Your email address is required to begin the subscription process. We will use it for customer service and other communications from Milk Street. You can unsubscribe from receiving our emails at any time.

Korean Grilled Marinated Short Ribs (Yangneom Galbi)
Yangneom galbi, commonly referred to as just “galbi,” which translates from the Korean as “rib”—is what comes to mind when most people think of Korean barbecue. Thin-cut beef short ribs marinated in a garlicky soy mixture and cooked quickly on a hot grill are sweet, salty, meaty, fatty, charred, chewy-tender and utterly delicious. This recipe, from Hooni Kim’s “My Korea,” uses thin flanken-style short ribs. This cut of short rib includes three sections of crosscut bone to which a strip of meat is attached. Flanken-style ribs are sold in some supermarkets, but typically are too thick for galbi, so shop carefully. The ribs to purchase should be no thicker than ¼ inch. Finding them may require a trip to the butcher or to a Korean market, if you have one nearby. If you cannot find thin flanken-style short ribs, use about 2½ pounds skirt steak; cut the steak into 6- to 8-inch sections and marinate for no more than four hours. Asian pear, an ingredient in the marinade, is seasonal and is easiest to find in the fall and winter. If not available, Kim recommends using an apple in its place. Galbi is commonly served with lettuce leaves for wrapping pieces of meat and ssamjang, a pungent, salty, umami-rich condiment for spreading onto the lettuce. But feel free to skip these flourishes, as the ribs are great with only steamed rice and kimchi.
6
Servings
Don’t put the ribs onto the grill directly from the marinade. Transfer them from the marinade to a plate, allowing the excess to drip off. If the meat is soaking wet with marinade, it will stick when it makes contact with the grill grate. Also, don’t crowd the ribs on the grill, which will impede browning. If needed, cook them in two batches.
4 hours
45 minutes active, plus grill prep
Ingredients
-
1
Asian pear (see headnote), peeled, cored and cut into rough 1-inch chunks
-
10
medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
Directions
-
01In a blender, combine the pear, garlic, ginger, sake, soy sauce, sugar, mirin and ½ teaspoon pepper. Blend until smooth, 15 to 20 seconds. Pour the mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Add the short ribs, turning them to coat with the marinade, and arrange in an even layer; the ribs should be mostly submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours, turning them once or twice to ensure they marinate evenly.
Pardon the interruption
You need to be a Milk Street Digital Member to see the full recipe
JOIN MILK STREET DIGITAL & PRINT
12 WEEKS FOR JUST $1
and get access to all of our recipes and articles online, as well as in print.
GET DIGITAL & PRINT
This was delicious and pretty easy. It’s worth making the ssamjang, which was both very tasty and also very easy (did the white miso substitution). But the next time I make this it will be with skirt steak. The short ribs are just too fatty in my opinion