Korean Beef Tacos

I don’t know why, but I’ve been really into slow cooked meat lately. Pork. Beef. Chicken. It doesn’t matter. Throw some ingredients into the slow cooked, turn it on, and walk away. I can handle that.

Remember Memorial Day? Well, I worked that weekend. So while the rest of you were kickin it poolside, chowing down on burgers and dogs, I was saving lives. Ok, that’s a bit dramatic, but still, I wasn’t kickin it poolside. Nope, not even close.

Anyways, I can’t complain that much. I did have Saturday off. As I was sitting next to my very hairy and cute consistent at work last Friday and I couldn’t get Indian food and these tacos out of my mind. I was torn. Which to have? Oh the choices in life! Wahhhh to dooooo???

Then I had an epiphany: Why chose???

I didn't my friends. No siree. I had my cake and I ate it. All of it. And I liked it.

I had Indian for lunch with some great friends that I hadn’t seen a while. Oh Indian food, why can’t I make it at home? It’s just so goooood. I’ll have naan any day of the week. Please. I’ll take some right now. Thank you.

What does this have to do with Korean Beef Tacos? Absolutely nothing! I’m rambling. Please try to act surprised!

Tacos. We should be talking about tacos. Specifically these tacos.

I was worried that Korean tacos wouldn’t be, well… Korean somehow. I know, that sounds weird. The list of ingredients for the recipe seemed too easy. I had everything in my pantry.  My worries were for nothing though. My friend Jake, he loves Asian food as much as I do, and he said the tacos definitely tasted Korean. Score!

What's the best thing to go with Korean shredded beef? Sesame slaw! Again, all things I had in my pantry. Except the slaw mix, that was in the fridge. Please don't put your slaw mix in the pantry, bad things will happen to it. On a kinda-related note, did you know that slaw mix will last forever in the fridge? I mean, we're talking months. Seriously. I'm not admitting that I might have had a partially used bag from the pulled pork sandwiches from forever ago, but there might might have been such a thing found in the very depths of my fridge. I swear my fridge hides things from me on purpose.

The beauty of this recipe was that it made a ton of beef, perfect for leftovers. I froze the remaining beef and used it later for BBQ beef and baked beans.

Korean Beef Tacos:

Serves 6-8

4 lbs Roast beef

1/2 c Brown sugar

1/3 c Soy sauce

1/2 c Onion, chopped

10 cloves Garlic, minced or grated

1" piece of Ginger, grated

2 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Sesame oil

1 Jalapeno, diced and seeded

1. Place all the ingredients into the slow cook. Turn onto low for 9 hours.

2. Once meat is done shred with 2 forks and allow the meat to sit in the juices for 1-2h on warm. Or you can reduce the juices by half on high in a saucepan and pour over the meat.

3. Serve on flour or corn tortillas.

Sesame Slaw:

Serves 6-8

2 c Slaw mix

1-2 Carrots, grated

1/2 c peanuts, crushed or roughly chopped

Handful of Basil, thinly sliced

1/2 c Green peppers, diced small

1/2 c Green onions, sliced

3 Tbsp Sesame oil

2 Tbsp White wine vinegar (or any light colored vinegar, champagne, apple cider, etc...)

2 cloves Garlic, grated or minced

Salt and pepper

1. Chop green peppers, green onions, and basil. Add to slaw mix and the grated carrots.

2. In a small bowl mix the wet ingredients. Pour over slaw mix and mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. I added more garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to help cut some of the strong taste of the sesame oil.

3. Top with toasted sesame seeds and peanuts.

This recipe was lightly adapted from here

Enjoy!!