A homemade Korean BBQ for 5 for under £25
Think you need to break the bank to wow your friends with your BBQ skills? Think again. We asked Ed + Pramit of @edit.eats, accountants by day and food bloggers by night, to merge their finance and food knowhow to come up with the ultimate BBQ recipes
Hands up if you love Korean BBQ? We certainly do! Having an authentic Korean BBQ at a restaurant can be expensive, but we’ve devised three easy recipes that are delicious and come in under £5 per person. This recipe serves five, so fire up the BBQ, invite your guests and recreate these impressive dishes!
This is one of our favourite ways to have a BBQ, served with boiled rice, lettuce and kimchi jjigae.
𝐋𝐀 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐢
These are Korean short ribs and are delicious, and reasonably priced at around £11-12 per kg. If you can’t find these, you can use regular short ribs instead.
Ingredients:
500g of ribs
Marinade:
3 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp minced onion
Crack of black pepper
1 tbsp rice wine (optional)
Method:
Marinate overnight or a minimum of 1-2 hours.
Once ready to BBQ, grill for 2-3 minutes on each side or until nicely seared.
Total cost: £7.50
𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐨𝐠𝐢
Another classic dish, and the beauty of it is that the marinade and cooking process is exactly the same as the LA Galbi, but instead of short ribs, use a steak of choice - thinly sliced. We used sirloin as this is fairly priced and doesn’t compromise on quality.
Ingredients:
500g thinly sliced steak Marinade: 3 tbsp soy sauce 1.5 tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp minced garlic 1 tsp minced ginger 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp minced onion Crack of black pepper 1 tbsp rice wine (optional)
Method:
Marinate overnight or a minimum of 1-2 hours
Once ready to BBQ, grill for 2-3 minutes on each side or until nicely seared. If you’ve had Korean BBQ before, you’ll know the meat is quite thin so it cooks quickly!
Total cost: £6.50 (using 2x 250g sirloin steaks)
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐨𝐠𝐢
Did you even have a Korean BBQ if you didn’t have spicy pork bulgogi? This is a must, and is equally easy to make!
Ingredients:
500g pork belly
Marinade:
3 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp minced onion
Crack of black pepper
1 tbsp rice wine (optional)
Tbsp of gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
Method:
Using 500g thinly sliced cuts of pork belly, marinate with the same marinade as above, and add a tbsp of gochujang (Korean chilli paste - readily available at large supermarkets).
BBQ for 2-3 minutes on each side and enjoy
Total cost: £3.50
𝐊𝐢𝐦𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐣𝐣𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐞
Another classic and a perfect complement to the BBQ meats above. This only requires a handful of ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare! Spice levels can be adjusted to your palette and in general it’s quite mild as the one you’ll use, gochugaru, is a subtle spice.
Ingredients:
250g kimchi (the older the better)
Quarter of an onion, sliced
250g pork belly strips
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes, optional)
150g form tofu in slices (optional)
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
300ml water / chicken stock
salt and pepper
Method:
Firstly, thinly slice the pork belly and season with salt, pepper and garlic and in a pot, on medium heat, cook the pork belly with 2 tsp vegetable oil until browned.
Next add the onions and kimchi and cook for 2-3 mins until slightly softened before adding the gochugaru (if using) and then water / stock. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
After 10 mins, add the tofu (if using) to the pot and half the spring onions. Cover and simmer for another 5-10 mins.
Total cost: £5
The remaining sides of lettuce and boiled rice came to a total of around £1.50 bringing the total cost to around £25 for 5 people! Let us know how you get on recreating these dishes.
