Nothing exudes umami like the taste of Korean Braised Short Ribs, also known as Galbi Jjim. This recipe marries soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and a touch of sweetness to transform beef short ribs into this Korean culinary masterpiece.
Picture succulent short ribs bathed in a rich and luxurious marinade, slowly simmering to tender perfection. This traditional Galbi Jjim dish offers a savory and aromatic taste from a blend of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic ginger paste and fresh vegetables, with a hint of sweetness that accentuates the tenderness of the braised beef.
It’s a dish that kings used to feast on, only on special occasions, but with this straight-forward recipe, you can have Korean braised short ribs any time you want.
What Is A Short Rib?
A short rib is a cut of beef that comes from the rib section of the cow and usually consists of the meat on the bone.
Known for rich marbling and a deep, flavorful profile, short ribs are typically used in slow-cooked, braising recipes, like Korean Braised Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim). You can typically find it in any butcher shop or meat section in most major grocery stores.
Pro Tip: Make sure you get short ribs that are cut into large blocks with the bone on. Thinly sliced short ribs are also popular. But if you use those, the cooking time/method outlined in this recipe may not yield the same type of result.
The Ingredients for Galbi Jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs)
- 4 lbs. Short Ribs
- 1.5 cups Soy Sauce
- 1 cup Ginger Garlic Paste (see this recipe)
- 1 cup Korean Cooking Wine
- 1 tablespoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Black Pepper
- 4 tablespoons Sesame Oil
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 4 tablespoons Honey
- 1/2 Large Radish
- 2 Large Stalks Green Onion
- 1 White Onion
- 8 Korean Green Peppers
- 8 Korean Red Peppers
- 8 Shiitake Mushrooms
- 2 Large Carrots
- 1 Asian Pear
- Sesame Seeds (as garnish)
The Equipment Needed
Prepping Your Short Ribs
The first step you need to take before you start this recipe, is to prepare your short ribs for cooking. Do this by removing all of the blood in the meat and filtering out any small bone fragments that might be present in the meat.
Using a large bowl, submerge your short ribs in water for about 2 hours to let all of the blood that’s trapped inside the meat and the bone marrow to seep out. (After about 2 hours, the water should be visibly pink, from the extracted blood.)
Drain the bloody water and transfer your short ribs into a large pot. Then fill it with enough water to submerge all of your short ribs. Afterwards, place the pot on the stove (on high heat) until the water comes to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
Pro Tip: We boil the short ribs after draining the bloody water to prevent any blood that may still be present in the bone marrow from seeping out. This step of boiling the short ribs for 20 minutes beforehand, actual cooks the marrow inside the bone and causes whatever blood is remaining inside to solidify – preventing it from seeping out later.
But why do we need to remove all of the blood from the short ribs? Because otherwise your Galbi Jjim might exhibit a slight “gamey” smell/taste from the escaping blood in the meat.
After about 20 minutes of boiling the short ribs, remove from the heat, drain and rinse under cold water. While you are rinsing, gently scrub the bone portions of the short ribs to filter out any small fragments of bone that might be loose.
Now, place your short ribs back into the same pot you boiled them in and move onto the next step of crafting your marinade.
Preparing Your Marinade
Into the same pot you have your short ribs in, add 1.5 cups of soy sauce.
To that, add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 4 tablespoons of honey.
Afterwards, add 1 cup of Korean cooking wine and 1 cup of the ginger garlic paste. Then finely chop and blend 1 Asian pear in a food processor (like the Magic Bullet), and add to the pot. Follow that up with 1 cup of water, salt & pepper and 4 tablespoons of sesame oil.
Ginger Garlic Paste: If you don’t know about ginger garlic paste, its really simple. It’s just 1 part peeled garlic, 1 part peeled ginger and 1 cup of water – blended in a food processor until it is smooth. If you’d like to see me make it, head over to my Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.
Lastly, finely dice 1 cups worth of green onion and add that to your marinade.
Mix well so your marinade is well incorporated into the short ribs. Then, set aside for about 15 minutes for the flavors to start to come together.
