15-Min Gyudon (Japanese Beef Bowl) Recipe That Will Save Your Weeknight Dinners

Imagine savoury sweet beef melting in your mouth, perfectly tender onions and that rich umami broth soaking into steaming rice. In just 15 minutes we'll recreate fast food chain style gyudon using the right cut of beef. Here's exactly how it's done. For a printable version of this recipe visit my website, just google gyudon space so that you'd find me. First things first, let's cut half an onion from pole to pole into wedges like this and gently break those layers apart. Now for the most important part of gyudon, the broth. Add 300 milliliters of dashi stock, two tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce, two tablespoons of mirin, two tablespoons of sake, one and a half tablespoons of light brown sugar, one teaspoon of Japanese light soy sauce which is usukuchi shoyu, one teaspoon of freshly grated ginger, quarter teaspoon of grated garlic, and half teaspoon of Chinese style chicken bouillon powder to a medium saucepan. Mix everything together over medium heat. If you don't have Japanese light soy sauce, just the same amount of regular Japanese soy sauce with a pinch of salt will work just fine. Speaking of dashi, gyudon is wonderfully forgiving. If you're looking for a more sophisticated flavour, make your own. Busy but still want quality, high quality dashi packets are your friend. If you want an authentic fast food flavour, try instant dashi granules. Use whatever fits your lifestyle. You might wonder why I use chicken bouillon powder, but that's how I recreated that slightly junky flavour from those gyudon chains. Now add those onion wedges to our simmering broth and bring everything to a gentle boil. Once it's bubbling away, lower the heat slightly to maintain a nice steady simmer. Let those onions soften to your liking, about five minutes or so. They should be tender but still have a little bite to them. Now comes the star of our show, 150 grams of thinly sliced beef. In Japan, the big chains like Sukiya don't actually use fancy Japanese beef for their gyudon. They typically use imported short plate beef from places like US, Canada and Australia, so no need to break the bank here. Whatever cut you choose, short plate is traditional, but flank or skirt steak works. The key is getting the sliced paper thin, about one to three millimetres thick. If you're buying pre-sliced beef, look for packages labelled for hotpot or shabu-shabu at Asian supermarkets, or ask your butcher for shaved beef. Add your thinly sliced beef to the pan and separate the pieces as you add them, otherwise you'll end up with one big clump of beef. Simmer just until the beef changes colour, about one to two minutes. You definitely don't want to overcook the beef, it needs just enough heat to change colour while staying tender. In fact, you can remove it from the heat when it's about 90% done, as residual heat will finish the job. Divide your freshly cooked Japanese short grain rice amongst serving bowls. Arrange the beef and onions on top of the fluffy rice, then scoop one to two tablespoons of the flavourful broth over each portion. If you want to, you can even add more if you like. Finally, garnish with your favourite toppings, red pickled ginger and shichimi togarashi are classic choices. And there you have it, fast food chain style gyudon in less time than it takes to get delivery. Enjoy! Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description. Okay, let's go over the ingredients one more time, and if you're ready to cook, grab the written instructions by clicking the full recipe box with a picture that's about to pop up on your screen. There we go, the link to the full recipe is on the screen for you now, and if you want to watch more similar videos, don't miss my Donburi playlist popping up on your screen as well. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye!