Beef Bulgogi Mandu

5 from 3 votes

Beef Bulgogi Mandu is a Korean dumpling recipe featuring juicy ground beef, hearty vegetables, and sweet and savory bulgogi flavor. It’s inspired by Costco’s Bibigo mandu, but it’s so much more flavorful! Once you try making your own dumplings, you’ll never go back to store-bought again. Serve them as an appetizer, snack, or main course!

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Assembly Time 30

Total Time 50

Servings dumplings

Calories 62

Author Jessica Kwon

Equipment

Steamer

Ingredients

½ onion about ⅔ cup
2-3 carrots about ⅔ cup
2-3 green onion about 3 tbsp
3-4 cloves garlic
½ inch knob ginger
1 lb ground beef 80/20 recommended
3 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar tightly packed
2 teaspoon sesame oil
¼ cup low sodium beef broth
Mandu dumpling wrappers
Salt and pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prep the veggies. Add onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, and green onion to a food processor. Pulse until finely minced. Alternatively, manually chop with a knife.
Make the filling. Transfer minced vegetables to a large bowl and add ground beef, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, beef broth, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Thoroughly mix together until beef is lightly tacky and sticky, about 1 minute.
Assemble. Set up your assembly station with a wooden cutting board, a small bowl of water, and parchment lined baking sheet. Lay out a single dumpling wrapper onto the cutting board and spoon 1 tablespoon filling into the middle, then lightly press flat.
Dip a clean finger into water and brush ½ edge of wrapper. Fold dumpling in half and gently press dry and wet edges together while squeezing out any air bubbles, forming a half moon shape. You can stop here if you plan to pan-fry the mandu.
To form the classic mandu shape, continue on. Rotate the dumpling so the sealed edge is facing you. Dip index fingers and thumbs on both hands into water and wet the two corners of the mandu. Bring corners to the back towards one another, and overlap a little to pinch together.
Place assembled dumplings onto baking sheet. Repeat until all the filling is used up.
To steam: Bring water to a boil. Line steamer and place mandu evenly spaced apart inside. Steam for 10 minutes until wrappers are lightly translucent. Let cool slightly before serving.
To pan fry: Add 1-2 tablespoon oil to a skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add a single layer of mandu, making sure to not overcrowd the pan, and cook for 2-3 minutes until golden. Then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Notes

Serving size will depend on size of your wrappers. This recipe should make between 20-40 mandu dumplings.
Mandu wrappers: Korean dumpling wrappers are typically on the chewier side since they’re made from glutinous rice flour. You can find them in the refrigerated or frozen section next to egg roll wrappers at Asian grocery stores. Sometimes they're labeled as wonton wrappers or sweet rice flour wrappers. Look for the ones with Korean writing and/or pictures of classic-shaped mandu on them.
Assemble your bulgogi mandu on a wooden cutting board to prevent the wrappers from sticking too much.
To air fry, preheat the air fryer to 375ºF. Add a single layer of dumplings, spray with oil, and air fry for 4-6 minutes until golden and meat is cooked.
Substitutions:
- Can't find Korean dumpling wrappers? Any kind of potsticker, dumpling, wonton, or gyoza wrapper will work in this recipe.
- Substitute brown sugar with white sugar or honey.
- Instead of the vegetables I’ve listed, experiment with different veggies like cabbage, kimchi, zucchini, shiitake mushrooms, peppers, bean sprouts, or celery.
- You can also make mandu with ground pork, chicken, or shrimp. Just replace the ground beef 1:1 or use a combination of meats.
- To make a version more like the ones at Costco, add sweet potato glass noodles as well. Make sure to boil according to package instructions, then drain, rinse with cold water, and dry well. Cu into smaller pieces and mix into the meat mixture.

Nutrition