Korean BBQ Buffet

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On my birthday last year I wanted to go out to eat, but I’m very fussy about restaurants because I hate paying top dollar for a measly meal because I’ve had to leave out a bunch of things off my plate, or something I know I can make better myself at home. But then I found a very simple Korean BBQ place where I could pick the foods I wanted and have more control over what I ate, have an all you can eat meal where I felt I was getting my money’s worth AND have really tasty food. I also really loved the idea of cooking the food at the table, it is really fun and great for kids.

But of course, not everything is low carb friendly, there’s a lot of soy sauce, sugars and seed oils in some of the marinades, so I had to stick to most of the plain foods. I did smuggle in my own bottle of tamari soy sauce (when are Asian restaurants going to get some of that stuff?!) and used some of their friendlier condiments on my food.

With my birthday coming up again this year, I also wanted to do something like eat out, but I knew it would be difficult because everyone was so busy. And then I realized after doing our Bunless Burgers when we made them up at the table, that we could do our own Korean BBQ Buffet! And I could replicate all the foods I loved from that lovely restaurant, except all low carb friendly food! Another great reason I love that restaurant is they have a great selection of organ meats. Liver, kidney and beef tongue are all fantastic options to use, but you can omit the organs if you prefer and stick to the regular meats.

You want to cut small not too thick slices of meat for the hot plate/grill. Particularly the pork belly. I use tamari soy, but if you don’t want to use it, you can sub with coconut aminos, just note the carb count. I also use sesame oil here which some people may find questionable to say the least. Yes sesame is a seed oil, but I use cold pressed and I do NOT heat it! Normally the marinades would have included the sesame oil before cooking and that would have been heated when the meat was then cooked. Now I drizzle over at the end instead.

If you don’t want to use these things you can make up your own marinades or cook your meat plain and add chosen condiments when you eat. The chicken and pork marinade was supposed to be quite spicy, but my son doesn’t like too much heat, so I added just a touch of chilli powder and then put sriracha on the table to add. If you like spicy though, I would recommend some sriracha in the marinade or more chilli powder. Make it suit your own needs and taste!

You can also omit the stevia glycerite in the marinades if you prefer to forgo the sweetener, but it helps to balance the other flavours and also gives you a more authentic Korean BBQ Buffet taste. For sides we kept it simple and used marinated shallots and kimchi, again based off the restaurant I love, with some vegetables to cook up. Choose whatever vegetables you like and some marinade or herbs on the veg before cooking would also be brilliant. I kept it plain for ours though.

The marinated shallots are VERY strong in taste so you only need a touch when eating with your meats. So the amount stretches a very long way! I found the shallots went very well with the plain meats and complimented them, while the spicy kimchi went better with the marinated meats. If you can’t get or don’t like kimchi, a spicy sauerkraut would also be lovely! We used store bought kimchi since I’m always short on fridge space to make it, but if you have homemade, even better!

When you’re cooking, spray the grill with a bit of oil to help keep things from sticking and if it gets really dirty, give it a wipe down every now and then with paper towels so you don’t end up with bits of black, burnt concrete stuck on there! The food we had was enough to feed 10 people very well! Korean BBQ Buffet places usually use cuts of beef like sirloin which are great, but also very expensive. I opted for rump steak as we get whole or half rumps from our butcher for less than half the price and then I either get them to cut it into steaks or I cut it at home as I like.

Pork loin is another popular choice but again, expensive. I buy half or whole pork legs for a third of the price and do the same as with the rump steak. Just trim, debone and cut or slice the meat as I like. You can use chicken breast or thigh, we used breast because we happened to have some on hand. For the pork belly, I found it was much easier to slice if placed skin side down so you could go cleanly through the meat first and then the layer of skin. If you’re having trouble slicing the meat, chilling it to firm it up in the freezer really helps. If you’re using liver I definitely recommend doing this as slicing it thinly can be very difficult.

My son is absolutely IN LOVE with this Korean BBQ Buffet and he loves it even more than the restaurant. He’s constantly asking when we can have another Korean BBQ Buffet and loved choosing and getting his own food and cooking it up at the table. We had our sides and condiments at the table but our meat and seafood we had on the kitchen counter and we would just get up and get what we want, just like at a Korean BBQ restaurant! That’s part of the awesomeness of a Korean BBQ Buffet, it’s fun and it’s a family meal where everyone cooks and eats together. If there is food left over you can also always just cover your meat and seafood, refrigerate and have it again the next day!

The nutritional values will differ depending on what meat you’re using, condiments, sauces, marinades etc. but I will give you some nutritional values here at the end of the recipe for what we used on the non-store bought stuff and of course the marinades to give you an idea, but if you don’t use exactly what we did, they will obviously be different.

Other meats we used:

1kg rump steak (unmarinated)

1 piece pork belly, sliced (we used about a 1kg piece)

300g baby octopus

10 green lip mussels

4 squid tubes (600g squid),  cut into rings

500g raw prawns

 

 

Organ meat suggestions:

Liver

Kidney

Beef tongue

Intestines

 

Other side suggestions:

Kimchi

Sauerkraut especially spicy

 

Condiment/Flavouring suggestions:

Homemade Mayo get the recipe HERE

Sriracha

Tamari Soy or Coconut Aminos

Cold pressed sesame oil

Rice wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

 

Prep all meats and sides. Lay everything out buffet style and set up your grill plate at the table with sides and condiments. Everyone can go and choose their food and then bring it back to the table to cook. Make sure you use separate plates for raw and cooked meat.