Preparing Your Vegetables
Meanwhile, take your white onion and chop into quarters or eighths (Galbi Jjim usually features largely cut vegetables).
Next, take your large green onions and chop them into roughly 2 inch segments.
Then take your radish and slice into round, circular segments and then quarter those segments.
Do the same with your carrots – cut into large round slices.
Pro Tip: If you see Korean chefs make Galbi Jjim, they like to take the cut segments of radish and carrots and actually smooth out the edges of the vegetables with a small paring knife or vegetable peeler. I’m not entirely sure when/why this tradition started, but if you do this, it certainly makes the vegetables present better in the dish. (But this is entirely optional.)
If your shiitake mushrooms are very large, feel free to cut into quarters. But if you have small ones, like I have in this recipe, simple wash and keep whole.
For your green and red peppers, slice diagonally into 2 inch strips.
Set all vegetables aside until we are ready to add to the Galbi Jjim pot.
Cooking Your Galbi Jjim
After about 15 minutes of marinating the short ribs, add in about 8 cups of water to your pot and place the pot on the stove, on high heat, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.
Pro Tip: The short ribs have to braise for about 45 minutes for it to be really tender. During this time, your marinade mixture will evaporate and lose a little bit of volume. It’s important that your short ribs continue to stay submerged during this braising process, so monitor your pot closely and approximately every 15 minutes, add only enough water to keep your short ribs submerged. Continue to do this until the 45 minute cooking time has elapse.
Once the 45 minute mark has past, add in enough water to submerge your short ribs (this will be the last time you add in more water), and now you are ready to add in your vegetables.
Adding Your Vegetables To The Galbi Jjim
In order to make sure that your Galbi Jjim cooks properly, add in your vegetables according to the timing guideline below.
- 45 minutes: Braise short ribs
- 45 minutes + 0 minutes: Add in your radishes.
- 45 minutes + 10 minutes: Add in your onions & carrots.
- 45 minutes + 20 minutes: Add in your mushrooms.
- 45 minutes + 30 minutes: Add in your green onions and peppers.
- 45 minutes + 35 minutes: Turn off heat and remove from the stove.
Pro Tip: The order in which you add your vegetables is important because each type of vegetable has a different cooking time. If you add in all of your vegetables at once, by the end of the cook, you’ll have some vegetables that are not fully cooked and others that have cooked too much and will simply break apart when you try to pick them up.
After about 35 minutes of cooking your vegetables, the Galbi Jjim is done. Remove the pot from heat and give everything a good mix.
Pro Tip: By this time, the marinade base in your Galbi Jjim should have reduced to about 4-5 cups worth of liquid. If it looks like you have too much liquid left (it should be more gravy-like, not soupy), then simply turn up the heat to high and let the liquid evaporate to your desired level. If not enough liquid, add a little bit of water and stir in.
Serving Your Galbi Jjim
Serve your Galbi Jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs) in a large saucer or plate that can display all of the meat and vegetables at once. This is the only proper way to showcase your Korean braised short ribs.
Additionally, serve with cooked white rice and traditional Korean side dishes and enjoy!
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Equipment
- 1 Stock Pot, (large)
Ingredients
- 4 lbs Short Ribs
- 1.5 cups Soy Sauce
- 1 cup Ginger Garlic Paste, (see this recipe)
- 1 cup Korean Cooking Wine
- 1 tablespoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Black Pepper
- 4 tablespoons Sesame Oil
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 4 tablespoons Honey
- 1/2 Radish, (large)
- 2 stalks Green Onion, (large)
- 1 White Onion
- 8 Korean Green Peppers
- 8 Korean Red Peppers
- 8 Shiitake Mushrooms
- 2 Carrots, (large)
- 1 Asian Pear
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds, (as garnish)
Instructions
Prepping Your Short Ribs
- The first step you need to take before you start this recipe, is to prepare your short ribs for cooking. Do this by removing all of the blood in the meat and filtering out any small bone fragments that might be present in the meat.
- Using a large bowl, submerge your short ribs in water for about 2 hours to let all of the blood that's trapped inside the meat and the bone marrow to seep out. (After about 2 hours, the water should be visibly pink, from the extracted blood.)
