Hello everybody, my dwaeji bulgogi recipe is here! : )
This dish is spicy, full of flavor, very simple to make and everyone loves it. It’s great for a summer BBQ and spicy food lovers will be big fans of you!
When I was invited to my friend’s BBQ party in upstate New York, I brought marinated beef, pork, and mushrooms (for vegetarians) and was planning to shoot a video for beef bulgogi. I didn’t plan on shooting a spicy pork bulgogi recipe video, but I changed my mind at the party while barbecuing marinated pork. As you can see, the recipes for beef bulgogi and pork bulgogi are very similar. The only big difference is that I add hot pepper paste to the marinade for pork bulgogi.
Some of you might be wondering what the difference is between my spicy stir-fried pork (dwaejigogi-bokkeum) recipe that I already posted and this recipe. The taste is very similar but the preparation is different. Stir-fried pork (dwaejigogi-bokkeum) is cooked in a pan or a wok over high heat with the seasoning sauce and vegetables altogether (that method of cooking is called “bokkeum” in Korean). Dwaeji bulgogi is marinated first and then grilled, pan-fried, or barbecued over charcoals. Both are delicious!
If you are looking for a vegetarian version of this recipe, the marinade can be used with other vegetables: eggplant, squash, or mushrooms. People love those versions! If you like simple spicy pork recipes, check out my jeyuk bokkeum recipe, too!
Ingredients
(3-4 servings)
- 1 pound pork belly, sliced thinly into pieces ½ inch x 2 inches and ⅛ inch thick
tip: You can replace pork belly with pork shoulder or pork loin
For the marinade
- ½ cup of crushed Korean pear (aka “Asian pear”)
- ¼ cup onion purée
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- ½ ts of minced ginger
- 1 chopped green onion
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs of sugar and 1½ tbs rice syrup (or 2 tbs brown sugar)
- a pinch of ground black pepper
- 2 ts of toasted toasted sesame oil
- 3 tbs hot pepper paste
Directions
- Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add the sliced pork and mix well.
- You can grill, pan-fry, stir-fry, or BBQ right after marinating, but it’s best to let it marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Cook over medium high heat, not too hot or it will burn.
- Serve with rice, ssamjang (gochujang and doenjang dipping sauce), lettuce leaves, sliced garlic cloves and green chili pepper. Perilla leaves are optional. You can also add kimchi or other banchan (side dishes) on the side if you like.
- Koreans like to eat as ssam. Take a piece of pork with your chopsticks and put it on a lettuce leaf and a perilla leaf (if you have it). Add garlic, green chili pepper and ssamjang and eat the wrap in one bite! (be sure to make a wrap small enough to fit into your mouth lol)
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I tried your recipe, and it was fantastic! I really love Korean style BBQ, but it’s quite pricey at most restaurants, and you never get enough, but now with this recipe, I can have as much of this spicy pork BBQ as I want! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
Is it possible to use korean melon versus pear for meat marinades? It is hard to find pears off season and korean melons taste so similar to asian pears to me. Love your recipes!!
Hi! Long-time oly resident here and SO of one very hungry Korean man (who bugs me for Korean food non-stop)!
Arirang Asian Market in Lacey often has Korean pears in the refrigerated section. Give them a try!
Thank you very much.
Do you cut the skin off of the pork belly?
No, if I find the pork belly with skin, I use it because it’s chewy and delicious.
Hello! Made this and absolutey loved it. Think my marinade was a bit off though, how do you exactly messaure 1/2 cup of crushed pear? is that like half the pear chopped and skinned? same with the onion? Thanks!
Dear Maangchi,
I plan to make this (or one of your other suggestions; we’ll entertain a dear Korean friend tonight again – “not hungry” when he arrived; still, he took seconds and thirds of my galbi-jjim ;-D) – but there’s a slight error in your ingredients list:
“1 pound pork belly, sliced thinly into pieces ½ inch x 2 inches and ⅛ inch thick”
Bye, Sanne.
Thanks Maangchi! Another fabulous and tasty recipe.
This was absolutely wonderful, thank you.
It’s such a lovely table! All these dishes were made with your love!
Made this tonight and served it with a few other Maangchi recipes. Oi-muchim and my homemade traditional Kimchi w/ sticky rice. There’s thinly sliced white onion, minced green onion and some store bought Samantha. Me and my son enjoyed it very much…wife was watching the Super Bowl…:)
It looks wonderful!
I didn’t have pears lying around so I used honey and another time I used unsweetened pineapple juice from the can. I figured the honey and also pineapple have a similar proteolytic property which tenderized the meat just fine.
When I make this, I end up with a lot of crystallized, burnt marinade on my little grill. How do you keep all that sugar and syrup from burning? In American BBQ, we don’t use sugar in the marinade (rub), only in the BBQ sauce. Is my fire too hot?
There’s always going to be some marinade on the grill, don’t worry about it. Before it burns, you can mix some rice on there for a quick bibimbap!
Maangchi! I just made this today to fulfil my craving and IT IS SUPER DELICIOUS..!
I made 2 kinds of marinade:
1. The spicy one, which uses gochujang
2. The non-spicy one, which i used doenjang instead of gochujang. I used 2 tbsp of doenjang + 2 more tbsp of corn syrup. The rest of the recipe are the same.
