Gyudon (Japanese Beef and Rice Bowl)
One of the most popular fast-food dishes in Japan, gyudon is a type of donburi (rice bowl) consisting of thinly sliced beef and onions simmered in a salty and sweet broth made of soy sauce, sake, dashi, and sugar. This quick, simple, hearty dish is easy to make at home and a perfect way to fill up with minimal effort.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb shaved beef (cheap, fatty cuts like chuck or short plate are preferred)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 cup dashi see notes for link to recipe and substitutes
- ¼ cup soy sauce use tamari, coconut aminos, or certified gluten-free soy sauce to make this gluten-free
- ½ cup cooking sake (ryorishu)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1" piece ginger freshly grated
- dried laver shavings or seaweed furikake optional
- cooked rice to serve preferably Japanese short grain (about 1 cup per person)
Toppings
- poached or soft-boiled egg optional topping
- Japanese pickles optional topping
- diced green onion optional topping
- beni shoga (red pickled ginger) optional topping
- Shichimi togarashi (Japanese 7 spice blend) optional topping
Instructions
- In a large wok or heavy bottom saucepan, combine soy sauce, cooking sake, dashi, sugar, and sliced onion. Turn heat to medium and bring to a simmer. Continue simmering until onion softens, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in shaved beef. Return to a simmer, and continue cooking until beef is thoroughly cooked and liquid has reduced down to a thin sauce, about 10-15 minutes.
- Stir in freshly grated ginger, then remove from heat.
- Fill serving bowls with cooked rice. Smooth out the tops of the rice bowls with a spoon, fork, or similar utensil to create a level surface. Sprinkle with laver or seaweed furikake, if desired.
- Top rice bowls with beef mixture, then add any desired toppings.
Notes
- Buying shaved or thinly-sliced beef (such as that used for making Italian beef) makes this dish very quick to prepare. If you are unable to get your beef pre-sliced, you can freeze the meat and slice very thinly before it thaws (making thin, even slices like this by hand is much easier when the meat is still frozen).
- I personally like quite a bit of ginger in my gyudon, but some other recipes don't call for as much as I use. Feel free to adjust the amount to your own taste.
- Cooking sake (ryorishu) is a relatively inexpensive form of sake that has salt added to it (making it unsuitable for drinking as a beverage). It is available in Asian markets or online. If you don't have access to it, any normal drinking sake will work just fine (but stick with the cheap stuff, as there is no benefit to using premium sake in this).
- Dashi is a basic broth that forms the backbone of many Japanese recipes. The most common version is made from konbu (dried kelp) and bonito flakes. Click here for our recipe for making dashi. Alternatively, you can substitute an equal amount of instant Hondashi. Failing that, plain beef stock will work in a pinch, although you will sacrifice some of the authentic flavor of this dish.