← Back to all sauces
Sauce recipe

Bulgogi Marinade

Sweet, garlicky Korean BBQ marinade with soy, grated pear and sesame. For thinly sliced beef, pork or chicken.

Bulgogi Marinade
The ratio
  • 3 partsSoy sauce
  • 2 partsGrated nashi pear
  • 1 partBrown sugar
  • 1 partGarlic + sesame oil
What you need
  • 1/3 cup (80ml) soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/2 nashi pear, peeled and finely grated
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely grated
  • 2 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp mirin or Korean rice wine
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Makes
About 200ml, enough for 600g of meat
Ready in
10
Keeps
3 days in the fridge (without meat)
How to make it
  1. Grate the pear, garlic and ginger into a large bowl, keeping all the juice.
  2. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, mirin and pepper and stir until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Stir in the spring onion and sesame seeds.
  4. Add 600g very thinly sliced beef (or pork or chicken) and massage the marinade in. Marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours for beef and overnight for chicken.
  5. Cook over high heat in batches so the meat sears and caramelises instead of stewing.
About this sauce

Bulgogi marinade is the sweet soy, garlic and sesame mix used for Korea's best-known barbecue dish, thinly sliced beef cooked fast on a hot grill or pan. The secret ingredient is grated nashi pear: its enzymes tenderise the meat and its juice adds a gentle, fruity sweetness, so the beef caramelises without burning.

Marinate thin slices of beef for 30 minutes to a few hours, or chicken thighs overnight. Use a ripe nashi, or a Fuji apple if you can't find one. Unlike a spicy pork bulgogi marinade, this one has no gochujang, so kids love it too.

What to put it on

Thinly sliced beef scotch fillet, pork shoulder, chicken thighs, mushrooms and firm tofu.

Use it for beef bulgogi, dak bulgogi chicken or LA galbi short ribs. Serve the cooked meat in lettuce with ssamjang. Read about sesame oil.

Uses this sauce

Recipes that call for this sauce. Make a batch and cook one of these.

Pairs well with

Dishes this sauce suits. These recipes make their own glaze or dressing, so you can swap this sauce in.