Yoshinoya is a Japanese fast food chain, and it’s fairly popular and common here in the US. Taiwan did not have fast food before the 1980’s. Therefore, ever since fast food chains like McDonald’s landed Taiwan, fast food restaurants became the “high end” restaurants that everyone wanted to try.
In Taiwan, we go to Yoshinoya often, and it tasted super delicious to us. For the longest time, I always thought it’s stir fried and I’ve never made the right recipe until I finally found it online. It’s much simpler than I had assumed. Now let’s see how to make this easy dish!
Gyudon Ingredients:
- 1 lb of beef chuck
- 1 large onion
- 2 cups of water
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce
- 4 tbsp of mirin
- 1 tbsp of sugar
I tried several different part of meat for Gyudon and had come to a conclusion: the part of the beef does not matter that much as long as you slice it thin enough. Even if you can’t get chuck, other part of meat can work as well such as beef brisket. What I usually do is use my Chef’s choice 609 food slicer to slice beef, that provide the ultra thin beef slices! When you pick the beef, always go with ones that got more marbling of fat. The factor for good Gyudon beef is simple: the thinner the slices are, the more tender it tastes, the fattier the meat is, the juicier it tastes. If you don’t have a food slicer, simply buy hot pot or shabu shabu meat slices from Chinese supermarket. (火鍋肉片)
First, Add water, hondashi, mirin, soy sauce and sugar into a pot. Bring it to boil at small or medium heat. While waiting for the pot to boil. Slice the onion at about ⅛” inches thick.
Onion will add flavor and sweetness to the dish. Once the pot starts boiling, add the sliced onion
Add beef into the pot and wait until it’s boiling again. Since the meat is super thin, it will be fully cooked once it’s boiling.
Ready to serve!
The beauty of this dish is that you can actually cook a few more batches before the stew loses its flavor. I usually can serve 5 to 6 ppl with one stew pot. This is definitely one of the easiest way to serve an impromptu party: Mix the stew and bring to boil and slice frozen beef at the same time. Cut onions, after all ingredient is prepped, the pot is boiling. Put in all ingredient, close the lid. Done! You can hardly find anything easier than this (other than instant noodle)!
- 1 lb of beef chuck
- 1 large onion
- 2 cups of water
- 0.5 cup of soy sauce
- 4 tbsp of mirin
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- Thinly slice the beef
- Slice the onion to ⅛” thick
- Mix water, hondashi, soy sauce and sugar, bring to boil
- Add sliced onions and beef to the stew, close the lid
- bring to boil, remove onions and beef from the pot immediately
- Serve over white rice
Was the beef in the photo with the chopsticks sliced from the Chef’s choice 609 food slicer?
Yup, we used the food slicer to slice the beef – much more economical and you can choose your own thickness (or thinness).