Roy Choi’s BBQ Kalbi Recipe: Tips for Making BBQ Kalbi

Roy Choi is a celebrated chef widely known throughout the culinary industry as the godfather of the gourmet food truck movement. The 2008 launch of Kogi, his Korean Mexican food truck in Los Angeles, California, blew up the boundaries between fancy restaurant cuisine and street food, putting Roy on the map as one of the most original chefs in the United States. However, Kogi’s wild success was only the start of Roy’s culinary revolution.

In the years since, he’s opened nearly a dozen acclaimed restaurants, including Kogi Taqueria in Los Angeles and Best Friend in Las Vegas, Nevada; coauthored L.A. Son, a bestselling memoir and cookbook; appeared on the “100 Most Influential People” list assembled by TIME magazine; and starred alongside filmmaker Jon Favreau on The Chef Show, a hit docuseries on the streaming platform Netflix.

Kalbi (also spelled galbi) are grilled Korean beef short ribs. (Though beef is most common, kalbi may also refer to pork short ribs.) Kalbi is a type of gui, a category of grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. Two factors differentiate kalbi from other short rib recipes: the cut of the meat and the marinade. Also known as flanken ribs, this protein gets cut crosswise, allowing it to cook more quickly than English-style ribs.

Chefs and home cooks sometimes marinate these ribs in a kalbi marinade, which features sweet and savory flavors like those found in bulgogi sauce. Unlike bulgogi, kalbi places less emphasis on the spice from gochujang, the fermented chili paste that appears in a variety of other Korean dishes. Ultimately, kalbi marinade is one of those recipes that every practitioner makes a little differently, but it’s always garlicky, sweet, and savory with a nutty sesame flavor.

Garnish these Korean ribs with sliced scallions (also known as green onions) and sesame seeds. Serve with ssamjang, a spicy dipping sauce, for a touch of heat.

Sweet, salty, quick-cooking, perfectly tender yet nicely charred, kalbi is one of the highlights of a Korean barbecue (KBBQ for short) spread. Make the best BBQ kalbi at home with Roy Choi’s tips:

1. 1. Use flanken-style short ribs. Look for flanken-style short ribs, which are thinly cut across the bone rather than between the bones. (They are available in bone-in or boneless varieties.) This cut is often referred to as LA-style kalbi: When Korean immigrants arrived in the city, they found that the local shops sold short ribs cut crosswise into strips, which eventually became the preferred style. If you don’t see them in the meat case, ask your butcher for Korean-style short ribs, and they should be able to help you out.
2. 2. Make necessary substitutions to the marinade. Roy blends in the tangy flesh of the kiwifruit in this recipe, but you can swap in pears, pineapple, or any other available fruits. You can find mirin, a sweet Japanese rice wine, at Asian markets or online. If you don’t have a bottle of mirin on hand, use apple juice instead.
3. 3. Marinate the meat for at least two hours. Massage the marinade into the ribs, and let them sit overnight or at least for a couple of hours. The marinade will cure the meat slightly and give it a tender texture.
4. 4. Watch the grill. Since kalbi is a thin cut, it will cook quickly on a hot grill. Watch the meat as it cooks; it should be charred but still moist.
5. 5. Serve it with the works. For the full Korean restaurant setup, serve your Korean BBQ on a heated cast-iron plate (also called a sizzle plate) covered with a layer of raw onions and a drizzle of oil. Enjoy your barbecue traditional-style by serving it with panchan (also spelled banchan), savory mung bean pancakes, and plenty of rice.
6. 6. Make it vegetarian. Good news for anyone seeking a meat alternative: You can use vegetables instead of short rib. Marinate the vegetables briefly, then grill them until they’re charred and tender.