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My homemade bulgogi sauce is so easy to make you’ll be marinating your sliced meat in no time at all! Use it as the classic marinade or a dipping sauce or dressing.
Love making your own Asian sauces? Try my eel sauce, katsu sauce, and tempura sauce next.
Coming from a half-Asian background with Korean roots, it’s no surprise that one of my favorite dishes ever is my beef bulgogi.
Today, though, we’re going to focus on what makes this dish so delicious, and it’s the incredible bulgogi sauce, aka the marinade the slices of meat are soaking it. I’ve tweaked my family’s bulgogi sauce recipe ever so slightly to accommodate easy-to-find ingredients, but don’t fret. I promise you it will taste just as authentic and flavorful.
Sure, you could buy the pre-bottled kind, but where is the fun in that? Making your own is so easy.
What does bulgogi sauce taste like?
Bulgogi sauce is often considered to be the BBQ sauce of Asian and Korean cuisine. It’s sweet, smoky, and slightly tangy and has a subtle spice hit thanks to the chili sauce. Many Korean restaurants and households actually serve this as a dipping sauce!
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Ready in seconds. No boiling, steaming, or caramelizing is required- everything is whisked together in one bowl.
- Authentic flavor. This sauce is sweet, tangy, and has some spice. Honestly, you’d think this was from a Korean restaurant.
- Versatile. While this sauce is famous for beef bulgogi, it can also be used as a marinade or sauce.
Ingredients needed
- Brown sugar. Adds sweetness and balances out the salty and umami ingredients. Either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar works.
- Sesame oil. A must for Asian marinade or sauces. A little goes a very long way, so try not to go overboard with it. Adds richness with a punch of flavor. Remember, though, a little goes a VERY long way, so don’t be heavy-handed (I learned the hard way).
- Soy sauce. Any kind is fine.
- Red pepper flakes. For spice! I tend to be conservative with this, but you can be more heavy handed if you like.
- Pear. The secret ingredient! When I shared this recipe with friends before sharing it with you all, everyone was shocked that there was a grated pear in it. Asian pear is best, but bosc pears or generic pears are fine too.
- Garlic and fresh ginger. Two must-have aromatics that also must be freshly minced. Please do not use the dried kind.
- Gochujang. AKA Korean chili pepper sauce. Thanks to the rise of social media and more and more Korean restaurants around the world, you’ll find jars of Gochujang at any mainstream grocery store or online (I even found it in Paris in a tiny grocery store when I was traveling).
How to make bulgogi sauce
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Mix the base. Start by mixing the soy sauce with all the ingredients except for the pear and gochujang.
Step 2- Add the grated pear and gently mix until combined. Stir in the gochujang.
Step 3- Marinate the meat (strips of steak, chicken, lamb, or pork) for at least 20 minutes or overnight.
Step 4- Cook. Grill or stir-fry the strips of meat over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes per side.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Make the sauce fresh. I tested making a bigger batch of this sauce in advance and found there was too much separation and that the flavor wasn’t as pronounced. This sauce literally takes seconds to make, so always make it fresh.
- If you can’t find gochujang, use chili garlic sauce or sriracha. Although I really do encourage you to see if you can get it, it’s great in everyday dishes, too (like scrambled eggs!).
- Grate the pear instead of slicing it. You want the texture to be more mushy than smooth, and grating it releases more juices that way.
- If you can’t find pears, you can use a super-sweet apple or two tablespoons of honey instead.
- Add other aromatics like onion, green onions, black pepper, and sesame seeds.
Other ways to use this sauce
If you’ve been to any Korean restaurant before, you’ll know that you can get all kinds of bulgogi-based dishes, including chicken, seafood, and tofu.
- As a marinade for simple protein like chicken breast, pork chips, or steak.
- Toss it through grains or noodles for a fun sauce, like in my spicy Korean noodles or chicken chow mein.
- Use it as a dipping sauce for zucchini fries or air fryer French fries.
- As a burger sauce! I especially like it in my spicy chicken sandwich or hot honey chicken sandwich.
Storage instructions
- To store: If you haven’t used the sauce to marinate beef or chicken (or any other protein), you can store leftovers in the refrigerator, covered, for up to one week. Sometimes, the sauce will thicken, and if that happens, let it bring it to room temperature before using it.
Frequently asked questions
While Bulgogi sauce is sometimes considered to be a Korean BBQ sauce, their actual BBQ sauce is actually sweeter and doesn’t include any spice.
More popular condiments
Bulgogi Sauce
Video
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 2 tablespoons ginger grated
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/2 large pear finely grated
- 1 tablespoon Gochujang
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the soy sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, and sesame oil.
- Fold through the grated pear until just combined. Add the gochujang sauce.
- Add sliced meat (beef, chicken, or pork) into a bowl and mix the sauce into it. Marinate for at least 20 minutes.
- Preheat a grill to high heat, or lightly grease a large skillet or pan over high heat. Once hot, cook the meat strips for 4-5 minutes per side.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published September 2022, updated and republished October 2024
Best bulgogi sauce recipe I’ve ever made!
I’m very excited to try this soon. Costco made some marinated in the meat but it didn’t sell well; I think people here were afraid to try it and really missed out.
Thanks for uploading this, it looks very popular!
Hello! Maybe I’m blind but I don’t see measurements for the minced garlic!
Two cloves 🙂
At first i was hesitant to try but not anymore–just as advertised–Thank You
I also added 2 tbsp garlic to the mix. I didn’t have pear so I shredded an apple. Tasted great, but will try to use pear next time!
Great sauce! You mention garlic in the description of the recipe but it is missing from the ingredients list and instructions. I added it in the same amount as the ginger and it was perfect..