Name: Korean Marinated Beef (Bulgogi)
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 main-course servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup soy sauce; 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil; 1 bunch scallions (white and pale green parts separated from greens), minced (1/2 cup); 1 tablespoon minced garlic; 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger; 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted; 1 lb flank steak, cut across the grain into very thin slices (no more than 1/8 inch thick); 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; Accompaniments: butter lettuce or other soft-leaf lettuce; thinly sliced garlic; packaged kimchi*; steamed white rice

Strips of beef with garlic and kimchi over rice on a lettuce leaf set inside a red bowl on a red surface.

Photo by Romulo Yanes

This popular dish can be found on the menu at virtually every Korean restaurant in Manhattan. The beef is topped with various accompaniments such as a few raw garlic slices, kimchi (assorted spicy pickles), and steamed white rice, then wrapped in lettuce and eaten with your hands.

Recipe notes

Stir-Fried Phở Noodles With Beef

This dish is not only a quick meal option but also a practical way to use leftover phở noodles when you’re out of broth.

Mapo Tofu Salad

The pan-fried tofu is crispy yet pillowy, served with a punchy dressing that is made with the same bold flavors as mapo seasoning.

XO Sauce

Developed in the 1980s by a chef in Hong Kong, this sauce is all about umami.

Okonomiyaki Tater Tots

Crispy tots topped with savory-sweet sauce, mayonnaise, furikake, scallion, and katsuobushi.

Beef Stroganoff Ramen

This traditional dish of beef, sour cream, and mustard may have originated in Russia, but it’s about time for a version with ramen noodles, don’t you think?

Rotisserie Chicken Congee

Leftover rotisserie chicken finds new purpose in this endlessly comforting dish.

Sofrito Bolognese

An ex-boyfriend’s mom—who emigrated from Colombia—made the best meat sauce—she would fry sofrito for the base and simply add cooked ground beef, sazón, and jarred tomato sauce. My version is a bit more bougie—it calls for caramelized tomato paste and white wine—but the result is just as good.

Smothered Italian Sausage

This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.