Korean Fried Beef Bites Recipe

Crunchy bite-sized morsels of sweet and sticky spicy beef. Sounds amazing, right? You don't often think of beef as a finger food, but these crispy glazed beef bites will leave everyone craving them. Korean fried beef bites will be your new favorite appetizer. Chicken wings have had their time in the sun. It's time for a new finger food to dethrone them and these beef bites will definitely do that. First of all, their beef. Coated with a sticky and spicy sauce plus a crispy crust. This craveable appetizer might just turn into your dinner. For these fried beef bites, we'll use a certified Angus beef top sirloin cap. This is the very top of the sirloin, sometimes called the picanha or culot. This cut has beautiful marbling and is super tender and tasty. This is the perfect cut for bite-sized pieces because if it is over medium rare, it will stay juicy and delicious. Sometimes these will come with a fat cap attached, so we'll have to take that off to cut this into bite-sized pieces. Just run your knife down the fat side with the blade slightly angled down toward the fat. While keeping your hand on the very top to make sure those fingers stay out of the way. Pro tip, don't throw that fat away. You can render it down into beef tallow, which is delicious to cook with. Now cut one inch wide strips of the sirloin and cut those strips into pieces about three inches long. You'll want the batons of beef to cook fairly quickly. So we've found that this size is ideal to deep fry. The pieces don't have to be at that exact size though. You just want them close to this size and equal so that they cook evenly and in the same amount of time. Repeat with the rest of the sirloin, cutting into similar sized pieces. Now time to work on the marinade. We'll start with a couple of egg whites to coat the meat. This comes from an old restaurant technique called velvety. It helps to coat the meat and keep it tender in the cooking process. Next add some soy sauce for flavor and seasoning and a little rice wine to give it some sweetness. Now you need to beat the marinade with a fork or a whisk until it is totally homogenized and somewhat frothy. This will make sure that the egg whites have completely mixed with all the liquids. Now into the marinade with the beef. You want to make sure that all those pieces are completely coated in the marinade. This will help to protect it from the high heat cooking that comes later. Cover it in plastic wrap and gently press down. If you press the wrap onto the top of the beef, the surface tension will keep the marinade covering the top of the beef. We'll cut some scallions on a bias, which means to cut on an angle. Cutting scallions on an angle makes them taste better, but that's just my opinion. I might be a little biased. For the finishing sauce, we'll use soy sauce and a little bit of honey for sweetness. Eyeballing volumes of honey is a skill that prevents cleaning a sticky measuring spin. We'll add some rice vinegar and gochujang. Gochujang is a Korean chili paste that is one of my favorite ingredients because it is spicy, sweet, and has a depth of flavor. We'll finish the sauce with a little bit of sesame oil for nuttiness. You really want a good mix on this, so give it a thorough whisk to make sure it's all incorporated. One of the things that makes this dish so amazing is the breading, and that's flour and cornstarch. The flour will give it a craggy golden crust, and the cornstarch will ensure crispiness and prevent the pieces from sticking together. After the beef has had time to marinate, we'll start coating it in our breading mixture. I like to add one handful at a time, coat that with the breading, and add more to prevent the pieces from sticking together or creating too thick of a breading. Make sure they are thoroughly coated for the crispiest crust you can achieve. Preheat your oil to 375 degrees before going in with the pieces of beef. A Dutch oven is great for deep frying because the heavy vessel will retain the heat, so the temperature of the oil doesn't drop too much when you go in with the first batch. Now fry until golden brown and crisp. It'll take about four to five minutes, depending on the size of your pot and how much oil you're using. Look at that golden crispy crust. Just tell me that doesn't look amazing. The oil temperature does drop some when cooking the first batch, so make sure the temperature comes back up to 375. While this oil heats up for the second batch, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Remember to give the pieces plenty of room. You don't want them sticking together and ripping off some of that beautiful crust that you worked so hard to create. I'm using a metal spider strainer to remove the pieces of beef, which is the best tool to have around if you like to deep fry. If you don't have one, use a metal slotted spoon, but be sure not to use plastic. Just look at the crust on that beef. You can't beat the combination of textures when you combine the crispy crust with the tender pieces of beef. While they're hot, go right into that gochujang sauce. Give them a good toss to coat. You really want to make sure each piece is fully coated in the sauce because seriously, this sauce is amazing. The crispy crust with the sweet, sticky, and spicy sauce really gives off chicken wing vibes, but it's so much tastier. When you use certified Angus beef for these bites, you know it will be tender and delicious every time because if it's not certified, it's not the best. Plate these up and serve them family-style, garnished with scallions and sesame seeds. I bet your friends won't be able to get enough of them. Wings got nothing on these beef bites. I'm probably just gonna eat the whole bowl. We'll see you next time in the Test Kitchen.