Korean Brief Ribs Recipe (Galbi)

The trick to this Korean quick ribs recipe is to marinate thinly minimize beef ribs in our savory-sweet soy marinade, then cook dinner them on a sizzling grill or grill pan till they’re caramelized and a bit bit charred.

Adam is obsessive about Korean-style ribs. Additionally referred to as beef Galbi, these are thinly sliced beef quick ribs that take in all the flavour from the marinade and cook dinner in just some minutes on the grill. You get these excellent caramelized, charred edges that we are able to’t get sufficient of.

The Galbi marinade is so much like our go-to bulgogi marinade, simply with a bit additional brown sugar, an onion, and extra aromatics for an genuine taste. That is one among our favourite methods to deliver Korean BBQ flavors into our personal kitchen, and you may completely do it at dwelling, too!

Key Elements

• Flanken Ribs: For this recipe, you’ll need thinly sliced quick ribs. Someplace between 1/4-inch and three/4-inch thick is ideal. The skinny minimize means they grill up tremendous quick. Once you’re buying, search for packages labeled “flanken ribs,” “Korean-style ribs,” or “LA-style beef quick ribs.” Simply be certain they’re minimize throughout the bone, so that you get 3 to 4 little spherical bones in every bit.
• Soy Sauce: That is the bottom of our marinade. We often go for low-sodium soy sauce, however low-sodium tamari works nice, too.
• Rice Wine Vinegar: Search for unsweetened rice vinegar (often with a inexperienced bottle cap or label).
• Sesame Oil: Toasted sesame oil provides a stunning, toasty, wealthy taste to the ribs.
• Brown Sugar and Honey: We actually love each for this. The mix makes our beef style extra attention-grabbing and complicated. The honey additionally caramelizes superbly. We use the identical mixture when making beef bulgogi, one other Korean-inspired recipe.
• Black Pepper: We use lots of black pepper on this recipe. I hand-grind mine, so it must be price it. Belief me, it’s! One teaspoon is excellent.
• Garlic and Ginger: I all the time go for recent garlic. For ginger, you should utilize recent ginger root or seize ginger puree from the shop (refrigerated or frozen each work).
• Pear: That is the key ingredient in lots of Korean marinades. It provides sweetness and helps tenderize the meat. We search for Asian, Korean, or Nashi pears, however in the event you can’t discover these, a ripe Bosc or Anjou pear works simply nice.
• Lettuce, Rice, and Sides: To make it a full meal, we serve these ribs with steamed rice and lettuce leaves for wrapping. Don’t overlook the banchan (little sides) like kimchi or spicy cucumber salad, and a little bit of ssamjang, the savory Korean dipping sauce that ties all of it collectively.

Discover the total recipe with measurements beneath.

Make Korean Brief Ribs at Residence

Tip 1: Put together the ribs. You probably have thin-cut flanken ribs which can be 3/8-inch or thinner, skip this tip. If, nonetheless, you possibly can solely discover thicker-cut ribs (say 1/2-inch), stick round. The thinner the ribs, the extra tender they end up, so in case you are sitting there with a thicker minimize, it’s a good suggestion to seize a meat mallet (a dual-sided one with the spiked tooth on one facet). Lay every rib flat, then calmly pound the meat utilizing the sharp facet. This helps break up connective tissue, making the meat extra tender in the long run.

Notice: Ribs thicker than 1/2-inch gained’t have the identical outcomes, even with the meat mallet.

Tip 2: Make our galbi marinade. We like utilizing our meals processor to make the marinade. If you happen to don’t have one, you may make this marinade by hand, however a meals processor makes actually fast work of it. Toss every little thing in and hit pulse till largely easy. If you happen to’re doing it by hand, you’ll mince the garlic, finely grate the ginger with a microplane, then grate the pear and onion with a field grater.

Tip 3: Marinate in a single day. If you’re quick on time, you possibly can minimize the marinating time down a bit, however for the most effective outcomes, we extremely advocate leaving the ribs within the marinade in a single day.

As soon as made, pour the marinade over your ribs, then therapeutic massage them and transfer them round within the marinade so the entire beef is nicely lined. Cowl the bowl, then refrigerate. You probably have the prospect, return a few times and transfer the ribs round a bit to ensure every little thing remains to be nicely coated.

Tip 4: Grill the ribs. At a Korean barbecue restaurant, there’s usually a grill proper in the midst of the desk the place you possibly can shortly sear/grill the ribs. At dwelling, we use our out of doors grill or a heavy-bottomed grill pan over medium-high warmth.

If cooking on a grill pan, add a bit oil, then cook dinner the marinated ribs in batches, holding one layer of ribs within the pan at a time (stacking too many without delay will steam the meat slightly than caramelize and brown it).

Our Favourite Solution to Serve Korean Ribs

We love serving these family-style subsequent to rice, large lettuce leaves, kimchi, and ssamjang (a savory dipping sauce — look close to gochujang in Korean markets or extra internationally pleasant grocery shops). Fairly often, after we’re out at a Korean BBQ place, we’ve seen folks utilizing kitchen shears to chop the grilled beef from the bones, then take the meat and construct their chew. You probably have some available, attempt it! It does make eradicating the meat from the bones simple. In any other case, simply get in there!

Extra of Our Favourite Beef Recipes