Gyudon means beef (gyu) bowl (don). It started in Japan about 150 years ago. While it’s cooked by many Japanese families, it is now wide spreading in the world too. It’s quick, tasty, inexpensive, and easy to make. Besides the seasonings, there are only two essential ingredients, thinly sliced beef and onion. If you don’t cook eastern Asian food that often, you would need to visit your local Chinese/Japanese/Korean grocers or some online stores to buy a few seasonings when you cook this dish for the first time.
As it is so popular in Japan, there are all kinds of styles. What I am presenting here is similar to that sold at Yoshinoya, which is a Japanese food chain. It doesn’t matter what style/recipe you follow; this is an almost fool-proof dish. For those that eat rice every day, you can top your rice with this dish to have a savory and nutritious meal. For those don’t eat rice every day, you can still enjoy it together with your pasta, bread or noodle to have a fusion meal.
Gyudon (Japanese Beef Bowl)牛丼
Equipment
- 10" Stainless steel saucepan
- 8-10" non-stick frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 pound thinly-sliced beef (shaved beef steak)
- 1 piece medium onion
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (or dashi/water)
- 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp rice wine (Chinese-style or sake)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1 cup cooked short grain rice
- 1 piece egg (optional)
- 1 piece green onion (optional)
- dash shichimi tougarashi (Japanese seven spice) (optional)
Instructions
- Cut the shaved beef steak to 2" long pieces and try to separate the lumps
- Peel the onion and slice it
- Add chicken stock (or water/dashi powder) and all seasonings (sugar, soy sauce, mirin, rice wine) to the saucepan. Turn heat to high
- Bring the liquid to boil and add onion slices. Keep it at simmer for a few mins until the onion slices soften
- Add the beef slices and stir. Keep it on simmer for 10-15 mins if the beef is pretty lean. Set the pan aside
- Fry an egg (sunny side up) in the non-stick frying pan
- Put warm-cooked rice to a bowl, and add cooked beef on top with a little sauce to soak the rice. Put the fried egg on top. Sprinkle a little tougarashi
Video
Notes
- The beef could be thinly sliced beef from Asian grocery stores. You can also put a large piece of beef to a freezer for about 2 hours until it is firm and slice very thinly with a sharp knife.
- The shaved beef I used is pretty lean. Thus, I simmer the beef for perhaps about 15 mins.
- Japanese gyudon uses all sorts of toppings, such as benishouga (Japanese red picked ginger), green onion, etc. I don't like raw green onion and I don't always stock benishouga. I simply added a fried egg. You can try your favorite choices.
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