Thanks a lot and HUGE love from Indonesia!
Can I use this recipe with chicken? If so, should I make any changes? Thanks!
Hi Maangchi, I am your big fan from Malaysia. I just love to watch how you cut all the ingredients :)
Hi Maangchi !
Huge fan from Brazil here. Loved the recipe, but I got one question, is it possible to use only the asian pear juice rather than the puree ?
Thanks !
Yes, pear juice sounds good to me! Good luck!
This recipe is super, because its easy to make and it taste delicious thanks maangchi ^_^
So delicious. Served it with bok choy, rice and a cold pear cider.
Couldn’t find pears anywhere today, so used a gala apple instead.
Maangchi I made this for my friends. I originally planned to make Bulgogi with beef tenderloin but it was too expensive ($19.99/lb) compared to the much-cheaper pork belly ($3.49/lb!). We had a limited budget so the six pounds of Spicy Pork BBQ was perfect for us. We minced down every marinade ingredients since we didn’t have the mixer hahaha but it tasted amazing. Thank you so much, we all enjoyed it with lettuce!
“We minced down every marinade ingredients since we didn’t have the mixer..” Great, great! : )
Found this picture! It was so yummy.. We were so glad you were here to help us cook what was thought impossible haha!! Thank you again, we’ll try it next year too :D
Pork bulgogi, samgak gimbap, tuna gimbap, tteokbokki, fried mandu! All look great!
I purchased pork belly with the skin on. To prepare this, should I remove the skin or can I leave it on?
Hi Maangchi !
Lil’ problem AGAIN .. hihih, I always leaves a comment in your recipes .. and it is always a PROBLEM .. hihih, we don’t have a food processor at home .. so , I’m just thinking if you can help me to find a substitute on that thing .. :) hihih. Thanks Maangchi ! Godbless :)
I typically don’t have easy access to the Korean pear, so I have substituted with equal ratio of ripe Anjou pears and Fuji apples. They are the perfect blend of sweetness. All the ingredients, minus the green onions, go into the food processor. Mix it into your protein of choice and viola! Easy peasy Korean! Thanks for making my taste buds dance, Maangchi!
my husband are crazy about this!!! he finished the whole batch! and your ssamjang is amazingggggg it really bring out the flavour of the pork, thank you maangchi onni!!
“He finished the whole batch!” great great!
wow..looks easy to make..i will try soon…thx Maangchi..I lv all your cooking recipe….
Thank you!
Hi, Maangchi!
I saw chef Edward Kwon make the same thing with chicken. I use your recipe to marinade pork belly and chicken thigh meat and grill them all. It was DELICE. You’re so inspiring. Thanks for all your recipes. Btw, I have been making kimchi from your recipe and getting lots of compliments and orders for them. Even my korean friends said that my kimchi is better tasting than theirs…hehehehehehe…it’s all thanks to you.
Ima
Ima, you never know how happy your comment makes me!
Hello, i’m gonna make this recipe, but is it okay if i keep the marinated meat in refrigerator for day long? Thanks! :)
yes, you can. It will turn out very delicious!
Woah, looks really yummy! If I wanna have it non spicy, do I just leave out the pepper paste and the rest remain unchange?
Hello! This looks so yummy! It is making me hungry just watchinng. I was wondering what you were using on top of the stove to grill the beef on? Its very cold and winter out here so we cant barbecue outside, so if I could barbecue inside that would be better. Thanks!
Hello, when I went to the market it seems I forgot to pick up the Korean pears. Am I able to substitute something for it?
Use sugar and a little bit of water. It will turn out good!
Thats some awesome looking pork belly. Hubby and myself are huge pork fans.
Sadly we cannot bbq in our community – but, this is on my to do list when we go for our summer holiday to the lake.
Thanks!
Oh I love the way as you cook.
Many thanks for sharing with us, Maangchi!
Frans K from the Netherlands
I made this for dinner tonight for my parents, and it was delicious! I only used 1 Tablespoon of gochujang in the marinade, since my dad’s not big on spicy food, and it still tasted great ^-^. Though I think I might add more gochujang next time I make it, since I love spicy food. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!
Adding less gochujang is very ok as long as it turned out delicious! : )
To make it less spicy, would you use just one tablespoon of hot pepper paste? It looks so good! Thank you for your videos!
<3 Kerri
yes, use one tbs hot pepper paste but you may add more soy sauce. : )
I had a friend over and made this last night. Damn good and really easy to make. I made the entire marinade in the food processor except for the scallions, which I minced by hand and added after blending. Also, as an additional garnish for the lettuce wraps, I recommend marinating some thinly sliced onions in a little vinegar. The acidity works really well with the pork. I will definitely be making this again, for a larger group next time. Thanks Maangchi!
“Damn good and really easy to make.” lol, miss ya, Chris!
Made bulgogi last week and my family loved it! Can’t wait to try the spicy pork!
Only 1 lb. pork belly! :(
I usually make this with blade steak or butt that is trimmed of some fat and cut into strips. I have not made it with belly, but that sounds extra delicious. You can broil it if it’s too cold or wet out to grill. Make as much as you can, because every meat -eater LOVES this!
Thank you for all you do, Maangchi!