- Drain the bloody water and transfer your short ribs into a large pot. Then fill it with enough water to submerge all of your short ribs. Afterwards, place the pot on the stove (on high heat) until the water comes to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Pro Tip: We boil the short ribs after draining the bloody water to prevent any blood that may still be present in the bone marrow from seeping out. This step of boiling the short ribs for 20 minutes beforehand, actual cooks the marrow inside the bone and causes whatever blood is remaining inside to solidify – preventing it from seeping out later.
- But why do we need to remove all of the blood from the short ribs? Because otherwise your Galbi Jjim might exhibit a slight "gamey" smell/taste from the escaping blood in the meat.
- After about 20 minutes of boiling the short ribs, remove from the heat, drain and rinse under cold water. While you are rinsing, gently scrub the bone portions of the short ribs to filter out any small fragments of bone that might be loose.
- Now, place your short ribs back into the same pot you boiled them in and move onto the next step of crafting your marinade.
Preparing Your Marinade
- Into the same pot you have your short ribs in, add 1.5 cups of soy sauce.
- To that, add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 4 tablespoons of honey.
- Afterwards, add 1 cup of Korean cooking wine and 1 cup of the ginger garlic paste. Then finely chop and blend 1 Asian pear in a food processor (like the Magic Bullet), and add to the pot. Follow that up with 1 cup of water, salt & pepper and 4 tablespoons of sesame oil.
- Ginger Garlic Paste: If you don't know about ginger garlic paste, its really simple. It's just 1 part peeled garlic, 1 part peeled ginger and 1 cup of water – blended in a food processor until it is smooth. If you'd like to see me make it, head over to my Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.
- Lastly, finely dice 1 cups worth of green onion and add that to your marinade.
- Mix well so your marinade is well incorporated into the short ribs. Then, set aside for about 15 minutes for the flavors to start to come together.
Preparing Your Vegetables
- Meanwhile, take your white onion and chop into quarters or eighths (Galbi Jjim usually features largely cut vegetables).
- Next, take your large green onions and chop them into roughly 2 inch segments.
- Then take your radish and slice into round, circular segments and then quarter those segments.
- Do the same with your carrots – cut into large round slices.
- Pro Tip: If you see Korean chefs make Galbi Jjim, they like to take the cut segments of radish and carrots and actually smooth out the edges of the vegetables with a small paring knife or vegetable peeler. I'm not entirely sure when/why this tradition started, but if you do this, it certainly makes the vegetables present better in the dish. (But this is entirely optional.)
- If your shiitake mushrooms are very large, feel free to cut into quarters. But if you have small ones, like I have in this recipe, simple wash and keep whole.
- For your green and red peppers, slice diagonally into 2 inch strips.
- Set all vegetables aside until we are ready to add to the Galbi Jjim pot.
Cooking Your Galbi Jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs)
- After about 15 minutes of marinating the short ribs, add in about 8 cups of water to your pot and place the pot on the stove, on high heat, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.
- Pro Tip: The short ribs have to braise for about 45 minutes for it to be really tender. During this time, your marinade mixture will evaporate and lose a little bit of volume. It's important that your short ribs continue to stay submerged during this braising process, so monitor your pot closely and approximately every 15 minutes, add only enough water to keep your short ribs submerged. Continue to do this until the 45 minute cooking time has elapse.
- Once the 45 minute mark has past, add in enough water to submerge your short ribs (this will be the last time you add in more water), and now you are ready to add in your vegetables.
Adding Your Vegetables To The Galbi Jjim
- In order to make sure that your Galbi Jjim cooks properly, add in your vegetables according to the timing guideline below.45 minutes: Braise short ribs45 minutes + 0 minutes: Add in your radishes.45 minutes + 10 minutes: Add in your onions & carrots.45 minutes + 20 minutes: Add in your mushrooms.45 minutes + 30 minutes: Add in your green onions and peppers.45 minutes + 35 minutes: Turn off heat and remove from the stove.
