Samgyeopsal is a popular Korean grilled pork belly dish devoured in K-BBQ restaurants with multiple side dishes. Many K-food lovers adore this dish so much that many are looking for easy home recipes to recreate the experience at home!
The reasons to love Korean BBQ pork belly are numerous. It’s healthy when eaten in moderation, comforting after a long day at work, and it’s interesting enough to share with friends. However, you don’t need to go to a Korean restaurant to enjoy this dish.
With a little bit of reading, easy-to-find ingredients, and a tested samgyeopsal recipe like the one in this article, you can stop going to Korean restaurants and start enjoying Samgyeopsal at home.
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What Is Samgyeopsal?
Samgyeopsal is sliced grilled pork belly prepared in a zingy Korean BBQ marinade with a dipping sauce that can be eaten either spicy or non-spicy.
Korean BBQ is so popular because everyone cooks the pork belly together on a hot pan, and it’s very customisable! Otherwise, you can dress it with dipping sauce, make little wraps, or pair it with vegetables, rice, and kimchi.
Vegetarians can cook mushrooms instead of pork belly and use the same sauces and side dishes.
Popularity
There are many different ways to prepare Korean BBQ, and there are endless possibilities for flavours and combinations. You can learn all about it by reading our full guide to Korean BBQ article.
However, within the variety of Korean BBQ, samgyeopsal is extremely popular. Aside from the delicious taste available at restaurants now found worldwide, Korean barbecue is also a fun family or group meal that you can make at home.
In the Philippines
Samgyeopsal has gotten really popular in the Philippines. In recent years, you will find that there is a surge of restaurants and home cooks serving it in the country.
The savoury, sweet and spicy flavour combination of the dish seems to hit it off with the local Filipinos. In addition, the flexibility of the dish with all those samgyeopsal side dishes only made it that much more accessible and appealing to Filipino chefs.
In the early 2000s, Korean music and also K-dramas became very popular in the Philippines. Hence, the Korean BBQ dish quickly became trendy in the South East Asian country.
Popularised by BTS’s Jungkook
Have you ever wanted to know about Samgyeopsal and Jungkook from BTS (Bangtan Boys)? The famous Korean singer Jungkook is obsessed with this delicious Korean BBQ Pork Belly meal! In addition, he created a song on Twitter related to his love for this dish.
Of course, this is just a silly song, but you can see (or listen) through the song how this dish is truly beloved in Korean culture. So whether this is a dish you've frequently had, or you are new to creating spectacular Korean barbeque dishes, this is an excellent meal for you!
Taste
Samgyeopsal’s taste is closer to a meaty and savoury piece of roast pork or cutlet than to bacon. However, you will find that pork belly is rather bland before you marinate and cook it.
The use of a dipping sauce enhances the flavour profile of the barbecued pork belly entirely. So, we highly recommend preparing one that suits your taste buds. The dipping sauce can be sweet like a honey sauce, or you can also use spicy samgyeopsal recipe for more heat.
Samgyeopsal Calories
A typical portion of Samgyeopsal contains around 650 calories. However, when you prepare it at home, it mainly depends on how much pork belly you serve!
Although Samgyeopsal is high in calories, it is also a good source of protein and other nutrients. In addition, it is a good source of protein, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and zinc.
Because it is high in protein and low in fat, you usually serve it with high fibre vegetables such as lettuce and kimchi.
Ingredients
Meat
The star of Samgyeopsal is the pork belly. So, it is important that you pick the best cuts of pork belly. So, choose a piece of pork belly that looks clean, has very little to no smell, and is moist without being slimy.
If you’re worried about slicing the pork belly thin enough, bring them to your nearby butcher. Then, ask them if they would be willing to cut it for you. You may have to pay for this service, but you’ll be sure to get thin cuts that would be great for your meal.
Marinade
You can make a Samgyeopsal marinade at home in a couple of different ways, depending on personal preference.
You can buy most of the other ingredients in this dish, like Gochujang sauce, at a large supermarket or Asian market. However, if you have issues, look for them online from a Korean grocer.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Gochujang sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, Gochujang sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic powder in a large bowl. Next, add salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss with the marinade until well-coated, and marinate the pork belly for two to forty-eight hours in the fridge before grilling.
- Allowing the meat to marinate for at least two hours adds moisture to the fibres and helps the meat stay moist during the grilling process.
Marinating Tip
Don’t leave the Korean pork belly in the marinade too long. A marinade tenderises the meat by breaking down protein molecules in the meat.
