How to make Chashu and Nitamago 〜チャーシュー〜 | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiju's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make chashu and nitamago, and with those, chashu donburi. For those of you who don't know what chashu is, chashu is those ham-like meat topping on top of ramen noodle, like these. I'm sure you've seen it in anime or like Japanese drama. And this chashu is also not originally Japanese, but it's there from China. But as the ramen noodle evolved in Japan and has kind of became Japanese food, this chashu has become also part of Japanese food. And today I'm going to show you how to make this chashu from scratch, from pork belly. And with that, I'm going to make what's called chashu donburi, so this chashu on top of rice bowl. And also with the marinade sauce of chashu, I'm going to make so-called nitamago. And what it is, is this flavored soft-boiled egg. And it's also a very common topping for ramen noodle in Japan. So I will admit this is a bit longer process than my other usual recipes, but a lot of part is just pretty much waiting. And also the process itself is not very difficult at all, so I hope you give this a try yourself. Then, let's get started. Here are the ingredients for chashu and also nitamago. So here I have pork belly. I think it's quite most common to make chashu with pork belly, but any part of the pork is also good. And for the seasoning, I have here just regular soy sauce, sugar. I also like to make it a little bit spicy, so I have a little chili pepper. While cooking this pork belly, just get rid of that porky smell. I'm going to be using scallion or green onion, garlic, and also ginger. I'll also be using these cooking strings. Make sure you use a string that is specifically made for the cooking. Some synthetic strings may have bad effect on the meat. So make sure you use 100% cotton cooking strings. And I also have three eggs to make nitamago with the sauce. Then, let's start cooking. Now, let's first prepare the ingredients. For the garlic, I'll be using about three cloves. Get the bottom off. And at the same time, don't cut it all the way and then just peel off like this one side. Then it'll be easier later to peel off the skin. What I'm going to do now is smash it with the knife. So I'm going to put the knife over it, and I'm just going to hit it very lightly with the heel of your hand like this. Then it'll kind of break on its own like this. And then once it's broken up, then it's also easy to peel off the skin. And the ginger, I'll probably just need half of this. And then I'm going to cut off kind of the dark part. And this ginger, I'm just going to slice it. And the green onion, I'm going to take off the bottom. And then just cut this in half like this. Then that's done for that. Next, we're going to prepare the pork belly. So before doing this, when you use a wooden or bamboo cutting board like this, make sure you wet it first before you're putting any meat or fish. Otherwise, the kind of odor stick into the cutting board. And afterwards, when you cut other vegetable or fruit, then it'll have this bad smell. So make sure you wet them first. So the first thing I want to do is kind of make slits so that it'll be kind of easy to roll. No more than like five millimeter, centimeter slits like this. The next thing is using a fork, I'm going to kind of poke in holes so that the sauce is going to sink in better. And then next, we're going to roll this. So when you buy a pork belly, usually one of the side is kind of thinner than the other side. You see this side is thinner than this side. If not, you might want to cut off a little side so that one side is thinner. And we're going to roll from the thinner side like this. And then we kind of have like this kind of rolled form. And now using a cooking string, I'm going to pass it under like this. And then we're going to tie it on one end like this. Then we're going to make a double knot. Then what I'm going to do is I'm just going to keep rolling like this. Just about centimeters distance. Just try and make it up as evenly distance as possible. And also as tight as possible. And I usually go twice around. And then with the same end that we tied in the beginning, we're going to make another knot. Then this is finished tying the chashu, let's cook this. So in a big pot like this, I'm going to put in the pork belly. Then here I'm going to put in some cold water. Make sure you have enough water to cover the meat. I'm going to turn the heat to high and bring this to boil. So once this is boiling, I'm going to turn the heat to medium and cook this for about a minute or so. And as you can see, it's starting to form the scum. I want to get rid of all this odor. So now after cooking this for about a minute or so, I'm going to turn heat off. Then I'm going to throw away this water. Then I'm going to wash away all this scum. Make sure you clean