Korean Short Ribs Recipe (Galbi)

The trick to this Korean short ribs recipe is to marinate thinly cut beef ribs in our savory-sweet soy marinade, then cook them on a hot grill or grill pan until they’re caramelized and a little bit charred.

Adam is obsessed with Korean-style ribs. Also called beef Galbi, these are thinly sliced beef short ribs that soak up all the flavor from the marinade and cook in just a few minutes on the grill. You get those perfect caramelized, charred edges that we can’t get enough of.

The Galbi marinade is a lot like our go-to bulgogi marinade, just with a little extra brown sugar, an onion, and more aromatics for an authentic flavor. This is one of our favorite ways to bring Korean BBQ flavors into our own kitchen, and you can totally do it at home, too!

Key Ingredients

• Flanken Ribs: For this recipe, you’ll want thinly sliced short ribs. Somewhere between 1/4-inch and 3/4-inch thick is perfect. The thin cut means they grill up super fast. When you’re shopping, look for packages labeled “flanken ribs,” “Korean-style ribs,” or “LA-style beef short ribs.” Just make sure they’re cut across the bone, so you get 3 to 4 little round bones in each piece.
• Soy Sauce: This is the base of our marinade. We usually go for low-sodium soy sauce, but low-sodium tamari works great, too.
• Rice Wine Vinegar: Look for unsweetened rice vinegar (usually with a green bottle cap or label).
• Sesame Oil: Toasted sesame oil adds a lovely, toasty, rich flavor to the ribs.
• Brown Sugar and Honey: We really love both for this. The combination makes our beef taste more interesting and complex. The honey also caramelizes beautifully. We use the same combination when making beef bulgogi, another Korean-inspired recipe.
• Black Pepper: We use a lot of black pepper in this recipe. I hand-grind mine, so it has to be worth it. Trust me, it is! One teaspoon is just right.
• Garlic and Ginger: I always go for fresh garlic. For ginger, you can use fresh ginger root or grab ginger puree from the store (refrigerated or frozen both work).
• Pear: This is the secret ingredient in a lot of Korean marinades. It adds sweetness and helps tenderize the beef. We look for Asian, Korean, or Nashi pears, but if you can’t find those, a ripe Bosc or Anjou pear works just fine.
• Lettuce, Rice, and Sides: To make it a full meal, we serve these ribs with steamed rice and lettuce leaves for wrapping. Don’t forget the banchan (little sides) like kimchi or spicy cucumber salad, and a bit of ssamjang, the savory Korean dipping sauce that ties it all together.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Korean Short Ribs at Home

Tip 1: Prepare the ribs. If you have thin-cut flanken ribs that are 3/8-inch or thinner, skip this tip. If, however, you can only find thicker-cut ribs (say 1/2-inch), stick around. The thinner the ribs, the more tender they turn out, so if you are sitting there with a thicker cut, it’s a good idea to grab a meat mallet (a dual-sided one with the spiked teeth on one side). Lay each rib flat, then lightly pound the beef using the pointy side. This helps break up connective tissue, making the meat more tender in the end.

Note: Ribs thicker than 1/2-inch won’t have the same results, even with the meat mallet.

Tip 2: Make our galbi marinade. We like using our food processor to make the marinade. If you don’t have one, you can make this marinade by hand, but a food processor makes really quick work of it. Toss everything in and hit pulse until mostly smooth. If you’re doing it by hand, you’ll mince the garlic, finely grate the ginger with a microplane, then grate the pear and onion with a box grater.

Tip 3: Marinate overnight. If you are short on time, you can cut the marinating time down a bit, but for the best results, we highly recommend leaving the ribs in the marinade overnight.

Once made, pour the marinade over your ribs, then massage them and move them around in the marinade so all of the beef is well covered. Cover the bowl, then refrigerate. If you have the chance, go back once or twice and move the ribs around a bit to make sure everything is still well coated.

Tip 4: Grill the ribs. At a Korean barbecue restaurant, there’s often a grill right in the middle of the table where you can quickly sear/grill the ribs. At home, we use our outdoor grill or a heavy-bottomed grill pan over medium-high heat.

If cooking on a grill pan, add a little oil, then cook the marinated ribs in batches, keeping one layer of ribs in the pan at a time (stacking too many at once will steam the beef rather than caramelize and brown it).

Our Favorite Way to Serve Korean Ribs

We love serving these family-style next to rice, big lettuce leaves, kimchi, and ssamjang (a savory dipping sauce — look near gochujang in Korean markets or more internationally friendly grocery stores). Very often, when we’re out at a Korean BBQ place, we’ve seen people using kitchen shears to cut the grilled beef from the bones, then take the meat and build their bite. If you have some on hand, try it! It does make removing the beef from the bones easy. Otherwise, just get in there!

More of Our Favorite Beef Recipes