Han Oak Galbijjim Recipe (2024)

I plan to eat this WITH a co*ke. Seriously folks. It’s 12oz of co*ke against 4lbs of fatty meet, a whole ton of salt (including half a cup of soy sauce!), and you’re worried about the co*ke? Sure. Substitute away. Or, better yet, skip the whole recipe and make some dry Salmon and steamed broccoli. Enjoy life a little. Or not.

To all those who are aghast and offended at the idea of cooking with co*ke...a very well respected professional chef incorporated this as an ingredient to rave reviews-get over yourselves. And all the questions about substitutions...try the recipe as written first.

A good coca-cola substitute would be Pepsi. Uncanny resemblance, really

I’m korean and grew up eating this. Pretty much the same ingredients, but I’m certain that it doesn’t have rice vinegar, but rather rice cooking wine (aji mirin). Also my mom added peeled whole chestnuts, regular russet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, pine nuts, korean green hot peppers & dried jujube red dates.

Oh, for heaven’s sake, what’s wrong with using a can of co*ke in this fabulous-sounding recipe. Just do it!

I’m thinking the chef fries the rice cakes (ovalettes) in a bit of oil to partially cook them and to give it texture & a bit of a toasted rice flavor as they are made of rice. Hope that helps! That’s my guess being korean and growing up eating these rice cakes & cooking with them in different applications.

It's not often that everyone is stunned into silence at how good a dish is. It happened with this. But...it needed at least an hour more of cooking time. I used sweet potatoes and turnips as my veggies and used the kale and the Korean rice cakes. I wouldn't change a thing, but I was mystified that the recipe didn't have you skim the fat out. Since we were eating it the same day, I used a fat separator to get rid of it before cooking the ribs for an additional hour.

Honestly, people, the whole point of the article and recipe is that the secret ingredient is Coca-Cola. Which is mostly water with some sugar and caramel coloring, plus of course it's natural flavors that make it co*ke! Yes, it's not healthy to drink tons of it on a daily basis, but putting some in a recipe to give it that certain "something" is not going to kill you! And if you don't want to, I, for one, don't need to know about it.

I'm sorry, but I don't like Coca Cola or kale. And I can't find rice cakes or gochugaru or Asian pears. And I'm not particularly fond of parsnips or sweet potatoes. And nobody has ever heard of rice-wine vinegar. And short ribs? Really? So I just ate a Big Mac instead.

Prime example of a likely delicious dish photoed the most unapetizing way possible. I know it’s trendy now to style food against electric colors & busy patterns and skewing settings to look like bad printing from 70s magazines. But here, hot pink & posterized contrast make this stew look greasy, burnt—repellent. Stop freakin about co*ke tho. Or try this substitute. In measuring cup, add 2 tbl molasiss or sorghum, 1 tsp lemon juice, dash of nutmeg, pinch instant coffee, top with water until 12oz

I made this last night with a bottle of Mexican co*ke and red pepper flakes I had on hand for the heat. Both gave the dish incredible flavor! I only live 15 minutes away from our Koreatown here in Los Angeles so I went on a scavenger hunt to get the rice cakes and I glad I'm glad I did. They added a chewy element to the dish that was really unexpected and unique. Next time I'll go the whole 90 minutes on cooking the ribs, use less honey, and only add the cakes 2 minutes out from the end. Delish!

Interesting factoid about Asian pears. They have enzymes that tenderize the meat. European pears do not have this enzyme. Korean cuisine uses these pears as meat tenderizers, not so much for any flavor they might impart to the dish. So, I am wondering for folks who needed to increase the cooking time until the short ribs were tender, 60 minutes ought to be sufficient if using real Asian pears.

Just make the recipe as it is or don't make it at all. *eyeroll* What's the problem with coca cola?? It sounds wonderful. The best part about Korean food is all the flavors! Sweet, sour, salty, spicy. I can't wait to make this :) Loved the article too. Thank you, Sam!

Can I use boneless short ribs?

