This Japanese Beef and Rice Bowl that I first made two years ago in San Francisco continues to be a standby weeknight dish. It’s a very simple recipe with a delicious sauce using sake, mirin, sesame oil, and soy sauce. In this updated recipe, the sauce has been improved, with a better consistency and deeper sesame flavor. And the leftovers taste just as good, if not better!
Excuse me for a second, while I rhapsodize about fast food in Asia.
As frequent travelers know, the #1 cardinal sin when visiting a new place is eating at fast food chains (unless you are in a developing country and just need a clean public restroom.) I have had bad luck when breaking this rule. Food poisoning from a Beijing KFC, for example. I have also had good luck. On one of those painfully humid summer mornings in Shanghai, I escaped into an air-conditioned McDonald’s and discovered the joys of Sichuan-spiced chicken sandwiches.
Then there is my relationship with Yoshinoya. I can’t speak for the quality of Yoshinoya’s chains in the US (one in NYC, the rest mainly in around LA). But while living in Beijing and Shanghai, every couple of weeks I would succumb to my immense craving for their beef bowl, or gyudon. Even if it meant eating in a dingy mall basement with ambient arcade noises, alongside mega hoards of teens.
While Yoshinoya China’s beef bowl paled in comparison to anything in Japan, it was my guilty pleasure. The succulent paper-thin fatty beef and onions doused in in a soy sauce-mirin mixture, with all the flavor dripping down to coat the rice, was hard to resist. And it was less than $2.
Honestly, I really should have made this more at home and enjoyed my surroundings more. Gyudon’s incredibly easy, as long as you’re able to find fatty cuts of beef and slice it very thinly against the grain (or have the butcher do it for you). Tender cuts with a lot of marbling are ideal. The sauce is just soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Some cooks will replace the sake with water. I like to add a few teaspoons of sesame oil for a deeper flavor.
And while Yoshinoya is the most ubiquitous purveyor of gyudon, my favorite chain version actually comes from Mos Burger, which has outlets around Japan and SE Asia. Their “Yakiniku Rice Burger” is basically gyudon deconstructed and reassembled, with the rice acting as buns. It’s tiny, exactly 3 mouths of beefy bliss.
But replicating rice burgers at home is a bit harder.
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Japanese Beef and Rice Bowl – Gyudon
Serves 4
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 pound marbled beef such as skirt steak, thinly sliced against the grain
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 3 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
- Prepare the rice as you normally would in a rice cooker or pot while you prepare the beef.
- In a large sauté pan, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Sauté the onions until soft, about 3 minutes. Push the onions to the side of the pan and add the beef to the middle. Sauté the beef for 1 to 2 minutes, until the red is mostly gone.
- Add the mirin and sake and stir for 1 or 2 minutes while the alcohol lifts up the nice brown bits from the pan. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and let simmer until sauce is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
- Serve hot over the rice and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
This looks awesome, I think I’m going to try this soon. Thanks!
Nice quick cook dish. A carnivore’s favorite :-)
maybe i shouldn’t be reading this before dinner time when I’ve not much to cook. It looks so good!
I love Yoshinoya. I even worked for them for 3 months when I was living in LA. I love collecting coupons for them … I can get 2 large combo’s for the price of 1!!! In the combo, you’ll get a serving of Teriyaki Chicken, a serving of mixed veggies and of course a serving of Gyudon beef over rice! Yummy!!!
Oh I had the Mos Burger you’re talking about in Hong Kong. It was so good and flavorful.
Hi! I found this on Tastespotting. It looks so easy…might try to make it this weekend!
This looks so good and simple. Can’t go wrong with that!
During a two week vacation in Japan I tried gyudon for the first time while at a small family restaurant in Asakusa. I hadn’t had it since till I tried this recipe of yours. It was absolutely wonderful. If time and money permit I will be trying other recipes of yours.
I am a fan of your culinary escapades..But I’ve seen it time and time again. But please note I am a multi-ethnic Pacific Islander resident of Hawaii. And not to be nitpicking, but I noticed in your photo, you are serving Long-grain rice vs. a good quality japanese Short-grained (Preferably a quality Koshihikari variety like Kagayaki or Super Tamanashiki rice is a must to truly appreciate the Umami and enhance the simplicity of a good gyudon. As with any food I cook I try to use the rice of choice. ie. Thai food, Jasmine or sticky rice, Indian food Basmati rice, a good Riso Arborio or Carnaroli to make Risotto and Chinese cuisine a good Long-grain, to serve cusine without tradition otherwise is disrespectful to the cuisine attempted..
God knows I hate when I go to a restaurant and it supposed to be Japanese and if non-Japanese owned they serve up dry tasteless cheap long-grain rice. or vice-versa. No one want’s good Chinese cuisine with clumped up short-grain sticky rice. Or can one imagine Sushi without quality Sushi rice?
The other day we tried a new Japanese restaurant in Honolulu but was owned by Taiwanese partners. Well needless to say they served a hit and miss of “Japanese food” starting with Chinese long-grained rice and served tough and not braised long enough Buta no kakuni… and just ruined the meal. When asked how the meal was I informed the owner that local and Japanese/Okinawan people would be disappointed and wouldn’t accept this and if they didn’t change these faux pas they wouldn’t be in business long. Sure enough in less than 8 weeks it’s now a Sushi house. My point is respect should be given to the host cuisine on all levels when duplicating these culinary experiences. Also BTW…I wouldn’t expect anyone from the East Coast to understand the devastation to SF Chinatown because of the ’89 Earthquake..Chinese food has not been the same or even Chinatown since this tragedy. So same with the influx of S.E.A. immigrants. The basic nuance that was primarily Cantonese has been moving out from the City for a long time.
East Bay, Oakland,Berkley,South Bay, even North Bay. I agree also like others have said maybe you just went with the wrong people to the wrong places?? Also tastes are acquired and become familiar to your upbringing and individual experience.
Obviously new immigrant restaurants will have the pulse on what is eaten in the present..You must understand there have been Cantonese in SF/CA for a lot longer than the East coast. So what may have been traditional at one time has had time to be transformed and forced adapt to the ingredients available to use. Where as most restaurants in NY and LA have been Started by FOB owners so of course their cuisine is going to be more spot on and with the more readily available authenitic ingredients. But I don’t think your regional bias is fair to San Francisco’s rich and Proud Chinese population that but Excuse me! Help build the West and Paved the way for this migration to this land and places East. Maybe it seems a bit Hubris on a lot folks posts to this site. But, I will still read on..Mahalo
and “Live Aloha”
My God… I succumbed to the exact same dish, at the exact same chain when I was in China! I am so glad I found this!
¡Saludos desde Puerto Rico!
Delicious, one of my favourites.
oooh yoshinoya at home – delicious and deluxe! :)
I cooked this last night for my fiance and he absolutely adored it! Most Asians cook their meat until it’s medium or well done, so the only change I would make is to not cook the meat as much because my fiance prefers his beef rare. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Tried a few Gyudon recipes I’ve found on the web but this is easily the best. I used ribeye steak as it has decent fat going through it. We have a Japanese food delivery service once a week at work and they do a fantastic version, this is pretty much identical. I tend to use the same amount of sauce mixture for 2 people so we have more! I could eat another bowl now.