One-Skillet Korean Nachos Will Shake Up Your Party Menu
Sweet and spicy Korean nachos. [Photographs: Morgan Eisenberg]
Sweet and spicy Korean nachos. [Photographs: Morgan Eisenberg]
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Game Day Entertaining
Wings, dips, snacks, drinks and everything in between!
Gaze into my crystal ball and I will reveal your Super Bowl menu. I see...Buffalo chicken wings, a veggie tray with ranch dip, guacamole, nachos, and chili. What do you know, I'm practically the new Miss Cleo.
There's nothing wrong with those game-day classics—they're classics for a reason, after all—but they're all so predictable that they run the risk of being boring. To help you shake things up, I'm offering a spin on one of those Super Bowl standbys: Meet my Korean nachos.
I make them with bulgogi-style steak for protein; caramelized kimchi for sweet, sour, and spicy flavors; gochujang-spiked cheese sauce; and lime sour cream, all of it served on top of fried wonton chips.
The key to good bulgogi is to use a quality cut of beef and a delicious marinade. I typically use ribeye for my bulgogi—the most traditional choice—but you can also use other tender, marbled cuts of beef, such as sirloin. Just make sure that you don't get a lean cut, which would wind up dry and chewy.
I thinly slice my steak, then marinate it in soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, onion, garlic, ginger, and Asian pear. The pear is often used in Korean marinades because it contains an enzyme called calpain, which tenderizes the meat while adding sweetness. But if you can't find it, a Bosc pear will do just fine in its place.
Only an hour of marination is necessary to get tender, flavorful bulgogi (marination is mostly a surface treatment anyway), but you can let it sit in the fridge overnight if you like to prep ahead. Any longer, though, and you'll risk mushy steak, as the calpain will eventually over-tenderize the meat.
While I wait for the steak to finish marinating, I make my chips. I cut uncooked wonton wrappers in half, then fry them in batches in my cast iron skillet until they're very lightly golden, which takes less than a minute. I set them aside to drain and cool on paper towels and move on to caramelizing the kimchi.
There are many varieties of kimchi out there, but I make sure to pick up the most common kind, made from cabbage in a reddish, chili pepper–spiked sauce. It's spicy enough to take the place of pickled jalapeños and has the added punch of its fermented, sauerkraut-like flavor. While kimchi is already slightly sweet when raw, caramelizing it in that same cast iron skillet (after pouring off most of the wonton-frying oil) amplifies the sweetness and makes it taste richer, meatier, and more complex. I think of it as the ideal "bit of everything" nacho topping.
After caramelizing the kimchi, I finish the steak. Working once again in that cast iron skillet, I crank up the heat and cook the bulgogi in just a few minutes. To get some good browning and therefore flavor on the steak, it's critical to avoid overcrowding the skillet, since excess moisture lowers the heat of the skillet and prevents the Maillard browning reaction from taking place. Work in batches if necessary.
Once I've got the chips, kimchi, and bulgogi squared away, I move on to the cheese sauce. I use Kenji's cheese sauce recipe as a base, but instead of flavoring it with hot sauce, I stir in a couple of tablespoons of gochujang, a Korean chili paste. As Daniel recommends in his ultimate nacho recipe, it's best to save a bit of shredded cheese to sprinkle on top of the nachos as well. The cheese sauce adds that rich, silky texture, and the melted shredded cheese delivers the cheesiest flavor and stretchy strands when pulled.
Now it's assembly time. To get good coverage, I assemble my Korean nachos in layers: chips, steak, kimchi, cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, then repeat, until all of the ingredients have been piled high into my skillet. Then I move the nachos to the oven to bake until the shredded cheddar has melted.
While I wait, I mix lime juice with the sour cream—which also makes it thin enough to pour over the prepared nachos—and, once the nachos are ready, drizzle it on. The whole thing gets topped off with some extra gochujang, fresh cilantro, chopped scallion, and sesame seeds. If I'm feeling dangerous, I'll throw on some small slices of fresh hot red peppers as well.
Using my psychic powers, I foresee that these will be a hit—such a hit that they'll all be eaten before halftime. But if by some miracle you do end up with leftovers, I will tell you from experience (and prescience) that they taste great when reheated with a fried egg on top.
Wings, dips, snacks, drinks and everything in between!
Gaze into my crystal ball and I will reveal your Super Bowl menu. I see...Buffalo chicken wings, a veggie tray with ranch dip, guacamole, nachos, and chili. What do you know, I'm practically the new Miss Cleo.
There's nothing wrong with those game-day classics—they're classics for a reason, after all—but they're all so predictable that they run the risk of being boring. To help you shake things up, I'm offering a spin on one of those Super Bowl standbys: Meet my Korean nachos.
I make them with bulgogi-style steak for protein; caramelized kimchi for sweet, sour, and spicy flavors; gochujang-spiked cheese sauce; and lime sour cream, all of it served on top of fried wonton chips.
The key to good bulgogi is to use a quality cut of beef and a delicious marinade. I typically use ribeye for my bulgogi—the most traditional choice—but you can also use other tender, marbled cuts of beef, such as sirloin. Just make sure that you don't get a lean cut, which would wind up dry and chewy.
I thinly slice my steak, then marinate it in soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, onion, garlic, ginger, and Asian pear. The pear is often used in Korean marinades because it contains an enzyme called calpain, which tenderizes the meat while adding sweetness. But if you can't find it, a Bosc pear will do just fine in its place.
Only an hour of marination is necessary to get tender, flavorful bulgogi (marination is mostly a surface treatment anyway), but you can let it sit in the fridge overnight if you like to prep ahead. Any longer, though, and you'll risk mushy steak, as the calpain will eventually over-tenderize the meat.