The marinade works only to penetrate a few millimetres into the flesh. Hence, it may cause the outside layer to become mealy and soft without really softening the interior portion.
When the meat has been marinating for forty-eight hours, the sauce has done all the work it can. So there isn't a real benefit to marinating it beyond that time frame.
Spicy Samgyeopsal
Gochujang sauce is what makes the spicy samgyeopsal recipe spicy! You can buy it pre-made, or you can make home made Gochujang sauce.
The great thing about any recipe is adjusting it to your preference. Typically, one tablespoon of the Gochujang Samgyeopsal recipe is sufficient, but add more if you like extra spicy!
Samgyeopsal Sauce
The dipping sauce is what helps to add depth to the taste of samgyeopsal. There are many different types of sauces you could make, but here’s our favourite.
How to make Dipping Samgyeopsal Sauce
- ¼ cup doenjang (Korean soybean paste)
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoon gochujang (Korean red chilli paste)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
Suppose you want your samgyeopsal marinade sweet. If so, try adding ¼ cup of brown sugar. If you don't want to use sugar, there are other ingredients you can add to give it a sweet flavour!
Use a different type of soybean paste, such as yellow soybean paste, which is sweeter than the white variety. You can also use honey as a sweetener!
Cooking Tips
A few of our favourite cooking tips include:
- Prepare your grill ahead of time to the heat of 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius or higher if possible.
- Because this specific cut of meat is about ¼ inches thick, it is important to rotate it often to ensure that it is heated evenly. You’ll also want to keep them away from direct flames, so they do not burn.
- Freeze your pork belly for 1-2 hours before slicing, and use a very sharp knife to ensure the meat is cut thinly and evenly.
Side Dishes
Samgyeopsal side dishes are not your typical side dishes. The traditional banchan, or side dishes, come gratis (with the meal for free). Banchan are small side dishes that are typically served with Korean table meals.
There are hundreds of banchan options, but they are divided into three broad categories: fermented, like kimchi; braised, like potato chunks or soybeans; and seasoned, such as spinach or watercress.
Sweet and Savory Banchan Styles
Banchan can be sweet or savoury. It just depends on your personal preference!
Sweet Banchan
- Dried persimmons - Sweet and chewy with a ginger flavour
- Lotus root porridge - Milky white. Bland but slightly nutty in taste with pieces of lotus root inside
- Tteok tteokbokki - A chewy, sticky rice cake cooked in Gochujang (red chilli paste)
- Sujeonggwa - A cinnamon and ginger drink that's sweet and tangy
- Anju - Foods that go well with alcohol, such as fried chicken or fish cakes. Usually consumed when drinking soju (like vodka) because it helps to cut the strong flavour of the alcohol.
Savoury Banchan
- Kimchi - Fermented cabbage with a spicy, sour flavour
- Jjigae - A stew made with various vegetables and meats
- Doenjang - A fermented soybean paste that is salty and slightly sour
- Ganjang - A soy sauce made from fermented soybeans
Samgyeopsal Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh or frozen sliced pork belly
Marinade
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsps rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Gochujang sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Dipping Sauce
Vegetables
- 1 bunch lettuce washed and dried for wraps
- 2 carrots cut into batons
- 7-8 green chilli peppers rough dice
- 1 cucumber cut into batons
- 10-12 cloves raw garlic sliced thin
- 1 large onion cut into bite-size pieces
Equipment
Instructions
- Before guests arrive to eat samgyeopsal, freeze and slice the pork belly into ¼ inch slices, then marinate for 2-48 hours, cover, and set aside on a plate. Cut and prepare vegetables and set them aside.
- Whisk together all dipping sauce ingredients and portion them into small dishes for each guest.
- Cook the pork belly by heating the grill pan with a small amount of toasted sesame oil for added flavour. Cover the bottom of the pan with pork belly slices or cut smaller into bite-sized pieces. Cook while turning and frequently moving to avoid sticking until both sides are crispy.
- Remove cooked pork belly pieces and set them aside on a plate, or guests can move their cooked bits from the grill to their plates and eat them. Serve the samgyeopsal on lettuce as wraps with dipping sauce, other vegetables, and banchan.
Notes
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and are only rough estimations.
Mommy-Go-Round on Youtube has a comprehensive video on how to prepare the pork belly Korean BBQ at home. We highly recommend you check out her video to understand the end to end process of preparing it at home.
How did your K-BBQ experience at home turn out? Share with us some photos of your homemade Samgyeopsal by tagging us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks!
Carceina Ruffin
I LOVE PORK BELLY