Korean BBQ KBBQ at Home

A few days before hosting: get a headcount of all your guests and figure out the amount of meat and other food to purchase. Inventory the tools you might need to buy or collect, like a gas stove, grill, Kbbq plate, and other items. You can also use plates and dishes you already have at home. It doesn’t need to be fancy.

On the day of: purchase all the meat, banchan, other sides, vegetables, rice paper, ingredients for dipping sauce, and drinks at your local Korean grocery store (like H-Mart, Zion Market, Arirang, or others). Note: if you want to marinate your own meat, you will need to start marinating before the day of depending on your recipe.

Prepare the sides:A. Rinse and dry the lettuce and shiso leaves.B. Rinse the salad leaves and toss the salad RIGHT before serving.C. Cut the rice paper into 3x3 squares.E. Cook the rice in the rice cooker. F. Clean and cut all the vegetables (onion, mushrooms, garlic slices, jalapeno).G. Make the dipping sauces.H. Transfer the banchan into dishes (or you can also serve them directly out of their packages).

Set the table: place the stove and grill plate in the center of the table. The bigger the table the better–you can fit more items. Set the side dishes, plates of meat, and salad around the grill. Each person should get one plate, one set of chopsticks, one spoon, and dipping bowls for each sauce.

Grill the meat: Turn on the stove and begin to grill your meat. Try to grill non-marinated meats first to keep the grill cleaner. Since marinated meats have sugar in their sauce, this will quickly turn the grill black. Turn over the meat once it begins to brown. If you have a drip pan, make sure to monitor the level of fat in the bowl if it needs to be replaced throughout the night.

Grill the vegetables: On the edge of the grill plate, leave room to grill vegetables like garlic, onions, mushrooms, and kabocha.

While the meat is cooking, eat the banchan and other sides. During the meal make sure to refill any banchan or other sides like rice paper and daikon radish.

After the meat is grilled, begin making your wraps using lettuce, shiso, rice paper, and/or daikon slices. Dip the meat in the sauces or add it on top of the wrap, then add other vegetables like roasted garlic, kimchi, or salad. Fold over the wrap with your hands (or chopsticks if you’re using rice paper) and take a big bite.

Eat the meat and vegetables as soon as they’re cooked and enjoy!