Beef Bulgogi Lettuce Wraps
with Rice & Spicy Pickles
- Soy
- Sesame
- Wheat
The star of this fresh spin on Korean tacos is juicy ground beef sizzled to savory-sweet perfection in bulgogi sauce (one of our favorite ways to pack in that umami-rich sesame-soy flavor we love). You’ll sprinkle with crackly, nutty sesame seeds and serve it in crisp lettuce cups along with fluffy rice and tangy-spicy pickled cucumbers that add a hit of refreshing heat.
Ingredients
½ cup
White Rice
1 unit
Mini Cucumber
2 unit
Scallions
1 unit
Baby Lettuce
5 teaspoon
Rice Wine Vinegar
1 teaspoon
Sriracha
10 ounce
Ground Beef
4 ounce
Bulgogi Sauce
(Contains: Soy, Sesame, Wheat)
1 tablespoon
Sesame Seeds
(Contains: Sesame)
Not included in your delivery
1 teaspoon
Cooking Oil
¼ teaspoon
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• In a small pot, combine rice, 3⁄4 cup water (1 1⁄2 cups for 4 servings), and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a low simmer. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• Meanwhile, wash and dry produce. • Trim and thinly slice cucumber. Trim and thinly slice scallions, separating whites from greens. Trim and discard root end from lettuce; separate leaves.
• In a medium bowl, combine cucumber, scallion greens, vinegar, 1⁄4 tsp sugar, 1⁄4 tsp salt, and as much Sriracha as you like (1⁄2 tsp sugar and 1⁄2 tsp salt for 4 servings). • Set aside, stirring occasionally, until ready to serve.
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a large, preferably nonstick, pan over medium-high heat. Add beef* and scallion whites; season with pepper. Cook, breaking up meat into pieces, until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes. • Remove pan from heat. (Carefully drain any excess grease from pan.)
• Stir bulgogi sauce and sesame seeds into pan with beef mixture until evenly coated.
• Fluff rice with a fork. • Divide lettuce leaves between plates. Fill with rice, beef bulgogi, and as many spicy pickles (draining first) as you like. Serve.
Ground Beef is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 160°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the bulgogi sauce and spicy pickles, though some found it too sweet; adding extra Sriracha boosted the heat 🌶️.
- Ease of prep: Quick and simple to make, with several mentioning it was perfect for a summer meal.
- Suggestions: Consider chopping the lettuce for a less messy salad-style dish; some preferred it as a rice bowl.
- Portions: Several wished for more cucumbers and larger lettuce leaves to make wrapping easier.
- Texture: Customers enjoyed the contrast of crunchy lettuce and pickles with the savory beef.
Reviews from our home cooks
My picky carnivore husband complimented me on this dinner. We both liked the flavor of the sauce, enhanced by the spicy pickled cucumbers, and crisp, crunchy lettuce. There was so much rice that I set some aside for a future meal. We will order this again. There was nothing to dislike. I do cook the rice for 20 minutes because the recipe time range is too short, resulting in crunchy rice (not fully cooked).
The spicy pickles with this was brilliant. Balances out the sweetness of the bulgolgi quite well. I love the bulgolgi sauce and have made the meatballs. I don't even use all of the sauce because I find it quite flavorful. Used just a fraction over half. I have high blood pressure so I look for ways to cut back. This meal didn't have a lot of sodium, but I don't eat it all the time obviously. Great combo.
This was so quick and easy--though I swap out tortillas for the lettuce, so it's more of a beef bulgogi taco--and the best part was the spicy cucumbers!
Yum! Love the quick pickles and the bulgogi sauce was delicious. Perfect for a warm summer night dinner. And FYI, you've converted me to lettuce wraps when I wasn't a fan before!
This was really good. Our only complaint is that the flavor of the lettuce itself didn't seem to mesh well with the bulgolgi inside of it. Other than that, this was great. The cucumbers are surprisingly simple and pair well with the savory bulgolgi sauce. Cucumber kimchi would have also paired well.
Delicious, but messy to eat. Next time I'd chop the lettuce & make a Bulgogi salad.
We loved the simplicity of this recipe. We didn't use the sriracha in the pickles just due to personal preference. Our only critique is that there weren't enough pickled cucumbers to the lettuce/meat ratio. 2 cucumbers per serving would have been great!
Meat spice was great balance of sweet and spicy! Lettuce wrap a nice change from bread.
This was something new for us. We really liked it and the pickles were super easy to make. I've mentioned before but all recipes with scallions should have 3 instead of 2. It's not quite enough.
I tend to chop up the lettuce and eat as a salad because it's less messy.
