My Korean Food Fave: Bibimbap

My Korean Food Fave: Bibimbap – a comforting meal of rice, veggies, bulgogi, and a perfectly fried egg. Spice it up with gochujang, and simply mix everything together in one bowl to enjoy! You’ll love my Korean bibimbap recipe, with tender beef made in the slow cooker.

Disclaimer: This post was made as a sponsored partnership with KitchenAid.

When KitchenAid reached out to me and asked for a KitchenAid® slow cooker Bibimbap recipe, I was both excited and intrigued. Excited that they were asking me for a Korean food recipe and intrigued because now I had the opportunity to really explore beef! When creating slow cooker recipes, I was always about pork. I know how to slow cook pork. However, with beef, we’ve mainly stuck to marinating it or using a dry rub and then grilling it. But that needed to change. And as such I’m so glad KitchenAid gave me this challenge because I ended up with this.

CLASSIC KOREAN BIBIMBAP

Bibimbap is one of my all time favorite Korean food dishes. Not only does it expose you to a lot of popular Korean side dish vegetables (banchan), but it’s also filling and delicious. Bibimbap is a signature Korean food dish. Along with, for example, Bulgogi or Galbi (Korean grilled marinated beef or short ribs), it’s probably one of the most popular Korean food dishes, known, eaten and recognized by many people.

Bibimbap literally means “mixed rice.”  It is served in a bowl with rice, bulgogi (or, in most cases, other protein options), sautéed and seasoned Korean vegetables, and gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) and topped with a fried egg. You simply combine everything together in your bowl just before eating. In other words, you mix your rice!

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE MY FAVORITE BIBIMBAP: SLOW COOKER VERSION

• Beef short ribs
• Olive oil
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Red wine
• Green onions
• Garlic
• Soy sauce – I recommend low sodium
• Granulated sugar
• Sesame oil
• Bean sprouts
• Kale or spinach
• Zucchini
• Shitake mushrooms
• Cooked brown rice
• Honey
• Gochujang
• Gim – dried seaweed
• Eggs – fried for serving

While this may sound like a lot of ingredients, they are simple and mostly whole foods. Moreover, many of these you probably keep in stock in your kitchen. Or, at least, you should!

And what’s really wonderful about this bibimbap recipe is that all of these great ingredients come together quite easily. You can even prepare many ingredients, like the rice and vegetables, a day or so in advance!

HOW TO MAKE KOREAN BIBIMBAP USING A SLOW COOKER

1. First, prepare slow cooker beef: Sear the seasoned beef in olive oil in a Dutch oven, remove from pan and place in a baking dish, and in the same Dutch oven cook onions, carrots, celery, and garlic.
2. Add the 1/2 bottle of wine and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, allow to cool slightly, and pour everything into the baking dish with the beef. Allow to cool completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, remove the beef and the vegetables and place into the slow cooker. Add more chopped onion, green onions and garlic.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil and pour over the beef in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4. If you are cooking fresh rice, you should do so before or while making the vegetables.
5. Next, make the vegetable banchan: Bring a pot of water to a boil, and quickly cook the bean sprouts until just done. Drain, rinse the pot and refill with water, and again bring to a boil. Quickly cook the kale for just a few minutes. Season both bean sprouts and kale – in separate bowls – with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Meanwhile, one by one sauté zucchini, mushrooms, and carrots in a large nonstick skillet or wok with sesame oil. You can reuse the same skillet to cook all of your vegetables, just wipe clean between each use.
6. Fry the eggs so that the whites are set, but the yolks should be slightly runny.
7. To prepare the gochujang sauce: Mix the hot pepper paste, honey and sesame oil together and set aside. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
8. Finally, assemble your bibimbap by first filling a bowl with rice, and then layering the cooked vegetables, some beef, a fried egg, and topping with gim and sesame seeds.

Serve with gochujang, and mix together as you like!

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Print Recipe

Korean Bibimbap Recipe

My Korean Food Fave: Bibimbap - a comforting meal of rice, veggies, bulgogi, and a perfectly fried egg. Spice it up with gochujang, and simply mix everything together in one bowl to enjoy!

SLOW COOKER VERSION: this recipe does require you to marinate the beef overnight for best results.

TRADITIONAL BULGOGI: For my traditional Korean Bulgogi recipe, click here.

