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!
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
- 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
- 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!