- Pro Tip: The order in which you add your vegetables is important because each type of vegetable has a different cooking time. If you add in all of your vegetables at once, you'll have some vegetables that are not fully cooked and others that have cooked too much and will simply break apart when you try to pick them up.
- After about 35 minutes of cooking your vegetables, the Galbi Jjim is done. Remove the pot from heat and give everything a good mix.
- Pro Tip: By this time, the marinade base in your Galbi Jjim should have reduced to about 4-5 cups worth of liquid. If it looks like you have too much liquid left (it should be more gravy-like, not soupy), then simply turn up the heat to high and let the liquid evaporate to your desired level. If not enough liquid, add a little bit of water and stir in.
Serving Your Galbi Jjim
- Serve your Galbi Jjim (Korean Braised Short Ribs) in a large saucer or plate that can display all of the meat and vegetables at once. This is the only proper way to showcase your Korean braised short ribs.
- Additionally, serve with cooked white rice and traditional Korean side dishes and enjoy!
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is just an estimate derived by an online calculation tool.
FAQ
What is a short rib?
A short rib is a cut of beef that comes from the rib section of the cow and usually consists of the meat on the bone. Known for rich marbling and a deep, flavorful profile, short ribs are typically used in slow-cooked, braising recipes, like Korean Braised Short Ribs (Galbi Jjim).
What is the difference between Galbi Jjim and Galbi Tang?
Galbi Jjim’s focus is on the braised short ribs. The marinade that it is stewed in, is more of a background element. For Galbi Tang, the dish itself is meant to be served as a stew/soup and the short ribs are one contributing factor (although the main character) of the dish, among many others.
What do you eat with Galbi Jjim?
Galbi Jjim is usually served with rice and traditional Korean side dishes, like kimchi.
Nora
This looks so mouthwatering! Can’t wait to try it out myself! Thanks for the wonderful step-by-step images!
Umamiology
You’re welcome – hope it turns out great!
Andréa
This looks so delicious. I love short ribs and these got so much flavor. And with all the tips when to add everything, this simply can’t go wrong.
Umamiology
Thanks for stopping by!
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome
You think the pictures make this dish look good? Just wait until you taste it!! One of the best short rib recipes I’ve tried. It makes the price of the ribs well worth it!
Umamiology
Glad you loved it!
Nicole NK
The brown sugar and honey was the perfect amount of sweetness in this recipe. We really enjoyed it.
Umamiology
Awesome – glad you enjoyed it!
Nicole
all these flavors sound so good together. Then you add the short ribs a little slice of heaven.
Stephanie
This recipe for Korean Braised Short Ribs knocked my socks off! I live in an area with a lot of Korean restaurants and I can say this recipe exceeded the ones I’ve ordered from these restaurants. Thank you for the pictorial steps – made creating this recipe a breeze. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Jean
This has got to be the most detailed post I’ve ever read. Made it so easy to make this recipe. Thanks for all the helpful tips.
Bernice
YUM! I love beef short ribs done any way but I don’t think I could resist these Korean flavours. Good thing it’s still snowing because now I’m in a braising mood.
Marta
I grew up making and eating galbi but I always love checking out and trying new recipes. I love that you use shitake mushrooms. I can’t wait to try this out.
Veronika
These had sooo much flavor, we loved them! We make short ribs a few times a year but never had them Korean style. We’ll have to make these more often!
Colleen
These short ribs were so delicious. We loved them and I’ll be making them again. Thank you!
Mikayla
These short ribs virtually melted in our mouth. So much flavor and a wonderful medley of flavors!
Tammy
Ahh such a comforting meal!! All those flavors are just so delicious together. I’m craving a big bowl right now 😀
Leslie
I love how detailed your recipes are. You make it easy to follow and fool proof for people like me! Perfect recipe!
Kathryn
These ribs were so good and tender. They were cooked just perfectly and had so much flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
Lauren
This was the first time we made Korean braised short ribs and it definitely won’t be the last. They turned out so tender and flavorful!
Sharon
It’s a bit time-consuming to prepare, but it is worth the effort. The short ribs were so tender and juicy, and the sauce had the perfect balance of sweet and savory flavors.