Today we celebrated my son’s 1st Birthday at our home with 30 guests. It was a fun birthday party and the food was wonderful. Koreans call the first birthday “Tol” and often times there is a “Toljabee” event. This event is considered the highlight of the party because the birthday boy/girl is dressed in traditional Korean garments called “Tok-Bok” or “Ham-Bok”. The child sits in front of a table full of festive fruit, rice cakes, and other food along with the Toljabee items.
During the Toljabee event, several items are placed on a table. The child is then placed in front of the table and chooses an item. This is where the fun part comes in. Supposedly the first item he/she chooses will predict his/her future. Most Koreans I know set out items they hope for. For our Toljabee we put a football (my husband would love it if our son played college football), cash (for prosperity), noodles (for a long life), books (scholarly), and a bible (ministry). I was convinced our son would pick the football. I was so surprised when he picked noodles! Then one of his cousins shouted, “He’s gonna be a chef!” I hadn’t thought about that.. but looks like my son is taking after his mama! So now you know a little but about Korean culture. But I’m sure you’re eager to make your own Kalbi at home. So I have some good news and bad news for you.
Yesterday I posted part 1 of some tips on preparing short ribs for Kalbi marinade. However because I wanted to make sure everything I prepared was perfect for today I had to redo the Kalbi marinade. <- Thats the bad news. The good news is that the recipe modifications I made last night was well worth it! As I posted yesterday, the owner of the little Korean grocery store highly encouraged me to wash the meat and soak it in water for 2 hours 2 times. Then my mom told me to add coke or 7 up to the mixture and a kiwi. I ate Kalbi twice yesterday. When I ate a sample at breakfast the meat tasted good. Not as good as I’m use to, but I attributed it to not marinading for 2 full days. When I ate it for dinner I was completely unhappy with the results. The ribs tasted completely greasy and it was hard to enjoy the Kalbi. In all my Kalbi eating life I have never had greasy ribs. Something was terribly wrong. As my husband and I talked about it, we agreed it had to do with the ribs. In other words, not all Korean short ribs are created equal. The ribs I initially bought had a lot of fat on them. I did notice this at the store but didn’t think it would make a difference. Boy was I wrong. If you are planning to make Kalbi make sure your short ribs do not have lots of fat of them. The excessive fat completely ruins this wonderful dish.
But don’t feel bad for me. After dinner I drove to another Korean Grocery store. I am so glad because I bought 3 packages of beef and just looking at them in the package I knew I did the right thing. The beef had normal marbling but no excessive fat. They looked way leaner than the first ones I bought. I wish I had a photo but I had to kick it into high gear last night to prepare today’s meal. Also looking at the package I did not see the same bone dust I saw with the first batch. Because it was so late in the evening last night I decided to just put them straight in the marinade and say a prayer.
This morning when I woke up, I put the ribs that were on top on the bottom and vice versa. When it was time to grill, the smell drifting into the house said it all. Everyone loved the ribs including me. In conclusion by not soaking the ribs, I found that there was no difference in taste. By not using a Kiwi, I did not find the ribs were less tender. Marinading for 1 night was plenty enough time for the ribs to soak it up. I also did not use a can of soda because I didn’t have any left and the ribs were still AMAZING and AWESOME - Operation Kalbi Successful! So here’s the recipe below. Enjoy!
Kalbi Marinade Recipe
1 1/2 cups soy sauce or Gluten-free Tamari Soy Sauce by San-J.
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a medium yellow onion, chopped
3 large green onions, cut into small pieces
2 tbl toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
4-6 pounds of Korean short-ribs
DIRECTIONS:
Place ribs in a large ziplock bag or a dish that can hold them all (I used a large pot with lid). Combine all the ingredients together and stir for 1 minute. Pour the marinade into the pot, dish, or ziplock over the meat making sure ll the ribs have been coated. Cover and refrigerate over night. The next morning make sure to place the ribs that were on the bottom on top, and vice versa. Continue to refrigerate until its time to grill.
Heat grill to medium-high heat and when the grill is nice and hot add meat. Grill each side for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with addional slices of green onion and toasted sesame seeds.
*Looking for the other type of Korean Barbequed beef recipe called bulgogi? It’s right here.
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{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! Those shortribs look amazing! I’m definitely going to try these out. Thanks for sharing!
