Get dinner on the table in 20 minutes with these Korean Beef Tacos! A Mexican twist on the classic bulgogi recipe replaces the sliced steak with a ground beef & mushroom blend, then it’s piled into fresh tortillas with rice, veggies, kimchi, and a drizzle of sriracha!
Guess who’s on a taco kick?! I’m not even ashamed. And I don’t need a Tuesday for these Beef Bulgogi Tacos.
My pantry is starting to look like the international aisle at the grocery store. Between the vast number of Asian sauce and seasoning bottles and different sizes and types of tortilla shells in there, I could open a hybrid food truck and stock it for at least a couple of weeks.
…A hybrid food truck where these Mexican-Korean tacos would be welcomed and devoured with open arms.
This page includes step by step instructions, as well as tips and notes. If you’d like to skip all that, feel free to scroll down to the full, printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
These Korean ground beef tacos will change the way you look at tacos!
In case you haven’t noticed, I really love hybrid foods.
For some reason, mixing cuisines in dinner recipes is just so fun for me. Experimenting with flavors, seeing which ones work together and which don’t make for a fun day in the kitchen for me. And I have yet to hear Abe complain about any of my creations.
These tacos were a pretty big hit since he’s as big a taco fan as I am. We’ve really fallen for Korean cuisine in general since I fell down the k-pop and k-drama rabbit hole a few years ago. Bibimbap and gochujang salmon are some of our favorite easy dinners, when we don’t feel like pulling out the stops for a full round table BBQ.
The simple flavor of bulgogi tastes surprisingly delicious on tortillas and would be equally yummy (if not more sensical) on lettuce wraps for all you low-carb folks.
You could also just enjoy the blended Korean ground beef in a rice bowl and eat it with a fork if tacos aren’t your thing.
What is beef bulgogi?
Bulgogi literally means “fire meat”, a popular Korean dish made of thin, marinated slices of beef steak or pork grilled on a barbecue, or cooked on a stove-top griddle or in a wok. This recipe takes that marinade and turns it into a simmering sauce for the ground beef and mushroom blend.
The ingredients are few, and likely pantry staples in most adventurous households!
- Beef – usually some sort of thinly sliced steak, but in this recipe we’re using a blend of ground beef and portobello mushrooms.
- Low-sodium soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Sesame oil
- Fresh ginger
- Fresh garlic
- Black pepper
- Red pepper flakes
And since we’re making tacos here, you basically can choose any toppings you want! Grab some flour or corn tortillas or large butter lettuce leaves, then fill them with:
- Steamed white rice
- Kimchi
- Thinly sliced veggies, like red cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, jalapenos, radish, scallions
- Sriracha
How to make ground beef bulgogi tacos
This simple Asian fusion dinner is done in about 20 minutes!
- Whisk bulgogi sauce ingredients together in a small bowl; set aside.
- Heat a large wok over medium heat. Combine the ground beef, finely chopped mushrooms, and garlic and stir, cooking until browned, about 4-5 minutes. Drain if necessary.
- Reduce the heat to low. Pour the bulgogi sauce over the beef-mushroom blend and stir. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Serve the ground beef bulgogi in tortillas or lettuce wraps with steamed rice, kimchi, and sliced vegetables. Drizzle each taco with sriracha and enjoy.
An added bonus to these tacos (aside from the unique flavors) is how healthy they can be! Plus, blending the beef with low-sodium portobello mushrooms helps reduce your sodium intake. This blend needs very little liquid (after the mushrooms cook down, there is a lot of added water in the wok), but a bulgogi sauce is a requirement to get the right flavors.
And what’s one of the main ingredients in bulgogi? Salty soy sauce!
Since mushrooms are low in sodium and rich in umami, very little soy sauce is needed in to capture that bulgogi taste. Plus, using them in place of half of the ground beef cuts down the fat and cholesterol (both of which mushrooms have ZERO of), and each taco is low-calorie – just like your favorite fungi!
Love mushrooms? Try these other recipes using your favorite fungi!
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Korean Ground Beef Bulgogi Tacos
Ingredients
Bulgogi Sauce
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger finely minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Tacos
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- 8 ounces portobello mushrooms finely chopped
- Flour or corn tortillas or large butter lettuce leaves
- Steamed white rice
- Kimchi
- Thinly sliced red cabbage carrots, cucumbers, jalapenos, radish, scallions
- Sriracha
Instructions
Bulgogi Sauce
- Whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Tacos
- Heat a large wok over medium heat. Combine the ground beef, finely chopped mushrooms, and garlic and stir, cooking until browned, about 4-5 minutes. Drain if necessary.
- Reduce the heat to low. Pour the bulgogi sauce over the beef-mushroom blend and stir. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.
- Serve the ground beef bulgogi in tortillas or lettuce wraps with steamed rice, kimchi, and sliced vegetables. Drizzle each taco with sriracha and enjoy.
Dana DeVolk says
All I can say is wow, these are bursting with flavor! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Claire says
I just love the fusion flavours going on here!!!
Korean beef is one of my favourites, stuffing them into tacos is GENIUS!!!
Pinning this to make on Taco Tuesday (or before as I don’t think tacos should be kept just for tuesdays!)