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This Korean BBQ sauce recipe is sweet and savory, packing in loads of flavor from the fresh garlic and ginger. Baste pork chops or chicken while grilling, drizzle it over a grain bowl, or use this sweet, sticky sauce as a dip.
We love a saucy moment and our Korean BBQ sauce recipe has us covered.
Sweet, Savory, & Saucy. The Keys To My Heart.
I’m a sucker for a good sauce. In fact, I once drove 6 hours round trip just to eat a restaurant that had 27 different varieties of ranch dressing. I got the ranch flight, a pile of fries, and a ranch infused bloody mary. Worth every second of the drive.
Anyway, I’m a big fan of sauce and this Korean BBQ sauce does all the work when it comes to turning a boring dinner into an exciting meal.
We’re currently obsessed with drizzling this Korean barbecue sauce over rice bowls (we start with our Instant Pot jasmine rice, of course) that are topped with browned ground beef and loads of fresh vegetables, like shredded carrots, cabbage, peppers, avocado, snow peas, and cucumbers. It’s a rainbow of a meal that is fresh and crunchy and sweet and saucy and also ready in 30 minutes.
During the warmer months, we like to baste pork chops and chicken breasts with this sauce as we’re grilling. It gets all sweet and sticky on the grill with the perfect amount of spice to keep us interested.
What We Love About This Recipe:
- Sweet, Spicy, and Savory: We love the balance of flavors in this sauce and I especially love that you can easily adjust things to suit your tastes.
- 10 Minute Flavor Boost: Making homemade sauces can seem intimidating or like it’d be too much work, but a batch of this Korean BBQ sauce literally is ready in 10 minutes.
- Star of the Show: I love that this recipe can take a boring meal (hello, ground beef + rice) and turn it into something flavorful and memorable. You’ll want seconds, I can almost guarantee it.
Ingredient Notes:
Soy Sauce – We recommend low sodium soy sauce for this recipe to keep the sauce from being too salty. This is easy to find at Walmart.
Brown Sugar – A little sweetness balances out the salty, savory, spicy flavors and helps make a sticky sauce.
Chili Paste OR Sriracha – I love the flavors of sambal oelek and it’s great in this sauce but you can also use sriracha if that’s what you have. They’re very similar as far as spiciness, but sriracha has a much stronger garlic flavor.
Minced Ginger & Garlic – Fresh garlic and ginger go a long way towards adding big, bold flavor in our Korean sauce.
Sesame Oil – I always have a bottle of this sauce on hand for drizzling over our sausage egg roll in a bowl or using in our Asian cucumber salad. It’s a very flavorful oil and a must for Asian cooking.
Cornstarch – We’ll use a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce up.
What Readers are Saying!
“Great Korean BBQ Sauce! Grilled some Korean ribs! Magnifique!!!”
– Sally
How To:
Add everything but the water and cornstarch to a sauce pan and turn the pan to medium. Give it a good stir.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water to form a slurry. Whisk that into the sauce.
Bring the sauce to a boil, whisking often, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Once the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and is nice and glossy, remove from the heat to cool.
Ways to Use Korean Barbecue Sauce:
Korean Rice Bowls: Brown some beef and stir in some Korean BBQ sauce after draining. Let it cook for a couple of minutes to soak the sauce into the beef. Top some rice with the beef and fresh veggies, such as shredded carrots, cabbage, and bell peppers. Fresh sliced cucumber and avocado are a great addition. Snow peas, pickled red onion, and shelled edamame are all great additions. Drizzle it all with extra sauce.
Korean BBQ Grilled Chicken: Season pounded out chicken breasts with garlic powder and onion powder and grill on one side for about 5 minutes. Baste with the sauce, flip, and continue basting and grilling until the chicken is cooked through.
Korean Pork Chops: Baste pork chops with our Korean BBQ sauce as you grill. We like thin cut pork chops and they cook very quickly!
Recipe FAQs:
Yes, it should keep for at least a week in the refrigerator. Seal tightly in a mason jar for the best results.
This sauce is easy to customize. After boiling the sauce, let it cool down a bit and then taste. If you’d like it sweeter, whisk in some honey. If you’d like it spicier, whisk in more sriracha or some red pepper flakes.
More Favorite BBQ Recipes!
- BBQ Meatballs – The perfect comfort food!
- Bourbon BBQ Sauce – Another great homemade sauce for grilling!
- Mustard BBQ Sauce – Check out this easy low carb mustard based BBQ sauce!
- BBQ Dry Rub Recipe – Not everyone likes sauce, and sometimes you’re just in the mood for something different. This homemade dry rub is what you need.
- Alabama White Sauce – This white BBQ sauce has a totally different flavor than tomato based sauces!
Korean BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon chili paste or sriracha
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar, chili paste, ginger, and sesame oil to a small sauce pan over medium heat and stir well.
- Whisk together the water and cornstarch and whisk into the soy mixture.
- Bring to a boil, whisking often, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes or until mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool before use.
Karly says
Hi Tony. Yes, I have worked with Smithfield in the past and purchase plenty of products from companies all over the globe. All of Smithfield’s pork is grown and processed in the United States the last I heard and that’s good enough for me. Love that we’re all able to choose what companies to support.
Sally says
Great Korean BQ Sauce! Grilled some Korean ribs! Magnifique!!!
Karly says
Thanks, Sally!
Heather Hamby says
Looks yummy! If I needed to use plain pork chops instead of the Smithfield chops, what would I need to do to them to match the flavor? Thank you!
Karly says
I’d just add a little bbq rub to them.
Stephanie Raffaele says
What a great recipe! This looks fantastic! Cannot wait to start the BBQ season and try this recipe out! I think my family will love it!!
Dorothy says
Can you please tell me if the sauce keeps well? If so, how long? I’ve just finished making it & don’t want to waste any. Thank you.
Karly says
I think it’d last at least a week in the fridge. 🙂
Trish @ Spoonful Of Butter says
Now this is my kind of pork chops! I actually like to eat my grilled pork chops both with rice and coleslaw, for me they compliment each other!
Kirby says
Well unlike your hubbies I always man the grill at my house. The reason for that is no one else likes to clean and prepare the grill for a tasty dinner or weekend meal.
I’m all about BBQ and grills and I couldn’t pass on these Korean Chops they look so good in your pic’s. I used to get the most delicious Korean BBQ Ribs from a local restaurant that quit serving them (gasp why would they drop a winner). So this really caught my eye and I’m excited to try them this weekend.
Thanks for the recipe Karly! I confess I might try them on a rack of pork ribs.
Kate | My Little Larder says
What is it about men and grills? My husband is the same! Pork looks absolutely delicious. Can’t wait ’til it’s summer here and I (or rather my hubby) can crack out the grill and make these. Yum!
Arun says
I guess it can’t get any better than this!! I am hungry just by looking at these pics!
Christine says
It looks increadibly tasty. The Korean BBQ sauce is definitely great .
Dawn @ Words Of Deliciousness says
These pork chops look delicious! I love the Korean BBQ sauce. My hubby usually does the grilling at our house.
Kelli @ Hungry Hobby says
I miss Korean BBQ so much we had a place near my Grad School that was amazing, but now I can make this!