18 Easy Korean-Inspired Recipes You'll Make Over And Over Again (2024)

Nicknamed “candy chicken,” Korean fried chicken is known for its addictively crunchy exterior and its thick sweet-and-spicy sauce. These bites pack a little capsaicin punch, so feel free to decrease the amount of dried chilis that go in. But if you like your adrenaline kick like I do, please enjoy the sweet-and-spicy ride.

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Pungent. Spicy. Savory. Sweet. Tteokbokki is saucy, delicious comfort food in a bowl: captivating to the eye and pleasantly explosive to the taste, it will make you break into a happy sweat. The tender chewiness of Korean rice cakes is enticingly satisfying, the chili’s heat is disorienting and addictive: you fall in love faster than your brain can process. Add in some crunchy green onions and savory fishcakes and you've got yourself quite a meal.

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Kalbi is one of the popular menu items seen at Korean BBQ restaurants. The marinade is known for its sweet and salty flavor profile but it also acts as a tenderizer, typically from Korean pears or grated onion. Serve the kalbi right off the grill with bowls of steamed rice, kimchi and fresh red leaf lettuce to wrap the meat and rice in. A crisp cold beer is welcome too.

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In Korean, bibimbap literally means mixed rice. And you'll often see it filled with all different types of meats, vegetables, and toppings. Though people will typically cook or prepare each individual item that will be placed on their own bowl of fluffy white rice, by using a sheet tray, you can eliminate half that work. For this recipe we arranged mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, and marinated beef on a sheet tray, but you could sub in more or less anything you want. Asparagus? Sure. Chorizo? You bet.

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Kimbap—Korean rice rolls—are less of a recipe and more of a formula. You need seaweed (kim or gim) and freshly cooked rice (bap). Take note that while they look alike, kimbap is not sushi: sushi rice is seasoned with vinegar and kimbap rice is drizzled with a bit of sesame oil for a fragrant and savory curve; For your fillings, some popular choices include Spam, imitation crab, cheese, spicy tuna, spinach, carrots, burdock root, eggs, and a pickled daikon radish known as danmuji. If you can't find it in stores, you can make your own danmuji facsimile.

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Creamy, tender potato chunks are coated in a slightly sticky, sweet-salty sauce that results from the reduction of honey and soy sauce. Eat it with rice as your low-maintenance weeknight dinner, or serve it alongside your main course.

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Literally meaning "mixed vegetables,"

apchae is a simple dish made with transparent glass noodles and an assortment of toppings. Each ingredient is cooked separately for a cleaner taste. We went with a colorful bunch here: punchy yellow strips of egg, purplish red onions, orange carrots, forest green spinach, and caramelized bites of marinated beef. If you're looking to turn this into a vegetarian feast, you can substitute tofu for protein. The spice level in this recipe is pretty tame, but if you love a good kick, just add more gochujang, to taste.

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Yukgaejang is a spicy Korean beef soup loaded with warm earthy vegetables like mushrooms, leeks, and gosari. Gosari are immature fronds of bracken, a wild plant that is foraged along the hills and mountains of Korea. It’s typically served as banchan (a side dish) or in yukgaejang. It has a delicate but distinctly earthy flavor.

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You may be used to having braised short ribs, but have you tried them on the grill? Grilled short ribs are fall-apart tender and packed with flavor, thanks to a Korean-inspired marinade. The salty-sweet marinade combines soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and Asian pear to tenderize and season the meat. There's also a tablespoon of gochujang (aka fermented Korean chile paste) and fresh ginger in there, too, for a spicy kick. Serve the short ribs with white rice, kimchi, soy-marinated eggs, and pickled daikon.

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This tangy, rich pasta kind of feels like ’s cool older cousin. Maybe that’s because it comes complete with 3 layers of umami flavor: kimchi, Parmesan, and gochujang, a Korean fermented red chili paste. The latter is optional, but is commonly found in Asian and specialty grocery stores. It’s worth having on hand for a variety of dishes, like these ultra-crunchy Korean chicken wings.

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This easy sautéed spinach recipe is our take on the classic Korean banchan (aka side dish) sigeumchi namul, which is typically made using blanched spinach. The rich flavor of toasted sesame oil pairs beautifully with the verdant spinach, and fresh scallions, peppery raw garlic, and rice vinegar bring a pleasant brightness that keeps you coming back for bite after bite.

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These eggs are a version of a classic Korean banchan (side dish) called gyeran jang jorim, or eggs simmered in soy sauce. Rather than simmering hard boiled eggs in soy sauce, the eggs are first soft boiled to jammy perfection, then marinaded off the heat in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, sugar, and rice wine vinegar.

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Inspired by Korean sundubu-jjigae, kimchi tofu stew is a fast, easy meal that's still BIG on flavor. No surprise, since we can't get enough of Korean recipes like kalbi (Korean short ribs), tteokbokki (aka spicy Korean rice cakes), and Korean fried chicken. Both spicy and savory—thanks to a hefty dollop of gochujang (a fermented chili paste) and a mixture of fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions, korean tofu stew is an amazingly satisfying vegetarian meal.

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Tteokbokki is a Korean street food dish consisting of chewy rice cakes and a funky, spicy-sweet gochujang sauce. While delicious and traditional, the glutinous rice cakes are unfortunately less accessible to those of us without a Korean market around the corner. Luckily, store-bought gnocchi make for a great substitute—the biggest difference is, whereas Korean rice cakes are chewy, the ultimate Italian gnocchi is pillowy soft. Both are enjoyed as a main dish or as a snack (at street stalls in Korea it’s often paired with tempura vegetables). We totally get tteokbokki's versatility—the sauce is so easy and addictive you’ll seek out more opportunities to make it too!

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Arrange a smorgasbord of all the crunchy veggies you can get your hands on, because we know a spicy-funky-salty-sweet-creamy-crunchy dip that will keep you coming back for more. Ssamjang is technically not a dip but a jang (or paste) that Koreans dollop in ssam (a wrap), specifically rice and grilled meat wrapped in crisp greens. This slightly chunky version is sweetened with agave syrup and tiny bites of apple.

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This recipe has six ingredients, but it’s all about the rice and the kimchi. If there are any leftover rice containers from last night’s take out, fried rice begs to be on the menu. If you also have ripe kimchi on hand, there is no better time to make kimchi fried rice.

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If you're a fan of Korean flavor profiles, you'll love this recipe. The balance of sweet and spicy is perfect for any season, any day. When the meat is done cooking, reserve the broth and pour a little on top when serving—it is truly flavor central.

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Yes, we all love chocolate milk. Some of us love strawberry milk. But growing up, banana milk might have been the least favored of all the flavored milks. Not so in South Korea, where banana flavored milk reigns supreme. The taste of Korean banana milk is best described as delicately sweet, a gentle blend of banana and vanilla aromas carrying the flavor of cream with the lightness of milk. It smells—and tastes—almost exactly like a stick of Juicy Fruit gum steeped in milk. This might sound strange and off-putting at first, but if you give it a chance—you just might find yourself falling in love with it.

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