BBQ Sauce.
Nutrition Facts
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3 Comments on “Korean BBQ Short Ribs”
Could I freeze any leftover bbq sauce?
Yes, freeze it in any freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. To defrost, I recommend placing it in the fridge for 24 hours.
Yummmmm… looking tasty!!! Bringing it back to my roots! 😉