Korean rice cakes (tteok) are not like the dry rice cakes we eat as a snack. They are sold raw and need to be cooked, are sliced about 1/4” thick and the size of a quarter. When I asked for them at a Korean store the word they used sounded like “duck”. Hope this helps.

Josh misses the point: is it good? Worth making again? Every single Korean cook makes it differently. And it’s almost impossible to find authentic ethnic food in American restaurants. Chinese is a prime example. Ours bears little resemblance to food in China, but can be absolutely delicious, which is the point! I ordered sweet sour pork in Shanghai and was told “that not Chinese. That American.”

I wish I could attach my photos- I've made this at least 5 times since I first read it in the paper and it is always beautiful and eaten quickly even though I rarely have more than 4 people around to consume it. I have used regular co*ke, Mexican co*ke and all natural cola - always turns out tasty. I have switched up the fall veggies between Asian pumpkin and sweet potatoes or conventional western. The only change that I didn't like was switching the pears to European ones.

Absurdly delicious. I used bison short ribs, which don't ever get to the shredding stage but do get tender. Cooked for a long time and the sauce became very thick (by the way, use an immersion blender to puree the sauce) so I added more chicken stock when I reheated(it had sat overnight) before adding cooked Thai white rice noodles and kale. Flavor was fantastic; sliced rainbow radish and scallions made it a gorgeous mess. Be it the co*ke, the pear, whatever, that sauce was to die for.

I made recipe as shown except I only used half the honey. Next time I will skip the honey all together. I might also use an extra tablespoon of freshly grated ginger. Served with rice as we didn't have rice cakes. Delicious!

Have made this several times, as written and with various modifications (based on what was available at the grocery store). Have done stew meat instead of short ribs. Pineapple instead of Asian pear. All manner of root veg. Root beer instead of co*ke. Super forgiving and flexible recipe. Delicious!

I made this with a bunch of modifications due to ingredient availability and time constraints and it still came out bomb! (I did not skip the co*ke.) Can't wait to make it according to the actual recipe. I was fortunate enough to eat at Han Oak pre-pandemic and it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. Really grateful to be able to recreate some of the flavors at home!

Made this tonight during a FL frost and it was a huge hit with us and our guests, very satisfying with a breadth and depth of flavor unmatched by most stews. Next time I will halve the honey. I didn’t have gochugaru, so simply added some red pepper flakes, didn’t have the Korean rice cakes (small city) so served over brown rice, and omitted the kale because I forgot to buy it. This is a total keeper of a recipe!

I absolutely love this stew! I did defat the sauce and cut the honey to 2TB, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. I think the Coca-Cola really makes it, adding some acidity as well as sweetness. I left out the kale, but added the optional rice cakes and it was a perfect one-bowl dinner.

I have kind of a funny question before I start making this. What's the difference between "an aggressive amount of salt and pepper" and "a lot of salt and pepper"? Is "a lot" less than "an aggressive amount"? The same?

way too hot an oven for the root veg. try 375

Love short ribs and plan on making this. I cook with co*ke making pulled pork in my Instant Pot.You can find co*ke made with cane sugar in some Latin markets.It is really good with rum and lime also.

This was great— a good afternoon cooking project. Super intense flavor. Short ribs where I live were like $10/lb— I used them but I think you could sub cheaper stew meat and get the same effect. Really good!!!

Super fun to plop a pile of onions and pears into a pot and brown them! I’m not that acquainted with cooking Korean at home. Definitely not the last time I’ll try out a dish with these flavors - so fun! for our household. For those just trying out Korean dishes, check out that Gilgeori Toast recipe.

So I don't usually buy co*ke, so rather than co*ke, I used 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and added in a bit more chicken stock. For soy sauce, I only added around 1/4 cup. Still tasted absolutely delicious!

Oddly, I have a block of tamarind on hand, but no Coca Cola. Don’t want to go back to the store so I’m going to test my theory that tamarind is a big flavor component of co*ke. (Plus sugar, of course.) Will report back!