Galbi-jjim recipe: Korean braised short ribs for Chuseok

This galbi-jjim recipe braises beef short ribs slowly in soy sauce, grated pear and garlic until the meat slips off the bone, with the step Korean cooks never skip: soaking and blanching the ribs first so the sauce stays clean.

Galbi-jjim is the centrepiece of the table at Chuseok, Korea's harvest festival, which falls on Friday 25 September in 2026. Maangchi, the Korean-American YouTube cook, makes it for birthdays, Seollal and Chuseok; her current version, posted in January 2020, comes from Maangchi's Big Book of Korean Cooking. This galbi-jjim recipe follows her method with Amuse Kitchen quantities.

Like the Catalan fricandó, another braise that rewards patience, it tastes better a day ahead. Choose ribs with plenty of meat on the bone.

Galbi-jjim rewards patience: an hour of soaking, a gentle braise and a glaze reduced at the very end.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg English-cut beef short ribs, 5-6 cm long
• 90 ml soy sauce
• 60 ml rice wine (cheongju or dry sake)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• ½ Asian pear, grated
• 1 small onion, grated
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 15 g fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 700 ml water
• 300 g Korean radish (mu) or daikon, in 4 cm chunks
• 2 carrots, in 4 cm chunks
• 6 dried shiitake, soaked for 30 minutes and halved
• 12 peeled chestnuts
• 8 dried jujubes
• 1 tbsp pine nuts
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Trim the hard fat, score the meat down to the bone and soak the ribs in cold water for 1 hour, changing it twice: this draws out blood that would cloud and darken the sauce.
2. Blanch the ribs in boiling water for 5 minutes, then rinse under cold water. The boil sets leftover proteins as grey scum that you wash off rather than skim for an hour.
3. Mix the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, honey, pear, onion, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and pepper. Pear and onion add sweetness and body; the pear's enzymes also soften the meat's surface.
4. Put the ribs, sauce and water in a heavy pot, bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 1 hour. Keep it at a lazy bubble: a hard boil tightens the muscle fibres before the collagen can melt into gelatin.
5. Add the radish, carrots, shiitake, chestnuts and jujubes and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes more; added late, they absorb the sauce without collapsing.
6. Uncover and cook for 10-15 minutes, basting the ribs, until the sauce reduces to a glossy glaze. Salt only now: reduction concentrates the soy.
7. Scatter with pine nuts and spring onion and serve with steamed white rice.

Make this galbi-jjim recipe a day ahead

Refrigerate the pot overnight: the fat sets into a layer you lift off whole, and the ribs reheat gently in 15 minutes with a splash of water. For a festive plate, top with strips of thin omelette made separately from yolks and whites, the jidan garnish of Korean special occasions.

A lightly off-dry riesling or chilled barley tea balances the sweet, savoury glaze.