Yakiniku Don Recipe: Cook Japanese BBQ Beef Rice Bowl in 3 Steps
We love having Yakiniku Don at home because not only it is amazingly delicious with our signature beef marinade, but also it a very easy meal to cook. If you like quick and easy recipes, this one is definitely for you! It is perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. Moreover, you could save the leftover for lunch the next day.
What is Yakiniku Don – Japanese Barbeque Beef Rice Bowl
Yakiniku Donburi means barbeque meat rice bowl. This dish usually consists of grilled beef, vegetables over a rice base. “Yakiniku” is a Japanese word meaning barbeque, grilling meat over an open fire, but sometimes it could refer to pan-grilled meat as well. “Don” or “Donburi”, means “bowl”. But in Japanese cuisine, “donburi” refers to a type of dish that serves meat or seafood, and vegetables over rice in a bowl.
Beef Cuts for Yakiniku
If you don’t know anything about beef cuts, don’t worry. After reading this section you will know what beef cuts to buy for Yakiniku and Yakiniku Don. When picking beef to grill, we would choose the beef cuts that are tender, fresh, and have a good amount of fat. Generally speaking, the uppercuts of beef are tenderer than the lower cuts. I found it easy to understand it by thinking of the functions of different cuts. For example, lower-cuts like legs, are usually tougher because the muscle is used often to walk, while uppercuts like ribeye or chuck are tender because these back muscles are rarely used.
Below is a list of beef cuts that are suitable for Yakiniku:
- Ribeye
- Chuck
- Sirloin
- Tenderloin
- Top Blade
- Beef tongue
These are some common beef cuts that can be found in supermarkets. I usually choose Top Blade as my choice for Yakiniku Don. Top Blade is the meat on a cow’s shoulder blades. It’s a prime and rare beef cut that has a tender texture and umami flavor. One thing I like about Top Blade is that it has some connective tissues, which give it a little perfectly chewy texture when it’s cooked. In addition, I love Top Blade for its reasonable price. Compared with Chuck, Ribeye, and even Sirloin, Top Blade usually comes with a much more affordable price. In my local market, I could get one pound of Top Blade for as low as $8, while a pound of Ribeye might cost around $12. I would recommend you to try the cost-effective Top Blade.
But if you are going after some higher-end and tenderer beef, chuck, ribeye, Sirloin would be great for Yakiniku.
When shopping for beef to make Japanese barbeque, I usually have two things in mind: red and well-marbled. You could tell the freshness of the beef by its color. A fresh cut of beef should look red, while a spoiled cut would look brown. The marble pattern indicates the amount of fat of the beef cut. If a beef cut is well-marbled, it would have better flavor.
How to make Yakiniku Don – Three Steps in Detail
There are three steps to make Yakiniku Don: Cutting the beef, marinating the beef slices, and at last, pan-seared the beef. Let’s take a closer look at each step!
Cut the beef into Slices
The first step of prepping is to cut the beef into bite-size thin slices. One tip for cutting the beef is to cut against the grain. It can help the beef be more tender because it breaks through the muscle fiber.
This step is even more essential if you decided to grill Top Blades. Since Top Blades have some connective tissues running from the center, cutting through the connective tissues and break up the fiber will help to have a tenderer texture.
Yakiniku Beef Marinade
I learned this marinate from a Yakiniku Restaurant in NYC. The marinade consists of garlic, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. You won’t believe how rich the flavor brought by these simple ingredients.
To marinate the beef, I place the beef slices on a plate and season the beef with salt and pepper. Make sure all the slices are seasoned evenly. Then I sprinkle the minced garlic on top of the beef slices and pour in the sesame oil. In the end, squeeze the fresh lemon juice on top.
To ensure the garlicky, citrusy sesame flavor can be absorbed well, let the beef slices bath in the marinade for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Pan Sear the Beef
The last and the most exciting step is pan-grilling the beef! I love the sizzling sound of searing and the pleasant aroma of the grilled beef. The most important thing in this step is to heat up the pan over high heat before grilling. Grilling beef on a blazing hot pan can quickly brown the surface of the beef and trap the “meat juice” inside. Since we are pan-grilling over high heat, you might want to use a cast-iron skillet or other pans that are safe over high heat.
After the pan is heated up, place the beef slices on the pan. If the pan couldn’t fit all the beef, you could grill in batches. But make sure to spread out the beef slices so that each slice is directly touching the pan. Regarding the degree of doneness, I like my beef to be medium-rare or medium. Since the beef is cut into thin slices, it takes about one or one and a half minutes to grill each side of a slice.
What to Serve with Yakiniku Don?
It’s time to plate and serve the Yakiniku Don! Yakiniku Donburi is grilled beef on top of rice. So the first step to serving a Yakiniku Don is to fill up a bowl with some rice. Then place the grilled beef over the rice. Yakiniku Don is great with some vegetables such as spring mix salad, or some cooked cabbages or bok choy. If you are a perfectionist like me, serve the beef rice bowl with marinated soft boil eggs. Put a soft boiled egg on the very top of the rice and sprinkle some scallions.
Bonus Tips – How to Make Soft Boiled Eggs
Recipe
Yakiniku Don – Japanese BBQ Beef Rice Bowl
Equipment
- Rice cooker
- Frying pan
Ingredients
- 8 oz Beef Top Blade
- 3 clove garlic minced
- 1 stalk scallion chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 4 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup rice
- 1 cup water
- 3 stalk Bok Choy optional
- 2 Soft boiled eggs optional
Instructions
- Cook rice in the rice cooker with 1 cup rice and 1 cup water
- Cut beef into thin slices
- Marinate beef with salt and pepper, garlic, lemon juice and sesame oil for 30 minutes
- Heat up a frying pan over high heat
- Pan sear the beef slices in the pan, 1 minute per side
- Set aside the beef
- Fry the bok choy in the same pan
- In two deep bowls, serve hot rice in the bottom and beef, bok choy over the rice
- Put soft boiled eggs and chopped scallions on top