Looking for a well-balanced pressure cooker recipe? Try Nikujaga, a comforting Japanese home cooked dish, featuring sliced meat, vegetables & potatoes simmered in dashi broth.
Ever since I fell in love with pressure-cooking foods using my Instant Pot, I’ve been trying to convert some of my favorite stovetop recipes to pressure cooker recipes. Today I’m sharing a classic Japanese home cook dish, Pressure Cooker Nikujaga (圧力鍋で作る肉じゃが).
What is Nikujaga?
Nikujaga, or Meat and Potato Stew (I’m not fond of the translation much), is one of the classic Japanese “mother’s recipes”. I have a regular non-pressure cooker Nikujaga recipe here. Do you have dishes like that in your cuisine? We call this type of dish “ofukuro no aji (おふくろの味)”. It means the flavors/tastes that you are used to and feel nostalgic about, after eating mother’s cooking for years.
Nikujaga is a staple dish to many Japanese. My dad likes potato dishes, so my mom made Korokke and Nikujaga often in her meal rotation when we were growing up. Nikujaga for me is definitely true comfort food.
Simple 4 Ingredients
Niku (肉, にく) in Japanese means meat. Jaga is a shortened word from Jagaimo (ジャガイモ), which means potatoes in Japanese. So Nikujaga always includes meat and potatoes.
Usually, potatoes and thinly sliced beef or pork are simmered in dashi-based soup, seasoned with the standard Japanese condiments – soy sauce, sake, mirin (and sometimes sugar).
Besides meat and potatoes, there are onions and carrots. These four ingredients are almost always in any variety of Nikujaga.
To add some color to this mostly-brown-dish, one type of green vegetable is tossed in at the end, typically green beans or snow peas. Some recipes include shirataki noodles, but they are optional.
Cooking Tips
I want to share some helpful tips that you can consider implementing when you make this recipe.
- Sauté for more flavors – Sautéing foods first just like you would usually cook on the stovetop adds extra taste. So spend several minutes to brown the meat and vegetables, before adding other liquids and cooking under pressure.
- Cut ingredients into different sizes – Cut the meat into smaller chunks, but luckily many Japanese recipes require thinly sliced meat so you don’t have to worry. If you are cooking a bigger cut of meat, then cut the vegetables slightly bigger than you would usually cut for conventional cooking. That way, the required time to cook each ingredient will be similar. Different ingredients require their own cooking time for the ideal texture and flavor in a pressure cooker. Ideally, for pressure cooking, you want to add and cook ingredients at different time intervals. This is especially true when mixing different types of foods (meat, potatoes, vegetables, etc.). You should start with ingredients that take a long time to cook, such as meat. Since I don’t want to open the pressure cooker halfway through to add the vegetables, I cut my vegetables slightly bigger so they don’t get mushy.
Why I Love Cooking Nikujaga in the Pressure Cooker?
My family and I love Nikujaga. I enjoy the smell of cooking while it’s on the stove. However, I got busier with my work (blogging) and kids’ after-school activities, and I couldn’t find the time to cook Nikujaga anymore. We all missed eating our favorite Nikujaga.
Thanks to the Instant Pot, Nikujaga started to appear on our dinner table once again. Although I would rather stay around in the kitchen watching my Nikujaga being cooked, the best part about Instant Pot is that I can actually leave the house while food is being pressure-cooked. I am not worried about the house being on fire or not having dinner when we go home.
P.S. Just so you know, my Instant Pot recipes are not sponsored by the company. Although they did send me this Instant Pot to try, I’m sharing my recipes because I am very passionate about this cool gadget that could help you make fantastic meals on weeknights.
To quickly explain, this Instant Pot is a 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Cooker. It can be a rice maker/porridge maker, steamer, sauté/browning, yogurt maker, and warmer, but I mostly use the pressure cooker and occasionally slow cooker function.
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Pressure Cooker Nikujaga
Video
Ingredients
- 10 green beans
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 potatoes (I use Yukon gold potatoes as they don‘t break easily compared to russet potatoes)
- 1 package shirataki noodles (7 oz, 198 g)
- ½ lb thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For the Seasonings
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 cup dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 3 Tbsp mirin
- 2 Tbsp sake
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut 10 green beans in half or thirds. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Blanch the green beans for a few minutes until tender. Drain and set aside.
- Cut 1 onion into wedges, then cut them in half.
- Peel and cut 1 carrot into rolling wedges (we call this cutting technique rangiri).
- Peel and cut 2 potatoes into quarters and soak them in water for 10 minutes to remove the starch.
- Open 1 package shirataki noodles and drain the liquid. Cut the shirataki noodles into thirds (or shorter length).
- Cut ½ lb thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye) into smaller pieces.
- Press the Sauté button on your Instant Pot (I use 6 QT Instant Pot) and heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil.
- When the pot is hot, sauté the onion. When the onion is coated with oil, add the meat and stir all together.
- Add the potatoes and carrots. Then, add the shirataki noodles.
- Add 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 cup dashi (Japanese soup stock), 3 Tbsp mirin, 2 Tbsp sake, and 3 Tbsp soy sauce.
- Cover and lock the lid. Make sure the steam release handle points at Sealing and not Venting. Press the Keep Warm/Cancel button on the Instant Pot to stop sautéing. Press the Meat/Stew button to switch to the pressure cooking mode. Press the – (minus) button to change the cooking time to 15 minutes.
- If you’re using a stove-top pressure cooker, you won’t have the buttons to press. Just cook on high heat until high pressure is reached. Then, reduce the heat to low but maintain high pressure for about 15 minutes.
- When it is finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to the Keep Warm mode. Slide the steam release handle to the Venting position to let out steam until the float valve drops down, OR let the pressure release naturally (takes about 15 mins).