Prep Time8 hours hrs

Cook Time7 hours hrs

Total Time15 hours hrs

Course: Dinner, Main

Cuisine: Korean

Keyword: bibimbap, bulgogi, crockpot, koreanfood, slowcooker

Servings: 6

Author: Hip Foodie Mom

Equipment

• Slow Cooker

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Ingredients

For the slow cooked beef:

• 2 pounds Beef chuck short ribs with bones or boneless beef chuck pot roast cut into medium sized chunks (if using short ribs, there is no need to cut)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and ground pepper
• 2 large onions coarsely chopped (split)
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped
• 3 stalks celery chopped
• 1/2 bottle Cabernet Sauvignon
• 3 to 4 green onions finely chopped
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
• 3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic thickly sliced

For the Korean vegetable toppings:

• 4 cups bean sprouts
• 4 to 5 cups kale chopped
• 1 large zucchini cut into 2-inch matchstick strips
• 8 to 9 shiitake mushrooms sliced thin
• 2 to 3 carrots peeled and cut into 2-inch matchstick strips
• Sesame oil
• Low sodium soy sauce
• Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar needed for mushrooms only
• Minced garlic
• Roasted sesame seeds

For the Bibimbap:

• Cooked rice
• 3 tablespoons Korean Gochujang, hot pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 4 to 6 cooked eggs cooked sunny side up
• Dried seaweed gim
• Roasted sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions

For the slow cooked beef:

• Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick pan or enameled cast-iron dutch oven. Season the beef on each side with salt and pepper. After a few minutes, add the beef to the pan and sear on each side; only 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and place into a shallow baking dish or casserole dish.
• Add one onion, the carrots, celery and garlic directly into the same pan with all the lovely browned bits and cook until softened; for about 10-15 minutes. Add the 1/2 bottle of wine and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour everything into the baking dish with the beef, allow to cool completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• The next morning, remove the beef and the vegetables only and place into your slow cooker. Discard the wine marinade. Add in the other chopped onion, green onions and garlic. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil and pour over the beef in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. (The beef will taste delicious and become even more tender after 7-8 hours of cooking)

For the vegetable toppings:

• Note: Cooking all of the vegetables may seem overwhelming but it really does not take much time at all and all of the vegetables use the same ingredients. You can also use the same pot for each vegetable. Simply drain the water and quickly rinse out.
• Boil a pot of water on the stove. Once boiling, add the bean sprouts and cook for only 3-4 minutes only. You want the bean sprouts to be tender but still slightly crunchy and not too soft. Remove from pot (drain water) and season with a dash or two of sesame oil, a pinch of salt and some minced garlic. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, mix and set aside.
• Boil a pot of water on the stove. Once boiling, add the chopped kale and cook for only 3-4 minutes only. Remove from pot (drain water), squeeze kale a few times to release all the water and season with a big dash or two of sesame oil, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of soy sauce and some minced garlic. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, mix and set aside.
• Heat 1-2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a large non-stick pan or wok. Once heated, add the zucchini and sauté for a couple minutes. Season with salt and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Heat 1-2 tablespoons of sesame oil in a large non-stick pan or wok. Once heated, add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes. Season with salt, a splash or 2 of soy sauce and the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Cook for another 3-4 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked and tender.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a large non-stick pan or wok. Once heated, add the carrots and sauté for 2-3 minutes only.
• The carrots don’t need any seasoning as they are already slightly sweet and will be mixed in with everything else in the bibimbap. Remove from heat and set aside.

To assemble and serve your Bibimbap:

• To prepare the gochujang: Mix the hot pepper paste, honey and sesame oil together and set aside. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
• To serve the bibimbap: Place the brown rice in each serving bowl and place each vegetable topping and the slow cooked beef on top of the rice, around the edge of the bowl. Top with the cooked egg and garnish with the gim and sprinkle on some roasted sesame seeds.

Notes

Serve with the gochujang (and additional sesame oil if desired) at the table. Mix in as little or as much gochujang as you like. Enjoy!

The slow cooked beef in this recipe is to die for so good: Click here to get the recipe over at KitchenAid’s Blog, The Kitchenthusiast. I’m hoping you give this Korean food dish a try!

Cheers!

Give this recipe a try, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

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