20-minute Meal Prep Korean Beef (Freezer-friendly)
There’s this whole side of meal prepping that I’ve been dabbling in over the last year or so. It’s big, my friends, It’s a movement, it’s a whole culture.
It’s freezing food for later!
Familiarizing myself with freezing protein staples, sauces, slow cooker meals, and fresh produce has changed my life. It’s freed up a lot of time I would spend cooking since I now just have to defrost it. This is the best-time saving practice you can do for your meal-prep game. I mean it!
Interested in
freezer meal prep?
Start with ground meat…
Protein freezes notoriously well. If I could suggest starting your freezer meal prep journey with one type of food, it would be ground meat and/or ground meat substitute (tofu, tempeh, TVP etc). Four reasons why:
Ground meat is versatile: You can make a meaty pasta sauce, taco meat, pizza pocket filling, or this delicious recipe for freezer-friendly Korean beef.
It’s easy to double or triple portions of ground meat. You could have two pans of ground meat going at the same time on your stovetop and—if you keep an eye on them—they’ll both cook in under 30 minutes.
Cooked ground meat is easy to store in a freezer-safe gallon bag or a container.
Cooked ground meat also thaws quickly since it’s crumbly. If I transfer a bag of prepared ground meat from my freezer to the fridge on Sunday morning, it’s ready to portion out that afternoon!
You said “Easy Pls”
This Lazy Sauce Delivers
Every single time I post a survey for meal prep feedback, you guys always say you want to see easy and affordable meals here. So rather than asking you to grate a knob of ginger and puree a pear, I’m cheating with the sauce recipe and giving you my favorite jarred Korean Barbecue sauce.
Bibigo is a delicious Korean Barbecue sauce made with pureed pears for sweetness , garlic, onion powder, and the like. You guys will not regret picking this up.
Why waste time purchasing extra ingredients when one jarred sauce will get the job done? Bibigo Korean Barbecue Sauce is pretty versatile too: Thick enough to dip or use as a marinade. And a little goes a long way!
For some “sweet heat” flavor, I like to throw in a bit of gojuchang paste or chili garlic sauce into the mix. This is an optional step if you also enjoy a little spice. I also like to cook my ground meat with a diced onion …because I REALLY LOVE onions. Both are optional add-ins—make it your own!
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As always, I want to see how you’re dressing up your Korean Beef Bowls. Send me a picture or a DM on Instagram and let’s turn into freezer fiends this season, shall we?
korean beef
20-minute Meal Prep
(Freezer-friendly)
Yields 2 pounds
Ingredients
2 pounds extra lean ground beef (90/10)
1/2 jar (8 ounces) Bibigo Korean Beef Barbecue Sauce
2 tbsp Korean gojuchang paste or chili garlic sauce (optional for spice)
Preferred Korean beef bowl ingredients such as rice, scallions, lettuce, slaw, kimchi, sliced peppers, and/or spicy mayo!
Instructions
In a large skillet, brown lean ground beef on the stovetop over medium heat until no longer pink, about 12-15 minutes. Break up ground beef into crumbles as it cooks.
Optional: Whisk together 8 ounces of Bibigo Korean BBQ sauce with gojuchang paste.
Drain beef if necessary. Reduce heat to low and pour Korean BBQ sauce over ground beef. Stir to coat.
Allow beef and sauce to simmer for 5-7 minutes then remove from heat.
To meal prep: Pair beef with your favorite ingredients such as cabbage slaw, rice, scallions, and spicy mayo. Allow meat to cool until no longer steaming. Secure a lid and store up to 6 days in the fridge.
Freezing Korean Beef
This ground meat can be stored in a freezer-safe airtight bag or in a container like this. It can live in your freezer up to 6 months! Just defrost in the fridge for 8 hours or so before using.
PRO TIP: Doubling the entire recipe is a great way to use up the whole jar of Bibigo. Just freeze what you’re not using.
