Korean BBQ Seasoning
by This post may contain affiliate links.
Get ready to take your meals to the next level with this bold and flavorful Korean BBQ Seasoning recipe! Packed with a delicious blend of sweet, spicy, and smoky spices like garlic, ginger, brown sugar, and gochugaru chili powder, this homemade seasoning mix adds instant Korean-inspired flavor to beef, chicken, pork and veggies. It’s easy to make in just 5 minutes and you can use it as a dry rub, to make a marinade, or add flavor to Korean bbq sauce.
Why you’ll love this seasoning
Inspired by the popularity of my Korean BBQ Sauce, I made this Korean BBQ seasoning with similar ingredients. It has a great balance of sweet, savory and spicy flavors, and if you want to eliminate the sweet and bring the heat, I’ll show you how!
This spice blend has become one of my go-to dry rubs for grilling chicken, smoking ribs and seasoning Korean BBQ burgers. It has great flavor and is a fun new bbq rub to try for summer. Here’s why I love this seasoning and know that you will too!
- It’s a new spin on a bbq dry rub. If you want to mix things up when grilling meat, seafood or veggies, try this bbq rub to add a unique and delicious flavor to anything you grill, or toss on the smoker!
- It’s easy to mix up in minutes. You only need 5 minutes to mix it up and you can keep it in the pantry for up to 6 months. It’s great to have on hand when you want to add bold flavor to a meal.
- It’s versatile. You can easily eliminate the sugar to make it a keto-friendly, sugar-free dry rub. You can also amp up the spice if you want to make a spicy Korean bbq seasoning.
Ingredients
Here I explain the best ingredients for this Korean BBQ seasoning recipe, what each one does, and substitution options. For the exact ingredient measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Gochugaru chili powder – this Korean chili powder can be found at Asian markets or you can purchase gochugaru online. It comes in different textures including fine ground, coarse ground and flakes. For this recipe, I recommend using the fine ground chili powder, as it will blend best with the other ingredients and make a nice textured dry rub. This chili powder is mild on the spice scale. It’s hotter than paprika, but much more mild than cayenne pepper. If you want to make a hot Korean bbq seasoning, you can add cayenne powder to the mix.
- Brown sugar
- Smoked paprika – this spice, combined with the gochugaru powder, adds a wonderful smoky flavor to the spice blend.
- Garlic powder (or granulated garlic) – the only difference between granulated garlic and garlic powder is that the powder has been ground finer, than the granulated garlic. I prefer to use granulated garlic because it’s less likely to clump over time, than garlic powder.
- Ground ginger
- Salt – I prefer either kosher salt or sea salt, over table salt, because of their coarse texture and superior flavor.
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl.
- Store in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 6 months.
Easy as that, you have a flavorful Korean bbq seasoning, ready to season all your favorite recipes!
Recipe notes
If I’m using this seasoning in a recipe where I’m also using Korean BBQ sauce, I eliminate the brown sugar in the seasoning blend because the sauce is already on the sweet side.
When I’m using the spice rub in a recipe without the sauce and want it to have a sweet element, I stick with the original recipe that includes brown sugar.
If you want to spice up the seasoning blend, add a tablespoon of cayenne pepper to the original blend with the brown sugar. If you’re eliminating the brown sugar, I would only recommend adding a teaspoon of cayenne pepper so that it doesn’t overwhelm the seasoning mix.
I recommend storing the seasoning mix in an 8 ounce mason jar, which will keep the dry rub fresh for up to 6 months. After that the spice blend will not “go bad” but as spices sit longer, they begin to lose their flavor.
Ways to use it
Use it as a dry rub on chicken, ribs, pork, steak, tofu, and seafood. It’s perfect for rubbing on any meat before tossing it on the grill, or in a smoker. Try it on this Grilled Korean BBQ Chicken recipe. Or use it to season air fryer chicken wings or smoked chicken wings before cooking.
I recommend using 1 ½ tablespoons of barbecue seasoning per pound of meat or veggies that you want to season.
Use it to make a Korean bbq marinade. Combine 2 tablespoons of the Korean bbq seasoning with ¼ cup oil, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and 2 tablespoons soy sauce. Marinate up to 2 pounds of meat for at least 15 minutes, or up to 8 hours.
This is perfect for marinating thinly sliced sirloin, flank steak, or skirt steak and making bulgogi. You can also use it to marinate beef short ribs for Galbi.
Add 3 tablespoons of the seasoning mix to this homemade Korean BBQ Sauce to give it even more flavor.
Season this Korean BBQ Beef to make lettuce wraps, tacos or bowls.
Add 1 tablespoon of the Korean bbq rub to ground beef when making these Korean BBQ Burgers. (Pictured below.)
More homemade seasonings
Stock your pantry with the most popular homemade seasoning recipes on the blog to add flavor to every meal!
Korean BBQ Seasoning
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons gochugaru chili powder, click the link to purchase it online or find it in Asian markets in the US
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar, optional – see notes below
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and store in the pantry for up to 6 months.
Notes
- This recipe makes 15 tablespoons of seasoning mix. If you’d like to make a double batch of the seasoning, simply click the 2X button above. The ingredient amounts will automatically update to accommodate the new serving size.
- You can leave the brown sugar out of the seasoning blend if you prefer a spice mix thats more savory and spicy than sweet.
- To make the spice mix into a marinade, refer to the blog post above for the full ingredient list and instructions.
Nutrition Facts
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
