Tacos are one of my go-to’s for a quick weeknight meal. However, there’s only so many nights you can make traditional tacos before you start craving some new flavors. Cooking Light’s Korean-Style Beef Tacos sounded like the best of both worlds: a quick meal with new spices. I ended up changing the method of cooking, but the ingredients remained the same. Cooking Light suggested topping the tacos with a Quick Pickled Cabbage as well, so I’ve included that below. This recipe does require you to marinate the beef for an hour, so plan accordingly. To make it a quick meal, you could also just marinate the meat overnight.
Ingredients for the tacos:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 5 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
- the juice of 2 limes
- 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 12 ounces flank steak, sliced against the grain into thin strips
- Salt, to taste
- Cooking spray
- 8 (6-inch) tortillas
- 3 tablespoons sliced green onions
Ingredients for the cabbage:
- 1 head of napa cabbage, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons chile paste
Combine the sugar, soy sauce, chile paste, lime juice, and garlic cloves in a shallow dish.
Add the steak and cover. Marinate for 1 hour, turning the steak over after 30 minutes.
While waiting for the steak to marinate, make the cabbage. Place cabbage in a medium bowl with garlic.
Add vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and chile paste to a saute pan. Bring to a boil.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over cabbage; toss. Let stand at least 30 minutes.
When ready to eat, preheat your grill to medium-high. Remove the steak from the marinade and place the steak on the grill, discard the marinade. Grill the steak for 2 minutes on each side, or until desired degree of doneness.
Grill tortillas for 30 seconds on each side. Place two tortillas on each of 4 plates and divide the steak evenly among the tortillas. Top with the quick pickled cabbage and sprinkle with green onions.
The flavor in the steak is surprisingly good. It’s not necessarily spicy, but has a sightly spicy boost from the chili paste that’s really delicious.
The cabbage also has a slight kick from the chili paste but neither are overwhelmingly so.
I loved the taste of this dish, but I found the pieces of the steak to be too big. I’d suggest cutting them into bite sized pieces to make this easier to eat. This was a nice break from traditional Mexican flavors, I really liked it!
Looks good!
These look really incredible. I’ve never had korean style tacos. I bet they taste amazing.
The cabbage reminds me of a quick kimchi. yum 🙂
looks delicious! I just had a korean taco the other weekend when I was out! Thanks for sharing !!
YUM that is a great looking taco!
I love Korean-style beef, but have never had it in a taco! This is definitely a recipe I need to make now that it’s getting too hot to cook inside. 🙂
These look great. I haven’t cooked beef like this before. I will have to try it out. Mexican is my go to quick meal but we always use beans. It will be nice to switch it up a bit.
ooh this is my kinda cookin right here ^_^
looks good. ^^ will have to try it out.