First, Happy Birthday to little man!! We love the sound of this. We have the grill ready & waiting. Thanks & best from Santa Barbara. s
I enjoyed reading this post, it was personal, informative and I learned something new about Korean birthday traditions, Happy 1st Birthday little guy!
saeng-il chukha-hamnida! (Happy Birthday to the little cutie)
Wooww, look at that, i can imagine how tasty it is!! Drooling now……
He’s so cute! Happy birthday to the little fellow!! Those short ribs look delish. Maybe with a little bit of kimchi on the side. Yum, yum korean food!!!!
your son is a cutie! and those short ribs look delicious
wow… yummy yummy!!!
Want to have a bite on it.
Happy birthday to your son! So cute! The Korean short-ribs look awesome!
These look so delicious! The photos are amazing!
I made these ribs last weekend and charcoal grilled them. I added was 1 tablespoon of freshly minced ginger and used brown sugar instead of white…also increased the red pepper flakes to a full tsp.
The flavor was excellent and the meat was very tender.
Thanks!
Those ribs look so tasty!
Man, that looks terrific! I will have to try this.
Thanks for all the comments everyone. And to DJeff89 I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’ve made them before with more red pepper, ginger, and brown sugar as well and they are very tasty indeed! Thanks for coming back with your review!
This looks fabulous. I completely know what you are talking about about the ribs, it happened to me with lamb shoulder. I spent all day braising this Moroccan lamb dish and it was VILE–it was about 75% fat I think! Blech!
Anyway this recipe is getting copied down…
Hello again Alice. Very impressive; can’t wait to try these! EMily
My oh my! That photo looks good enough to eat! haha. Thanks for sharing the wonderful recipe, I’ll try it sometime soon! And your child is soooooo cute and adorable!
Hey, hope you dont mind I am borrowing your photo of Kalbi for my post on making it from scratch. I am linking back here and crediting you as well. I might even use your recipe, its top on the list right now.
Let me know if you want me to take it down.
Robin
I am so making these!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. For some reason i’ve been craving asian bbq or something similar to that and came across your recipe on tastespotting. I am glad and can’t wait to grill my short ribs tomorrow. BTW,your baby is soo cute
Ty for this delectable recipe, Alice! It satisfied my sweet & spicy craving and now I have a wonderful recipe to tuck into my recipe file
Love Kalbi =D
Happy birthday to your sweet little man.
My family loves kalbi and your recipe looks great, but what about the soda and kiwi? You keep mentioning them, but did you ever use them?
On the first batch I did.. but that batch did not turn out well.. I mentioned this in the post how I ended up making a second batch. No soda, no kiwi. I think most ppl in the States have adapted this type of method to adding fruit and soda. My mom says in Korea they don’t do this. Maybe an asian apple pear.. but I find the meat is plenty tender from the marinade and the ribs themselves are cut very thin anyways. Hope that helps!!
Alice
Kalbi is one of my fave dishes EVER! I never knew the recipe for the sauce was so simple. I bought a jar of kalbi sauce once, and it had all sorts of fruit purees and stuff. So I thought it’d be impossible to make it at home. Thank you so much! My fiance’s bday is in 2 days and he’s vegan. I’m trying to figure out a vegan version of this! Wish me luck!! Thank you again for posting this
BTW, you’re a great writer.
I loved your story!!! We Americans are lacking in many of the awesome traditions of other countries. Would be very cool if your son became a chef. We have a “taco” truck here called Marination and they were just voted the best taco truck in the country by Good Morning America. They are on my Facebook page so I can keep up with where they will be. Kalbi is an item they make and I have been researching recipes for hours and just found this one. I will be making this for dinner tonight and am so jazzed! Thank you for sharing the recipe, your son and traditions.
Hi Alice! I came across your site a few weeks ago and love it! Great pictures and writing. I make kalbi all the time and have found sometimes the meat can be a little too fatty also. I now buy the short rib meat from Costco and slice it myself. It has the perfect amount of marbling in them, although it doesn’t have the traditional 3 bones that Kalbi has.
Hi Alice, I just found your blog while looking up bulgogi and kalbi recipes. Your son looks really charming in the picture
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Can we cook the kalbi in the oven instead as it’s too cold to be out grilling in the Canadian winter! I have a small George Foreman grill if that would work but I hope you have a oven method too. Thanks.
We tried this tonight and it was great, thanks for the recipe! I didn’t want to risk it on the GF indoor grill and got my husband to fire up the BBQ in 16F weather.
I’ll make it again next time with more red pepper and also add ginger. Will reduce the soy sauce (I used Kikkoman) as it was a little too salty.
