The easiest to start with would be:

• bulgogi불고기 soy marinated beef stir fry
• jjimdak 찜닭soy marinated chicken
• various jeon 모듬 전 assorted korean “pancakes”

If you have access to kimchi:

• kimchi fried rice 김치볶음밥
• kimchi jjigae 김치찌개 kimchi stew
• kimchi jeon 김치전 kimchi “pancake”

My personal favorite:

• dakgalbi 닭갈비 spicy chicken stir fry
• kongnamul guk 콩나물 국 beansprout soup
• galbi jjim갈비찜 soy braised short ribs

adjust the spiciness to YOUR liking!!!! ALWAYS start less, then you can add more if you want! (Fyi for the dakgalbi recipe, i cut the spicy ingredients to half)

Goodluck! Don’t hesitate to ask questions on our subreddit and please post if you make anything! We would love to see :)

Try kimchi. Easier than it looks and it can hardly taste more Korean.

Defos checkout Maangchi but I also like r/AaronandClaire. 😉 check out their YouTube (link on the sub) as the recipes are very straight forward and don't ask for too many obscure ingredients. Enjoy your journey! It's super tasty! I'm still guessing at a lot of flavours as I'm not near any authentic Korean Restaurants but from online recipes, I think I pretty close. edit: fixed sub link

Bibimbop, bulgogi, or Kalbi

Check out Maangchi on youtube. She makes great Korean cooking videos that are easy to follow and they are authentic Korean recipes. Enjoy! Super healthy cuisine, great for gut health

Oooh looks good!!

Oh I am going to debate it all day. Make it 20z

Beginner cooking skills wise or beginner taste bud wise?

For taste buds - definitely bulgogi.

For cooking skills, kimchi stew or a prepackaged jjaijiangmyon.

Learn to make good rice though. That's a big part of Korean meals.

You can’t beat beef or chicken bulgogi for east Korean! Marinate, cook on the stove, serve with rice, lettuce, and store-bought side dishes.

Kimchi jigae (kimchi stew) is a pretty easy one to start with since most of the flavor comes from the kimchi. In a pot add about a liter of water and 500g kimch. Add sliced veggies like green onion, garlic, mushrooms, and carrot if you like. Then you can add the meat, either pork, tuna, beef, or even tofu. Serve with a side of rice.

I’m pretty knew to learning korean but my favorite comfort food will always be jjajiangmyeon. It’s amazing, I usually just boil some noodles and use the pre packs at my local H-mart. I definitely love it so much I’d try to find a pinterest recipe for it.

I would say, while time consuming to make, japchae and bibimbap are probably the most beginner friendly.

If you can source the rice cakes and fish cakes, tteokbokki is fairly easy to make as well! (The fish cakes are technically optional, but it doesn’t feel like tteokbokki to me without them).

As for staple ingredients, I would say that garlic, sesame oil, gochujang, gochugaru, and soy sauce are the most prevalent. With onion, carrots and green onions being among the most common vegetables in dishes.

I love these kind of inclined grills for pork belly. All the pork fat drips down into the veggies

Bulgogi, (불고기)

kimchi jjigae, (김치찌개)

haemul bokkeumbap, (해물 볶음밥)

japchae, (잡채)

jjam bbong, (짬뽕)

Kimchi bokkumbap/samgyeopsal-gul/doenjang jigae. But any Jigae is my fav lol

Japchae

Bibimbap

Kimchi jjigae

Jjangjangmyeon hands down 🥹

As a non-Korean who is admittedly not super experienced: kimchi (I often just eat it with a fork, I'm obsessed), japchae, tteokbokki with quail eggs.

Buddae-jjigae. Entry level. Yummy. Get Anthony Bourdains recipe. Perfect.

Soondubu stew is an excellent beginning dish!

Beef bulgogi and Bibimbap - can’t go wrong there! :)

Japchae for sure. Jjajangmyeon is also non spicy and maybe one of the best noodle dishes ever

Tteokboki, gimbap, samgyeop-sal/bossam (with lettuce and sesame oil/salt), jeon of various sorts. Hotteok

Someone else also recommended Maangchi, so I’ll just second her.

Absolutely love her recipes. Very simple and easy to follow. She’s also pretty fun to watch.

As for ramen, did you mean like home made ramen or are you looking for ramen recommendations? Shin and Jin ramyun are pretty common staples, and a common Korean thing to jazz them up is to crack an egg into it (I also like adding a slice of cheese).

Edit: Also want to add some of my favorite easy recipes:

• Steamed Eggs: very simple but also super delicious. Can just make with a microwave, so it’s incredibly easy. I usually eat it with rice and kimchi.
• Soy Sauce Eggs: clearly I have a thing for eggs. Another favorite of mine. If you don’t have anchovies, fish sauce works in a pinch.
• Seaweed Soup: this is fresh in my mind because it’s common for new mothers to eat, but it’s a pretty traditional dish and super easy to make. Biggest thing you’ll need to get is dried seaweed, which you can probably find online if you’re not near a Korean grocery store.

Plenty of other good dishes (and much more flavorful; these are a bit on the simpler side), but I included them cause they’re easy to make.

I think Korean banchans are pretty easy. Spinach or bean sprout moocheem. Or tofu jjim. Cabbage kimchi is easier than regular kimchi, imo. And it’s great with ramyeon

Check paik's cuisine youtube channel , it's got the basics and korean cooking hacks.

In case you don't know how Internet searches work: https://www.maangchi.com/

Buy minced garlic because it goes in almost everything