Korean-Style Short Ribs
Photo: Christina Holmes
PUBLISHED July 21, 2025
To make these delectable short ribs, called kalbi or galbi in Korean, you take a cut of beef that’s usually braised, slice it thin, hit it with a powerful marinade, then grill it fast over as hot a fire as you can summon. The results are spectacular. Fold the meat and some bonus seasonings into a lettuce leaf and you’ve got something incredible in your hands. A couple ingredients are worth highlighting. First is gochujang, a fermented Korean chili paste with a unique interplay of sweet, hot, and savory flavors. It’s now widely available in the United States, and worth finding. Perilla is an herb from the mint family with an anisey flavor; shiso is a close relative. If you can’t find perilla or shiso, substitute basil leaves, though it won’t quite be the same. The rib cut preferred for kalbi is flanken: Three or more meaty ribs, still attached to one another, are thinly sliced across the bone. You end up with thin slices that have little ovals of bone on one side. Depending on where you live, this cut may not be easy to find. Substitute boneless short ribs and fillet them into long, thin strips.
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