I ran across this page when i seared “kalbi recipe” on google. definitely want to try this! but how many servings is your recipe for?
Hi Alice,
I’m a fellow Seattleite – where can I find Korean short ribs?
Thanks
Hi Heather,
Short ribs can be found at just about any grocery store. If you live near Ranch 99, Uwajimaya, or H-Mart, they will also carry short ribs. I’ve also seen them at Sam’s Club and Costco. Hope this helps!
coke marinade thats the ticket.
Hi, I just stumbled upon your blog while looking for a recipe for kalbi written in English. I am a Korean, and just wanted to add some comments. One of the purposes of soaking the kalbi in cold water before marinating is to wash off the bone particles from the meat. You’ll see all the sediments of bone particles after you soak the meat. So, if you don’t have time to soak them, I would recommend that you at least rince off the rib under running water.
Also, I just had yummy kalbi at my friend’s house, and her recipe was amazingly simple:
For 10 pounds kalbi, add 1 cup soy sauce, 2 cups water, and 1 pureed onion. That’s it. It was still very tasty.
I hope your son is doing well!
I might pee my pants these look so good! I’m adding this to my list of “to make” this summer. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting this easy-to-make-recipe-kalbi! I tried them and they were fantastic! I am not a cook and I do not know how to cook. I used your recipe and my husband and his siblings loved it! We are going to try it again. Thank you so much!
We made these the other day and they were absolutely perfect! I only marinated them for about six hours and they turned out great. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to add more of the red pepper flakes for a little more of a kick, but that’s just a personal preference. Thanks for sharing, Alice!
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve made the ribs twice in the last week and the kids LOVE it! Super easy and delicious
Thank you for sharing! This recipe is without a doubt the best! I finally found a Kalbi recipe that is lip smacking good, the whole family LOVED this version & said it was the best EVER! I made a glaze w/the remaining marinade to make it even yummier.
it’s not “ham-bok”, it’s han-bok. but that’s besides the point. that looks really good!
An Asian dish is a good twist to be prepared this New Year. ! I’m fond of barbecue recipes and I just can’t wait to try this. All the best.
I made this last august for my daughter’s birthday party and it was delicious!! it was very easy to make and everyone loved it.. even my korean mother-in-law. im makin this weekend for husband.. thanks so much for the recipe =)
I also read a Vietnamese bbq recipe from your blog, they are so different, even both of them are from Asia. Anyway I prefer Vietnamese one, i like their sauce, i have tried once, really really good. One other thing is in Asia, you prefer indoor cooking grills for family, so we can have barbecue everyday. Its different from Western countries when we often have bbq outsite with families and friends at weekends.
Quick question. I had kalbi style short ribs while vacationing in hawaii. They were phenomenal. But the meat was not grilled and seemed more like it was made in a crock pot. Have you ever cooked kalbi in a crock pot? If so, any directions would be helpful!
After starting the marinating process yesterday afternoon, I followed your lead and cooked one strip of strip of the kalbi this morning just to make sure I wouldn’t be embarrassing myself at dinner time tonight…it was AWESOME! I can only imagine how much better it will taste with 8 or 9 more hours in the marinade. Just for the sake of culinary experimentation, I went ahead and threw in the can of cola and some fresh ginger. I’m not sure if those additions made a difference or not because this is my first time making kalbi but I’ll probably keep adding them because it turned out so well.
I’m going to boil the left over marinade, let it cool and use it for some chicken breasts. I’ll probably throw those in the freezer and I’ll have some pre-marinated chicken ready for a last minute meal some night.
It’s taking everything I’ve got not to cook up a few more “taste tester” ribs for myself before dinner tonight. Thanks for sharing a great, reliable recipe it’s going in my recipe file for sure!
Hi Alice,
I love this recipe! It’s absolutely delicious and I truly appreciate the fact that it is authentic and not an American take on it. I do have one question though: Considering that I am not a cook, I’d like to know what are the best pairings with this recipe, meaning what other recipes would best compliment this dish?
Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Alice,
Had to tell you this recipe is INCREDIBLE! I had some friends over for dinner this past Saturday night and they went crazy over the BBQ I made on the grill from this recipe. I marinated the beef overnight and used something called flap steak, which I never heard of but bought at Costco. It was similar to skirt steak. It was tender and amazing!
Everyone wanted the recipe. I guess you can make it with chicken too? Thank you so much and I look forward to making some more of your recipes.
thanks this post
Hi
Do you take dark (toasted) sesame oil or just normal one?
Thank you
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