Whenever we shop at a Korean grocery store, we would drive by our favorite Korean meat shop to pick up some meat. Since we don’t have good Korean restaurants in our neighborhood (they are about 40 minutes away), we usually get some ingredients and prepare our own feast at home. Today I used the beef short ribs I bought from the meat shop and made Korean-inspired marinade for us to enjoy.
BBQ Short Ribs with Gochujang Marinade
We’ve been using this marinade for quite some time and my family loves it. It’s really easy to put together and most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen if you cook Japanese/Asian food often. In this particular marinade, I used a fermented Korean condiment called Gochujang that is made from red chili, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans and salt. It has both spicy and sweet flavors and umami from fermented glutinous rice. With this condiment, you can make delicious Kimchi Fried Rice and Kimchi Nabe (Japanese version of Kimchi Jjigae) as well. I recommend marinating the short ribs overnight to have the meet deeply infused with all the delicious flavors.
Where to Get Korean-style Short Ribs
All the Korean grocery stores in your neighborhood carry this style of cut. It’s called Kalbi or Galbi. Some of the biggest Korean grocery store chains are H-Mart and T&T. Food blogger/Youtuber Maangchi has a wonderful Korean grocery store list here. Also, 99 Ranch Market (Chinese/Asian) and some American grocery stores with a good meat section usually carry them.
Grill Time!
You can grill the short ribs over charcoal or gas grill. Of course, a charcoal grill is always the best if you want to get the heavenly smokiness. Once the marinaded meats are placed over the hot grill, sear them until beautifully charred. They cook quickly, so you don’t want to overcook them. Before you dig in, don’t forget to serve with plenty of crisp vegetables. A big pile of fresh lettuce, kimchi, spring onions, pickled cucumbers, and daikon salad would go very well with the meat. I always serve them with steamed rice for a full meal too. Sweet juicy ribs bones, tender smoky meat with a tantalizing sauce. Oh, they were good! You want to enjoy these Korean BBQ short ribs with your loved ones!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here. Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 18, 2012. The content, recipe, and images have been updated in September 2017.
