All-Purpose Miso Meat Sauce (Niku Miso) 肉味噌

Since I love steamed rice, I always look for tasty side dishes that can round up the meal. We call these small dishes gohan no okazu (ご飯のおかず), meaning a side dish to accompany rice. They bring substance and so much more satisfaction to a plain bowl of rice.

A delicious example is this humble yet versatile Miso Meat Sauce (Niku Miso 肉味噌). You’ll love this recipe because it’s easy to make and so tasty. It also keeps well in the fridge, so it’s a great dish for meal prep.

What is Miso Meat Sauce?

Miso Meat Sauce is braised ground meat seasoned with miso. In Japanese, we call this dish Niku Miso (肉味噌); niku means “meat” in Japanese and miso is Japanese fermented soybean paste. We serve it more like a side dish or condiment to flavor the meal.

It’s usually on the sweeter side (as in savory-sweet), and you may wonder why. Well, sugar and/or mirin play a key role in Japanese cooking as they balance out the saltiness from the miso. Feel free to adjust the flavor, though. It’s meant to accompany bland or neutral-tasting food such as steamed rice or lettuce, so it’s recommended to use a stronger seasoning, which also helps to preserve the dish for longer storage.

Ingredients for Niku Miso

The type of miso you use, whether it’s red miso or awase miso, will lend a slightly different flavor profile to the sauce.

• ground pork – or use ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey; for vegan/vegetarian, use cubed firm tofu
• fresh ginger knob
• Tokyo negi (naga negi; long green onion) – or use green onions/scallions
• toasted sesame oil
• miso – I used Enjuku Koji Miso, but you can use any type; white miso is sweeter and milder while red miso is saltier and stronger flavored
• sugar
• mirin
• sake
• soy sauce
• water
• potato starch or cornstarch

Jump to Recipe

How To Make Miso Meat Sauce

It’s as simple as cooking the seasonings with the meat, usually ground pork or beef. For a nice aroma and flavor, you have the option of adding ginger, garlic, and green onions.

1. Grate the ginger and cut the Tokyo negi into small rounds.
2. Combine the mirin, sake, and soy sauce in a bowl. Add water and potato starch and mix until well combined.
3. Sauté the chopped negi in sesame oil n a saucepan or frying pan over medium heat.
4. Add the ground pork and break up the meat with a spatula. Add grated ginger and cook the meat until no longer pink.
5. Add miso and sugar to combine, then add the seasonings and cook on medium-low heat. Reduce the cooking liquid. Turn off the heat and serve hot.

You can keep it in the fridge for up to one week or the freezer up to 3–4 weeks.

Ways To Serve Miso Meat Sauce

Miso Meat Sauce is considered as a side dish, rather than the main dish because it is not eaten alone, but with rice, noodles, or substitution like a lettuce wrap.

• Rice – steamed rice, fried rice, filling for rice ball (onigiri) or onigirazu
• Noodles – cook with stir-fried noodles or pasta, topping for udon/soba/somen noodle soup
• Bread – a sandwich and burger spread along with sliced cucumbers and lettuce
• Others – lettuce wrap (see above), an add-on to a vegetable stir fry, and more!

Bonus tip: Serve the Miso Meat Sauce with a fried egg, soft-boiled egg, Onsen Tamago, or Ramen Egg (Ajitsuke Tamago). Everything tastes better with a creamy egg! For extra color and crunch, serve with julienned cucumbers and carrots.

Variations on Miso Meat Sauce

This recipe is rather straightforward and everyone makes it slightly differently to their liking. How do I make this simple dish so versatile? It’s easy!

1. Use different types of miso

You are probably aware; that there are many different types of miso. Each company also makes miso differently. By switching up the miso, you would get different-tasting meat sauce each time. I’ve been using different miso from Hikari Miso® for over a decade and I’ll explain a bit more below.

2. Use different types of meat

Ground pork and ground beef are typically used in the dish, but you can also use ground chicken, ground turkey, or cubed firm tofu.

3. Add aromatics

To add more depth of flavors, you can incorporate common aromatics in Japanese cooking such as ginger, garlic, green onions, yuzu kosho, and etc. Use whatever you like.

4. Bulk up the volume with add-ins

If your children don’t like eating vegetables or mushrooms, you can sneak them in here! The meat sauce binds with vegetables in a subtle way. Finely mince carrots, eggplants, zucchini, or shiitake mushrooms and cook together with the ground meat. I suggest adding a small portion at first, then increasing the amount as your kids become accustomed to it.

Miso Recommendation

To make this Miso Meat Sauce, I used Enjuku Koji Miso from Hikari Miso®. Koji miso includes a higher percentage of koji and as a result, this miso has the natural sweetness of the koji and the umami with a rich fragrance.

Where can I buy Hikari Miso® miso? 

• Japanese grocery stores (Nijiya, Mitsuwa, Marukai, local mom-pop shops, etc)
• Asian grocery stores (including Chinese/Korean grocery stores)
• Some miso products on Amazon

Ideal Side Dish for Meal Prep!

What I like most about the Miso Meat Sauce is that we can make it ahead so it’s ideal for weekly meal prep. Because the meat is strongly seasoned for storage purposes, it can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week! I often make it on the weekend for kids’ school lunches or my quick lunch.

When you’re ready to eat, all you need to do is reheat the amount you need in the microwave or the frying pan. This all-purpose Miso Meat Sauce has saved us on countless busy weekdays!

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