A Recipe for Taco Bell Bibimbap
"Amexicorean" food at its finest
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The recipe box is a collection of recipes and techniques from my favorite cookbooks—everything from up-and-coming titles to tried-and-true favorites from my collection. (Though you may see some original recipes here from time to time, too 😉) You can check out TOD’s archive of past recipes here if you’re looking for some meal inspiration.
Happy Wednesday! Last week, for the eighth installment of the “That One Dish” spotlight, I chatted with “The Great Food Writer in All History,” Dennis Lee, about the brilliantly absurd culinary experiments he’s concocting on his anti-food food newsletter on Substack, “Food is Stupid.” Turning coleslaw into popsicles and making mapo tofu out of tofu-based kitty litter is certainly a contrast from the picture-perfect, aesthetic food that we’re used to seeing in glossy print food magazines and food-Tok feeds—but if you ask me, it’s Dennis’ wickedly funny way of saying that food is food, and shouldn’t always be taken too seriously. I’ve known Dennis for a few years now, and I’m beaming with pride seeing all the cool things he’s accomplished. Check out our conversation here if you happened to miss it.
Speaking of absurd culinary experiments, today I’m sharing with you this recipe for a Taco Bell bibimbap—which made its first appearance on “Food is Stupid” a couple years ago, but was also recently featured in Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard’s new cookbook, “Koreaworld.” Sounds … sacrilegious, but hear Dennis out.
“If you think about it, a Taco Bell Power Menu Bowl is bibimbap,” he tells me. “It’s just a bunch of little sides [over rice] that you mix together and eat. The word bibimbap [in Korean] means ‘mixed rice,’ so how is that concept different from how some people mix up their Taco Bell Power Menu bowl? Or a Chipotle burrito bowl? Or a bowl from anywhere that starts with rice and has a bunch of stuff on top?”
This dish is concocted by mashing up elements of a Power Menu Bowl, freshly harvested right from the Taco Bell drive-thru, and any banchan of your choice. H Mart (or really, any local Korean grocery store) normally has a wide variety of pre-made banchan you can pick up—and while you’re there, grab a pack or two of instant Korean sticky rice to make this recipe come together even quicker. It’s one of those things that’s so unhinged and crazy, it actually … works?
“[Taco Bell’s] Mexican-inspired flavors work really well in Korean food for some reason,” Dennis remarks. “You can still taste the Taco Bell in it; the artificial fast food flavors are still in there somehow. You can still taste the Korean elements in it, too, and it’s a really bizarre mental thing where you’re, like, ‘This tastes like both things. It doesn’t taste … right.’ And then you start laughing.”
A hearty round of applause to Dennis’ wife, Davida, for her idea of uniting such prominent world powers—Korea and Taco Bell. If you’re ready to dive in, you can find this “100% Korean, 100% like Taco Bell, and 100% stupid” recipe below. And since we’ve gotten lots of new friends these past few months, I just wanted to pass on this friendly reminder that I keep all recipes shared on this newsletter in this easy-to-navigate index sorted by things over rice, plants, meats, soups/stews, sweets, etc. This recipe box is always maintained regularly for your convenience—and mine, as well.
Serves 2
8 Taco Bell hot sauce packets of your choice (Dennis’ personal favorite is the Diablo sauce, which is the spiciest)
1/4 cup gochujang
1/2 cup Taco Bell avocado ranch sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2-3 Taco Bell Power Menu Bowls with the protein of your choice, harvested straight from the drive-thru (be sure to ask for the ranch sauce on the side)
2 cups cooked white rice
3 portions of three different banchan of your choice, such as sigeumchi namul (sautéed spinach), kongnamul (bean sprouts), gosari namul (fernbrake), raw shredded carrot, sautéed shiitake mushrooms, kimchi—anything and everything goes as long as it’s Korean
4 eggs, fried sunny-side up
Sesame seeds, for garnish
In a small bowl, whisk together the contents of the sauce packets and the gochujang until well-mixed. In another small bowl, stir together the ranch sauce and sesame oil until well-mixed.
Carefully extract the seasoned rice from each Power Menu bowl, add to a medium bowl, add the plain cooked white rice, and mix well. Divide among four bowls.
Carefully top each bowl with the remaining contents of the Power Menu Bowls (i.e. meat, beans, sour cream), trying to keep each component as separate as possible. (This will be messy; do your best). Finish topping each bowl with the three banchan in separate mounds.
Place a fried egg on top of each bowl, then drizzle with the gochujang-Taco Bell sauce and the ranch sauce-sesame oil mixture.
Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and serve immediately.
Recipe adapted from “Koreaworld: A Cookbook” by Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard. Used with permission of the authors. Copyright © 2024 Clarkson Potter Publishers. All rights reserved.