Japanese Nikujaga Recipe

Japanese Nikujaga Recipe
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Nikujaga is a traditional Japanese dish primarily made of two ingredients: niku (meat) and jagaimo (potatoes). It is one of the most popular comfort food in Japan. In this recipe, I used thinly sliced beef, stewed with potatoes, carrots, and onions. I also added snow peas! It is flavored with a slightly sweet soy sauce base. I hope you enjoy this Japanese Nikujaga Recipe!

While nikujaga is not often found in restaurants, it is often cooked at home. It’s similar to American beef stew, but it contains less meat and less broth. It is probably the most popular stewed dish in Japan. If you like Japanese stewed dishes, please check out our nimono recipe.

Japanese Nikujaga Recipe

Tips for Making Nikujaga Recipe

  • If you mix the nikujaga too much, the potatoes can fall apart, so be careful.
  • Also, if you cook the sliced beef too long, it can become hard. The cooking time is important. As soon as it browns, please add the other ingredients and continue to the next step in the recipe.
  • Beef is used in this recipe, but other meats such as pork can also be used. Pork is commonly used in eastern Japan.
  • Other recipes use shirataki noodles. I’ve also used shirataki noodles for this recipe and recommend it if you have it available. A similar recipe that also uses shirataki noddles can be found here.
  • There are other versions of this recipe that use tuna instead of pork or beef, or also include mushrooms. This recipe is very versatile and can be used with various ingredients you may have left over in your fridge.
Nikujaga Recipe

Japanese Nikujaga Recipe (Beef Stew)

Nikujaga is traditional Japanese dish primarily made of two ingredients: niku (meat) and jagaimo (potatoes). It is one of the most popular comfort food in Japan. In this recipe, I use thinly sliced beef stewed with potatoes, carrots, and onions. I also added snow peas! It is flavored with a slightly sweet soy sauce based sauce. I hope you enjoy it!
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Japanese
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

Main Ingredient Preparation

  • 3 potatoes
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 onion
  • 30 grams snow peas (~10 pods)
  • 0.25 tsp salt (for the snow peas)
  • 200 grams sliced beef (~1/2 lb)

Sauce

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tbsp dashi
  • 0.5 cups water
  • 2 tbsp cooking alcohol
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions
 

Preparing Main Ingredients

  • Peel and cut 3 potatoes into bite-sized chunks and soak in a bowl of water
  • Peel and cut the carrot into bite-sized chunks
  • Peel and slice the onion
    Slicing a onion
  • Pinch the curly end of the snow peas and pull downward along the pod to remove the strings
  • Add 0.25 tsp of salt to the snow peas and heat in a microwave oven for 30 seconds (1000 W microwave)
  • Remove the sliced potatoes from the bowl of water and pat dry

Cooking Nikujaga

  • Add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil into a frying pan
  • Add the sliced beef and cook on medium heat until browned
    Adding sliced beef
  • Add the carrots, potatoes, and onions into the same frying pan and fry on medium heat for 2-3 minutes
  • Add the dashi and 0.5 cups of water. Cook over low heat until boiling
  • Add the cooking alcohol, mirin, and sugar into the frying pan
  • Cover and stew on low heat for about 10 minutes
  • Add the 3 tbsp of soy sauce, cover, and stew on low heat for about 10 minutes again
  • Add the snow peas into the frying pan, turn off the heat, serve, and enjoy!
    Adding snow peas

Video

Keyword Beef, Carrots, Nikujaga, Onions, Potatoes

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