While I wait for the steak to finish marinating, I make my chips. I cut uncooked wonton wrappers in half, then fry them in batches in my cast iron skillet until they're very lightly golden, which takes less than a minute. I set them aside to drain and cool on paper towels and move on to caramelizing the kimchi.
There are many varieties of kimchi out there, but I make sure to pick up the most common kind, made from cabbage in a reddish, chili pepper–spiked sauce. It's spicy enough to take the place of pickled jalapeños and has the added punch of its fermented, sauerkraut-like flavor. While kimchi is already slightly sweet when raw, caramelizing it in that same cast iron skillet (after pouring off most of the wonton-frying oil) amplifies the sweetness and makes it taste richer, meatier, and more complex. I think of it as the ideal "bit of everything" nacho topping.
After caramelizing the kimchi, I finish the steak. Working once again in that cast iron skillet, I crank up the heat and cook the bulgogi in just a few minutes. To get some good browning and therefore flavor on the steak, it's critical to avoid overcrowding the skillet, since excess moisture lowers the heat of the skillet and prevents the Maillard browning reaction from taking place. Work in batches if necessary.
Once I've got the chips, kimchi, and bulgogi squared away, I move on to the cheese sauce. I use Kenji's cheese sauce recipe as a base, but instead of flavoring it with hot sauce, I stir in a couple of tablespoons of gochujang, a Korean chili paste. As Daniel recommends in his ultimate nacho recipe, it's best to save a bit of shredded cheese to sprinkle on top of the nachos as well. The cheese sauce adds that rich, silky texture, and the melted shredded cheese delivers the cheesiest flavor and stretchy strands when pulled.
Now it's assembly time. To get good coverage, I assemble my Korean nachos in layers: chips, steak, kimchi, cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, then repeat, until all of the ingredients have been piled high into my skillet. Then I move the nachos to the oven to bake until the shredded cheddar has melted.
While I wait, I mix lime juice with the sour cream—which also makes it thin enough to pour over the prepared nachos—and, once the nachos are ready, drizzle it on. The whole thing gets topped off with some extra gochujang, fresh cilantro, chopped scallion, and sesame seeds. If I'm feeling dangerous, I'll throw on some small slices of fresh hot red peppers as well.
Using my psychic powers, I foresee that these will be a hit—such a hit that they'll all be eaten before halftime. But if by some miracle you do end up with leftovers, I will tell you from experience (and prescience) that they taste great when reheated with a fried egg on top.
GET RECIPE
Korean Nachos
Sweet and spicy Korean nachos.
- YIELD:Serves 4 to 6
- ACTIVE TIME:1 hour
- TOTAL TIME:2 hours
This Korean spin on nachos features bulgogi-style steak, caramelized kimchi, gochujang-spiked cheese sauce, and lime sour cream, all of it served on top of fried wonton chips.
WHY IT WORKS
Nachos with Seoul.Read the Whole Story- Pear acts as a tenderizer in the marinade.
- Sautéing the kimchi deepens its flavor and sweetness.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/4 pounds (560g) boneless ribeye or sirloin steak, thinly sliced
- 1 Asian or Bosc pear (about 10 ounces; 280g), peeled, cored, and finely diced
- 1/2 medium white onion (4 ounces; 115g), finely diced
- 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) minced peeled fresh ginger
- 1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons (10ml) sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon (2ml) freshly ground black pepper
- Vegetable or canola oil, for frying
- 1 package (48 wrappers) wonton wrappers (12 ounces; 340g), cut in half diagonally
- Kosher or sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups (225g) cabbage kimchi, drained of excess liquid
- 1 recipe Nacho Cheese Sauce(1 1/2 cups; 350ml), made without hot sauce and kept hot
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) gochujang, plus more for topping (see note above)
- 1/2 cup shredded white cheddar cheese (2 ounces; 55g)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) sour cream
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh juice from 1 lime
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds (60ml; 30g)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) picked fresh cilantro leaves
- 3 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 1 fresh Asian red chili pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
DIRECTIONS
- 1.In a large, sealable plastic bag, combine steak, pear, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and black pepper. Seal and shake well to combine. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
- 2.Meanwhile, heat 1 inch of oil in a cast iron skillet to 350°F (175°C). Working in batches of 2 to 4 at a time, fry wonton wrapper halves until lightly golden, flipping once during frying; adjust heat to maintain oil temperature. Using a wire strainer or slotted spoon, transfer fried wontons to a paper towel–lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with salt while still hot. When oil has cooled, pour off all but 1 tablespoon.
- 3.Return skillet to medium heat and add kimchi. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer kimchi to a plate and set aside.
- 4.Return skillet to high heat. Drain marinated beef and cook, stirring occasionally and working in batches if necessary to prevent crowding, until well browned, about 4 minutes; add oil, 1 tablespoon at a time, if skillet becomes too dry. Transfer beef to a plate, let skillet cool, and wipe out any excess oil.
- 5.Stir 2 tablespoons gochujang into cheese sauce and keep warm.
- 6.Preheat oven to 350°F (175°F). Using the cast iron skillet as a vessel, assemble the nachos in layers in the following order: wonton chips, beef, kimchi, cheese sauce, and shredded cheese, repeating as you go until the ingredients are used up. You may have some leftover wonton chips.
- 7.Bake until shredded cheese is melted and nachos are warmed through, about 5 minutes.
- 8.While nachos bake, mix together sour cream and lime juice. Drizzle baked nachos with lime sour cream and additional gochujang. Top with sesame seeds, cilantro leaves, scallion, and chili pepper slices, if desired. Serve immediately.
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