- Unlock the lid and taste the Nikujaga. If necessary, season with ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Toss in the blanched green beans to heat up a little, and transfer to a serving dish.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month. Potatoes will change their texture, so I recommend removing them first before freezing.
if you double the recipe, since i have an 8 qt instant pot, do you need to double the time as well from 15 minutes to 30 minutes?
Hi Tina! No, meat requires same time to cook through inside the pressure cooker. If you use a regular pot, it’s possible that the heat distribution is not equal and it cools down the pot more when you put more ingredients (and take time to get back on boiling stage). However, with this pressure cooker, the cooking time is the same. 🙂
Thank you so much! I bought all the ingredients for all of your pressure cooker recipes. Can’t wait to try them one by one. 🙂
Hi Nami – great recipe have made it several times! Do you have nutrition breakdown for your recipes?
Wow thank you so much, Mark! Sorry I don’t. 🙁
Hello!
I am Japanese but I have been in the states for over 20 years. I love your blog and I use your recipe often. I have two kids and they love chawanmushi from your recipe. Do you think you can make it with pressure cooker? I am very busy and would love to get more ideas on quick delicious Japanese reciepes using pressure cooker.
Thank you!
Hi Tomoko-san! I think, it’ll be 20 years for me next spring. Time really flies… Thank you so much for reading my blog. I’m happy to hear you like my recipes. 🙂
You can make chawanmushi with pressure steamer using Instant Pot. You need a steamer basket or write rack to raise the chawanmushi cups. I haven’t tried it, but I should give it a try! I hope to continue sharing more pressure cooker recipes when I come back from Japan after the summer!
Hi Nami,
I just want to say thank you for all your hard work on your blog. I’ve been lurking for years and have used many of your recipes like the baked korokke and curry dishes. I just got my Instant Pot today and tried out your pressure cooker curry recipe and this is the first time my curry has turned out so good!
I look forward to cooking more of your recipes with it. 🙂
Hi Jenn! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes! Yay for Instant Pot, and you already cooked the curry too! Wow! Glad to hear you liked the recipe. Have fun cooking with IP! I’ll add more time to time (as many people don’t have it I can’t share only IP recipes… 🙂 ). Thank you for writing! xo
Omg I love you even more now that you are cooking with an insta pot! All my friends keep talking about this gadget and I’m getting one for myself for Mother’s Day! Looking forward to more of your recipes adapted to the insta pot! yay! 😀
Hi Jackie! Yay! I love cooking with my instant pot on weeknight as I’m so busy… I’ll be adding more recipes with instant pot, but here’s what I have so far.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/pressure-cooker/
How long do you soak the potatoes for? And just curious, what would happen if we skipped this step? Would the nikujaga be stickier?
Hi Hmucha! Just 10 minutes is good. I’ll add that info in the recipe. If you are in hurry you can skip. But you can start cutting from potatoes and immediately soak in water while you cut other vegetables. That’s more than enough. It will prevent from changing color and remove starch. Thank you for asking!
Hi Milan! I love Zojirushi and I use their rice cooker to make rice. I looked at the link, and yes, that’s only for rice cooking function. 🙂
Hi Nami,
I tired this dish and it was good. However, I was full but felt hungry. What other side dish would you recommend with it? Thanks.
Hi Brian! Thanks so much for already trying out this recipe! Haha, I think because you are probably used to eating more meat. Also, we often serve with smaller different dishes instead of one nikujaga. Like, grilled fish and Nikujaga, and some side dish vegetables, etc. 🙂
This dish looks very yummy, will try to make it one day. Thanks.
Hi Ivy! Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Yum! Thank you for this. I love that you added stovetop pressure cooker instructions too. Nikujaga was one of my favorite comfort foods growing up. I make it from time to time but in the PC, I’m sure to make it more often!
Hi Guavajelly (<-- sounds so delicious haha)! You're very welcome. Yeah, I know a lot of people use stovetop pressure cooker too. It's same thing, but you can't leave the house (he he he). 🙂 Thanks for writing!
Dear Nami,
Thank you so much for the Nikujyaga recipe- I’ve been searching for this exact one for ages!!!.
Am definitely making this in the next day:-)
Best regards,
Edgar
Hi Edgar! I hope we have a similar taste buds and you like this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Oh, this looks very tasty! Still, I’m always just a little bit disappointed to see a pressure cooker recipe… I don’t think I’ll be getting one anytime soon, so all I can do is look at the pretty pictures… 😉
Hi Laura! Thank you for your feedback. I thought I put the link for my regular stove-top Nikujaga recipe, but it wasn’t clear, so I updated my post and added the link.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/nikujaga/
Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Yeah, I completely missed the regular version. It looks very tasty too, so it’s going on my to-do-list! 🙂 Thank you for your reply!
Love the recipe, Nami! I bought the one pot for myself & daughter-in-law, & we both love using it. Hope to find more recipes using the pot. Also, where did you get this measuring cups, teaspoon/tablespoon sizes?? Thanks.
Thank you Irene! So happy to hear you two enjoy cooking in your Instant Pot! I’ll be sharing more Instant Pot recipes too. 😉
My measuring cups are from Oxo and here’s the link:
http://amzn.to/20ivC1W
What size pressure cooker would you suggest?
Hi Don! My instant pot is 6 Quart. 🙂 It’s a good size for my family.
Hope you just got credit for my Instapot Purchase.
Clicked on the Amazon link on your page.
Thank you so much and I hope to see more recipes to I can WOW mu family and friends!
Hi Marlene! Aw thank you for shopping using my Amazon affiliate link! Yes, I’ll be sharing more instant pot recipes as I love this cooking gadget! 🙂