
Gyudon – Beef Bowl
Gyudon, also known as beef bowl, is a popular Japanese fast food dish. It’s a convenient, but hearty food that can be found almost anywhere by busy businessmen and students in Japan. It’s my husband’s favorite food to eat. He loves it so much that he ate it every single day while he was visiting Japan. My husband spent years tweaking his gyudon recipe and finally replaced the original gyudon recipe we had on this site.
Gyudon is a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion which is simmered in a sweet soy sauce dashi based broth. Gyudon is quick and easy to make and often served with benishoga. The key to making gyudon is using thinly sliced beef. You can find the thinly sliced beef in Japanese Markets. Also, grated young ginger must not be left out!
Cooking time: about 20 minutes
This recipe makes 2 beef bowls
Ingredients
- 2 bowls of cooked rice
- 9 oz thinly sliced beef – short plate (350g)
- 1 medium sweet onion (300g)
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated dashi
(Japanese Soup Stock)
- 1 small piece kombu (1 inch)
- 2 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon mirin
(Japanese sweet cooking wine)
- 2 tablespoon sake
- 2 tablespoon grated young ginger
- benishoga to top (optional)
Cooking Instructions
- Slice onion thinly and grate young ginger. Put water, kombu, and dashi in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the beef, grated ginger, sugar, mirin, and sake and bring to a boil again.
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Finally, add the onion and soy sauce. Cover and let the mixture simmer for 15 to 20 minutes over medium-low heat. Use chopsticks to scoop out the beef and onion and top over bowl of rice. Use a tablespoon to pour about 2 tablespoon of the liquid over the beef bowl. You’ll discard most of the liquid.