off the pot well. And then we're going to put this back in here. And then we're going to put in here also some water to cover the meat. And here we're going to put in all the ingredients. So half of the scallion, and also half of the ginger, and also half the garlic. Then we're going to turn the heat to high and bring this to boil again. So once this has come to boil, I'm going to turn the heat to low. Then we're going to put the lid on and cook like this for 90 minutes. So now this has been 90 minutes. Oh yeah, this is looking really good. So by the way, during this 90 minutes, I had to add in a little bit of water a couple times so that the meat is always covered in water. Now I'm going to take away these scallion and ginger. I'm going to turn heat off. So this chashu has gotten quite soft. So it's very difficult to pick up with the chopsticks. So use some kind of spatula or something to move this. And of course, don't throw away this soup. This has gotten all the goodness from the pork. You can make really good soup out of this, or you can even make ramen noodle soup out of this. So don't throw this away. Use it for some recipe. Then we're going to cook this chashu in a small pot. So in this, I'm going to put in two cups of the soup. Then one cup of soy sauce. Then there's about 150 grams of sugar. Then this, we're going to put in all the rest of the ingredients. Scallion and ginger. And also the garlic. And I'm going to heat this with medium heat and bring this to boil. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I'm going to put a little bit of chili in this. So this will be spicy. But this is completely optional. So once this comes to a boil, I'm going to turn the heat to low. Then I'm going to put in here so-called otoshi buta. So I'm going to use a piece of kitchen paper and put this over the chashu. This will help that the chashu will be always covered in the sauce. Then we'll cook like this in low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes. So 20 minutes has passed. Let's see. So by the way, midway through, I turned around the chashu once. So the both sides will be cooked evenly. Okay, this is looking perfect. So then I'm going to turn heat off. I'm going to cover this with this otoshi buta also again. Then we're going to leave it to the side and let this cool off. So this is very important that the chashu cool off in the soup. Because as the meat cools off, it soaks in the flavor. So we're going to let this cool off on the side. Now as we're waiting for the chashu to be cooled off, let's make the boiled egg for the nitamago. So for the nitamago, I want a soft boiled egg, but I also don't want it runny. So I'm going to cook the egg in boiling water for six minutes. Then I'm going to use this gadget to poke a hole in the bottom. Just like this so that it'll be easier at the end to peel off. Then make sure you use a spoon like this to put it in the water so it doesn't crack when it hit the bottom. Then I'm going to cook like this for six minutes. During the boiling, make sure you turn the egg around so the egg yolk will be in the middle. So six minutes has passed. I'm going to turn the heat off. I'm going to take away this egg in cold water so the cooking will stop. Then I'm going to leave it like this for a minute or so, let it cool off. And once this is cooled off, I'm going to peel off the scale. So with the feel of it, I think it's perfectly cooked. Not too hard, not too soft. Then this is finished for the boiled egg. Once the chashu sauce is cooled off, I'm going to put it together with it. So the chashu is cooled off and I'm going to put this in our Ziploc. You can cool the chashu like this in a pot, but the benefit of the Ziploc is that the most part of the chashu will be covered in the sauce. So I'm going to put the chashu in here and I'm going to put in the sauce. And also in here, I'm going to put in the eggs. I'm going to try to get as much air out as possible. So this way with a Ziploc, the chashu and the eggs will be covered all around. Then this is almost finished. I'm just going to sit in the fridge for overnight. So now 24 hours has passed. Let's see how this is looking. Oh, this is looking really good. And also the boiled egg. Oh yeah, all this looks perfect. So the sauce has gotten all the good juice from the pork meat. Don't throw this away. You can use this for teriyaki sauce or you can use it as a dressing. It can be used in many ways. So let's see with the chashu. I'm going to cut this straight away. Now I'm going to cut this up and see how it looks on the inside. Oh yeah. Oh, look at that. That looks so perfect. Then this is finished for the chashu. You can use this just as it is as a topping for the ramen noodle. But today I'm just going to roast it a little bit, make a chashu don later. Then let's see with the boiled egg. Oh, that looks also perfect. Then this is also finished for the boiled