Korean Pork BBQ

Posted byNoriePosted inPork, RecipeTags:, ,
Pork Bulgogi

I’ve been curious how Korean bulgogi tasted like because I heard it a lot in Korean dramas which, I am very fond of watching. 

One day we went to try a new Korean restaurant that just opened in our area just to see and taste what a bulgogi was.  This restaurant is a big chain. Thay have a cooking grill installed in the middle of each table where you cook your own meat as you eat. It was a new experience for us and we found it enjoyable because you can visit with your company as you cook and eat and you can eat as much as you want.  They bring you more raw meat when you ask for them.

They offer different kinds of raw, marinated meats and one of the meats we ordered was the pork bulgogi.  So, my curiosity was satisfied.  I found that it is not much different in flavor from the Filipino BBQ skewered in bamboo sticks and not much different in flavor from the  Vietnamese BBQ or the Chinese Pork Chops. 

So I experimented to make the bulgogi using the same marinade as most of the pork BBQ I mentioned above except there is one ingredient in the Korean BBQ that is unique to them…the Gochugaru, which is the powdered sun dried red pepper unique to Korean foods and it is the dried pepper used to make Korean Kimchi. 

It was a success and so it was written. 

Recipe:

1 lb. pork loin sliced very thin across the grain

Marinade:

  • ¼ cup light soy sauce
  • 1 TBS. light brown sugar
  • 1 TBS. grated ginger root
  • 1 to 2 large garlic clove minced fine or that makes 1 TBS. minced garlic
  • 1 TBS. dried chili flakes (Korean red pepper powder Gochugaru preferred)
  • 1 TBS. sesame oil
  • ¼ tsp. MSG
  • 2 TBS. cooking oil for frying (divided)

Place the thin slices of pork in a ziplock bag and set aside.  Mix all the other ingredients in a small bowl except the cooking oil.  Pour this mixture into the bag with the pork, seal the bag and massage the mixture on the pork.  Try to remove most of the air in the bag.  Keep in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours and turn the bag over every so often re-massaging the pork.

Heat a heavy skillet like a cast iron pan.  Add a tablespoon oil in the pan and spread it well.  On medium-high heat, individually place the pork slices in the pan and sear both sides.  Keep them separated and don’t crowd them.  Do them in bactches and use a thin layer or cooking oil on the pan each time you do a batch to prevent sticking.

You can also grill them if you prefer to cook outside.  I think it would be good cooked on a Hibachi grill or use a slotted grilling pan for grilling vegetables.  I did not use the grill outside because the weather did not permit.  It is winter.   

Get your chopsticks and eat it over white or fried rice with pickled radish and kimchi as condiments.  Garnish it with chopped green onions for color if desired.