Skillet Beef Bulgogi with Quick-Pickled Cucumbers
Paper-thin ribeye marinated in a sweet-savory soy and pear sauce, then seared fast and hot — a lettuce-wrap dinner with no grill required.
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Written
Method
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Toss the cucumber slices with the rice vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt and set aside to pickle while you do everything else.
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Whisk together the grated pear, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger.
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Freeze the ribeye for 20 minutes if it isn’t already sliced thin, then slice it as thin as you can manage against the grain.
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Toss the sliced beef with the marinade, the onion, and half the scallions, and let it sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes.
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Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat until it shimmers.
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Sear the beef in batches, spreading each into a single layer and leaving it undisturbed until the edges char, about 2 minutes per batch — crowding the pan steams it instead.
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Return all the beef to the pan just to reheat, then scatter with the remaining scallions and sesame seeds.
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Serve with rice, lettuce leaves for wrapping, and the pickled cucumbers alongside.
Notes
Searing in batches is the part people skip and shouldn’t — dump the whole marinated pile into the pan at once and the liquid it releases steams the beef gray before it ever browns. Give it room and let each batch sit still.
To eat it the way it’s meant to be eaten, spoon a little rice and beef into a lettuce leaf, add a few pickled cucumbers, and fold it up like a taco. Leftovers reheat fine in a hot pan, though the char won’t come back.