egg. Now I'm going to prepare the rice for the chashu donburi. In this video, I'm not going to explain too much. But if you want to know more in detail how to cook Japanese rice properly, please watch my other video on this topic. Then first, we're going to rinse the rice. For one cup of rice, I'm going to put in 1.2 cup of water. And I'm going to let this sit for an hour or so and let the rice soak in the water. So an hour has passed. As you can see, the rice is soaking the water and turned all white. This is a sign it's ready. I'm going to put the lid on and turn the heat to high and bring this to boil. So once this comes to a boil, I'm going to give it a little mix. And put the lid back on. Turn the heat to simmer and then cook this in simmer for 10 minutes. Now 10 minutes has passed. I'm going to turn the heat off. Now I'm going to let this sit for 10 minutes and let it steam on its own. So 10 minutes has passed. The rice is finished cooking. I'm going to give it a little mix. Make sure you wet the spatula. Otherwise, the rice is going to stick to the spatula. So then I'm going to put this aside. Now I'm going to roast the chashu a little bit. You don't necessarily have to do this. But I think in many places in Japan, they roast the surface with a burner. But I'm going to show you how you can do it without a burner. So with a frying pan, I'm going to turn the heat to medium. And then I'm going to put a little bit of frying oil. Just about a teaspoon or so. So once the frying has been heated, I'm going to put in the chashu here. So of course, the chashu has been already cooked. You don't need to cook it again. Just needs a little roast on the surface. So these are quite soft. So make sure you don't break them apart. Oh yeah, this is looking perfect. So as you can see, it's got a lot of fat. I'm going to use a kitchen paper to get rid of some fat. Then this, I'm going to put in a little of the sauce. Just about a couple tablespoons or so. Just coat both sides with the sauce. And as the sauce has thickened, this is finished. I'm going to turn the heat off. Now we're going to put everything together. So in a bowl, I'm going to put some rice. So you kind of want to flatten the surface like this. Then I'm going to top it with the chashu. So this chashu has gotten very soft. So use a spatula like this so you don't want to break out the form. And I'm going to put the sauce in here. I'm also going to put some eggs in here. And a little condiments of the scallion. Then this is finished with chashu donburi. Let's eat. Mmm, this smells so great. Can't wait to eat. Itadakimasu! Oh, look at that. Oh, that looks so great. As you can see, the chashu is very soft. You can break out very easily with your chopstick. Itadakimasu! Oh, this chashu is so delicious. Oh, this is so totally delicious. So as you may notice, this sauce is pretty much the same as the teriyaki sauce, soy sauce and the sugar. But this combination is just so great. And it just goes so well with the pork belly. And since it's been cooking for a long time, it's very so soft. And because we roasted a little bit at the end, it's got this roasted flavor to it. Oh, it's just so perfect. And please excuse me, it may look bad that I pick up the bowl like this. This is how we eat in Japan, especially a donburi dish. And if you have a difficult time eating this donburi with chopstick, you can of course use a spoon. It's not a problem. Let's also have this nitamago. Oh, this nitamago is also so good. Usually with a boiled egg, the egg white is kind of bland and doesn't have very much flavor. But since this is soaked up the sauce, oh, this is just so delicious. And the yolk is also perfectly cooked and so creamy. And it just goes so well with the rice. And if you like it spicy, you can put a little bit of chili to it. Or if you have shichimi togarashi, that's also good too. Itadakimasu. Mmm, so totally delicious. Now I'm gonna have a chashu with nitamago all together. The nitamago also goes well with the chashu, especially since it's been soaked in the same sauce. Oh, that was so totally delicious. Oh, that was so totally savory and so filling. So as you saw, making this chashu takes quite a lot of time, but each step is not particularly anything difficult. And also for this, you don't need any special ingredients. And once you make chashu, you can use it for other dishes. It's not only for ramen, you can also use it for a different dish, like this chashu donburi. You can cut it up and use it for stir-fry or fried rice. It's also very good. So I hope you give this a try yourself. If you enjoyed what you saw, I'd love it if you could hit the like button for me so that this video can be spread out to many people. And if you have any feedbacks or questions, I'd love it if you could write anything in the comments below. I always really enjoy reading them. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Bye.